Losing Home
When I was in high school, I spent two summers in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, where my dad was a visiting doctor at a small health clinic. We were hosted by a family friend, a pastor of a small church near the edge of town.
These trips were a long time ago, and my memory is fuzzy. But yesterday morning, when I woke up to the grim news of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine — artillery shells in villages, tanks in Chernobyl, firefights in Kyiv — memories from my time in the country came back in sharp focus.
I remember lunches outside — a set table in an orchard heavy with scarlet-red cherries knocked loose by a wind that blew in from the Black Sea. Our host served borscht with generous dollops of sour cream, a salad loaded with garden-fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, and dill, and a punchy, farm-gritty glass of carrot-tomato juice. I also remember the church choir of our host’s congregation. They sang familiar hymns to the drone and quick melody of a button accordion. Essentially, Ukrainians taught my teenage self a lesson in how to express a sense of place through food and music, and how to warmly share that home with others.
According to the United Nations, tens of thousands of Ukrainians have already left their country under the reality of war, with potentially hundreds of thousands expected to follow. Lines are forming at the border. Neighboring countries are preparing for an influx of refugees. A brief text message informed me the pastor that hosted us 15 years ago also fled — his sense of place, the certainty of home-grown vegetables and fresh cherries replaced by the insecurity and uncertainty of war and displacement.
War is the nemesis of nature, the Journal’s editor emeritus Gar Smith wrote in his book The War and Environment Reader. It’s also the nemesis of our relationship with nature and our ability to express the joy of place. As a magazine that celebrates our relationship with nature and finds hope in a shared sense of place, our thoughts and concerns are with the people and environment of Ukraine.
Austin Price
Contributing Editor, Earth Island Journal
Photo by: Juanedc.com
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