2023
March
02
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

March 02, 2023
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The first anniversary of the war in Ukraine has passed, but the commitment of Ukrainians to freedom has not. It continues, and in a very small way, so it does with a retired schoolteacher-turned-painter in St. Louis.

For more than a year, Marjorie Theodore has been posting daily art prayers for Ukraine on her Facebook page. They are mostly watercolors of sunflowers, and they reflect the ups and downs in the war.

Sometimes, petals fall like tears. Sometimes the face of a flower turns hopefully toward the sun. A group of sunflowers may bend low under a mighty wind. Or a white stork, which is Ukraine’s national bird, may spread its black-tipped wings and soar over the flowers.

Ms. Theodore is a friend of a friend on Facebook, and I’ve seen her images through repostings. I don’t know her personally, but over the months, I’ve marveled at the many ways she depicts these symbols of Ukraine. Every day brings a new painting, or drawing, or acrylic swirl.

Each posting is accompanied by a prayer of just a few words. They can plead for peace or cry in despair, and they embrace other troubled regions in the world. There’s also a lot of gratitude in her prayers, especially for the persistence of Ukrainians and all those who are helping them.

Last week, as the war’s anniversary approached, I called Ms. Theodore to learn more about her project and to see whether she planned to continue. How could she not? she answered. “I hope that my commitment will last as their commitment does,” she told me.

It’s so easy for people to forget wars and crises in faraway places. By posting every day, even if only 25 or 35 people give a thumbs-up or make a comment, she knows that Ukraine is in their thoughts, however briefly, and that’s just what she is hoping for.

She explained it this way:

“I do think art is prayer. I think that song is prayer. When you are thinking of someone that you love, that is prayer. So when I think of Ukraine and I express my feelings through these daily pictures, it is a prayer.”


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A look ahead

Thanks for joining us today. Please come back tomorrow, when we’ll have a video from our multimedia team that focuses on deconstruction – a progressive industry emerging as an alternative to the demolition of buildings.

Note: Our friends over at the Common Ground Committee, a bridge-building organization, have produced a new podcast episode that looks at the search for solutions to gun violence, and at differences in regional attitudes on guns. The Monitor’s Patrik Jonsson is one of the two main guests. Here’s where to find this episode of “Let’s Find Common Ground.”

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2023
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Thursday
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