Stand With Afghanistan

I befriended a couple of students from Afghanistan while in grad school. We had several good conversations about their home and I could tell how much they loved it. They shared so many details about winters in the mountains and snow, I hoped to see it in person some day. There was so much more to the place than what I usually heard about.

I always appreciated the fact that our studies made my friendship with those Afghan women possible. It wouldn’t have been very likely given the lives we were born into.

I really hope my friends are somewhere safe today, though it’s hard to say what that place could be. Their lives will presumably become much more difficult.

When I make my drawings, especially when they’re about topics like these, I kind of think of them as little prayers. Getting to pray with a pen going back and forth is a great alternative when words don’t seem to carry the weight that’s in your heart.

I kept getting frustrated with this one, though. I was hoping to draw a girl around five years old and kept coming up with faces that looked like full grown women. And then I landed on this face which looks like a different age each time I look at it. But perhaps there’s something there. So many kids are having their childhoods upended, forced into a bitterness made by generations past.

I am heartbroken for the people of Afghanistan. There are so many takes, so many layers and complexities. And the nuances and context really matters. But pay no attention to those who call attention to Afghanistan only for the purposes of assigning blame or perpetuating past vendettas. Take the time to own up to what we’ve collectively done to get here. Stand with the vulnerable, reach out for refugees.

And most of all just listen to the Afghan people.