The economics of the hair salon are simple. It’s the best use of a bit of my income. It’s my escape, especially on a Friday. Today, the chatter in the salon was ordinary, relaxed, a discussion on binge watching “Killing Eve,” some grumbling about the changing weather and the price of eggs and meat, when, in a heartbeat, the easy focus of the salon changed.
A strangled, “Oh, my God!” An intake of astonishment directed to the television.
“Look at that,” a reference to the videos of the new bombings of Kyiv.
Beck, one of the stylists, commented, “I am disgusted … disgusted isn’t the right word,” she sputtered, waving her hands in the air. “I can’t think of the right words, but look at that. Children being killed” … She took a breath and turned to no one in particular. What happened to guilt, to shame? All of those civilians killed, hospitals, schools bombed. This is the 21st century. I didn’t think this could happen. It’s like WWII all over again.”
One of the customers added, “And what about the millions of Ukrainians who have fled the country? I can’t imagine what it must be like to have to flee with little notice. Who do you take with you? What do you take with you? and where do you go? My God, did you see those women with their babies and their pets and maybe a suitcase, if that, desperate to get away, leaving their fathers, husbands and sons to fight?”
Mary Kate, a regular on Fridays, continued the thought.
“I was baking a cake for my husband’s birthday last week and the same questions popped into my mind,” she said. “How would I negotiate the need to leave my spouse and my home, my adult children? I have no idea where I would go. I guess it would have something to do with why I had to leave … but the news out of Ukraine is so disheartening.”
Ideas about what to do bounced around the room.
“Well, I know that I would take my dog and my medicine but what else?”
“I would take my computer, it has everything in it … and my phone.”
“I’d have to take some family photos and my cats.”
But what would be so weighty to drive us out of our homes?
Something the Russians did to get back at us for helping Ukraine?
Do you think that might happen?
The stylist who initiated this discussion, chimed in.
“Isn’t that the issue that has prevented the U.S. from giving Ukraine air cover and bigger weapons?”
“You know,” I said, not ever being the shy violet, “what makes me want to throw something at the TV is the constant speculation on whether it can be proven that Putin is a war criminal. My God, that is like watching an arsonist set your neighbor’s house on fire and then spending your time as your neighbor pleads for help, calling the guy who set the fire a bunch of names. Name calling does nothing but distract us from the basic issue of Ukraine’s ability to counter the enormous firepower of Russia.”
“Yeah”…another voice interrupted … “This is a difficult position for the U.S. If Ukraine goes, which nation is next? If it is a NATO nation, we are immediately involved.”
My stylist added, “Look at all the blue and yellow flags, the collections of material and donations to help. We’ve sent billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine.”
Continuing my brilliant, according to me, assessment, I said, “All the hoopla about supporting Ukraine helps us feel good, but does little for the actual war.” And yet another sort of analogy – “It’s like have a neighbor whose house is on fire ask you to use your hose to help put out the flames and you, in return, give him a bucket. We can’t provide the air cover that Zelensky is asking for – at least not directly – to do so would risk a direct war with Russia. And then, as part of NATO, think of what happened after the Archduke was assassinated in June of 1914 … by August, all of Europe was engaged in what we call WWI.”
Mary Kate joined in, “And if that happened, the war would not only happen in Europe. We very well might have to figure out who, what, when and where to go on short notice.”
The conversation continued, with us speculating on how each would face the need to evacuate, when Jenn, a gal who was still in the waiting room, said, “If this is Putin’s war, what would happen if there were no more Putin? If I were he, I’d be very careful about what I ate.”
That seemed to take the angst out of the air and the focus to change back to something more appropriate, when Jenn wondered if the well-known narcissist, Putin, colored his hair and if he was taking anabolic steroids since his face looks very rounded.
