The last bright days of what passes for summer in County Kerry, Ireland are drawing to a close. My friend and I settle in for a long chat over coffee as we people-watch the bustling square. There's a young woman playing an Irish bagpipe (yes, they are different from the Scottish ones). Down the street, a collection of older gents, all dressed in blazers over their jumpers and wearing flat caps, meets for their morning gab.
Around us, swirls a mix of English, Irish, Ukrainian, German, Polish, Spanish, French, Hindi, and even Mandarin Chinese. Like most Europeans, we worry about the rising fuel prices and our own discussion turns from lighter topics such as Culture Night and the state of the Dublin airport (still awful) to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Russians are mass mobilizing and many men are fleeing conscription.
My friend asks me how I feel about these Russian men, leaving their country when called upon to go to war. As a combat veteran, I have complicated feelings about wars, in general, and the ones I participated in, in particular.
As an American, I feel righteously smug whenever I hear of setbacks to the Russians. At the same time, I feel sympathy for the men trying to escape a war they wanted no part in. But I wonder, what about their families? What about the women and children left behind?
How do we balance our own needs against the needs of family?
Death’s Midwife by Karen Eisenbrey
It reminds me of Luskell, the main character in Karen Eisenbrey's Daughter of Magic trilogy. In the third book, Luskell, a wizard coming into her own, faces Old Mother Bones. The stakes are raised because Old Mother Bones doesn't just go after Luskell, she threatens her family.
One of the things I love about fiction is that it helps us reexamine our own experiences through the lens of another's life. Am I a magic-wielding bad@ss who can speak to the dead? No. But am I a person who would fight to protect my family? Undoubtedly.
To quote G. K. Chesterton: "Fairy tales are more than true - not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten."
M. K. Martin is an author and editor. Her work appears in literary journals, in several anthologies, and in her novel, Survivors’ Club. Martin was an exchange student in Paraguay, joined the Army, and was deployed to Afghanistan and to Iraq. She currently resides in Ireland, where she can indulge her love of tea.