A million candles burning

It's another grim, bitter, sobering anniversary: two years since the start of Russia's fullscale invasion of Ukraine (and just over ten years since Russia's annexation of Crimea and the start of the smaller-scale war in the eastern regions of the country). As I said this time last year, the invasion itself woke me up and burnt away everything that was unimportant, leaving me with a kind of searing focus and clarity, while the response of the Ukrainian people, government and military left me feeling humbled admiration. For me, this war (and its potential outcomes) is the clearest moral question: should a democratic country be allowed to chart its own political and diplomatic path and choose its own destiny, or should a violent, nuclear-armed, neighbouring dictatorship be allowed to destroy it and redraw internationally recognised borders by force?

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I don't ask or expect everyone to view Ukraine as I do, but I ask you to take a moment to consider which causes are important to you, and to undertake concrete action which will contribute to tangible outcomes for such causes. We cannot create change or end every injustice alone as individuals, but with thoughtful work, we can push back against the tide. That, I believe, is the 'rent' we pay for having the unearned good fortune of living in the (admittedly flawed) democracies to which Ukraine is fighting to join.