Russian tanks enter Ukraine on Tuesday, 2/22/22, the very same day that my wife celebrates this numerically significant date by wearing a tutu to school.
Something tells me I will never forget this day and what I was doing the morning that Vladimir Putin launched his campaign to reintroduce Russian power and control over Eastern Europe. I was worried, concerned about the impact of events on the markets and my clients. I was consumed with reading everything I could find about the situation on the ground in Donetsk. I was checking out the overnight numbers from Hong Kong and Japan, the early morning movement in London and Paris. Then, Pam came down the stairs…
Ladies and gentlemen, there are times in this life when the day is saved by the serendipitous. One of the founding pastors of my church, Pete Bowell likes to say, “You go nowhere by accident.” Well, this morning it was no accident that my wife came downstairs looking for all the world like a blond sunflower. I went from existential angst to whimsical delight in an instant. A verse I just read from Psalm 30 came to mind—Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning. Then, from this morning’s reading in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing new under the sun…”
There have been Vladimir Putins in the world since the dawn of time. Naked power grabs by the strong against the weak are practically a proverb. This too shall pass and when it does, the lasting memory I will take from it will not be of a Russian tank silhouetted in the predawn mist, but of my amazing wife creating for her students a very special day.
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