The union in us

We forget history is still being written. We forget we’re part of it.

In school, I learned all about how the world came to be as it is today. The wars that were fought, the arrangements that were made – alliances, disputes, and their outcomes. It was naïve of me to think things were already settled, to assume everything would continue to be as I’ve come to know them. Because I graduated in high school, with all that historical knowledge, in my mind, that was when it all stopped. Territories would be as they were, nations would produce and export their goods, countries would know their place in the world. After all, I studied their journey – their discovery, constitution, development. I studied their struggle through independence and financial evolution.

So it comes as great shock to me to see there is a new war. One that is happening right now, as I write, as I am alive and conscious.

In 2020, it was already strange to realize I was living through a pandemic age. And, if those conspiracy theories are wrong, that was no one’s fault. COVID-19 spread around the globe, killing many and changing our way of living for quite some time (it still affects us actually).

But a war? One planned by a government against another nation? One fought by soldiers, by people sent to die for their country? That, my mind refuses to understand.

Hasn’t humankind learned from its mistakes? Isn’t that why we study history in school? I believed we were past that, I thought the big battles were truly a thing of the past. I thought nowadays our battle was for human rights and against social injustice, a battle that is fought through discussions, petitions, lectures, not weapons. It is sad to see the world fall back to violence as a “solution”. Violence is never the answer. History has proven us that much.

It is especially shocking to see this war begin when we’re still coming out of the remains of a pandemic. I believed one of the few COVID’s positives outcomes was the union it has brought us. The virus made me question human life. We are all susceptible to a practically invisible thing. There is a union in that. People were forced to stay apart from their beloved ones during years, staying apart through holidays and special dates. We did all that to save others. And there is a union in that. Scientists and specialists gathered to create a vaccine; governments worked hard to make sure people were immunized. And there is a union in that.

So how can some individuals feel like this is the time to start a war? Well, I would say there’s never a time for that, but if there were one, now is not it! The world doesn’t need another tragedy. This is time to heal, to feel grateful for being alive after all that we’ve been through as humans. For once, with COVID-19, all nations, all peoples, all territories were affected by a common “enemy”. And there is a union in that.

Creating a war among ourselves disrupts such union.

So I’m here to send all my love to humankind. To every individual and living creature on this planet. To those directly and indirectly affected by this war. Earth needs love, it needs life. People need that too.