For over a year now I have been trying to pinpoint what it is that I love about Ukraine. People frequently ask “Why Ukraine?” when I speak of my love. Usually my answer is “I have no idea.”
However, recently while perusing various blogs and articles, I came across “For the love of Slavic culture” written by Sarah Wade, a missionary in Ukraine. She describes the Slavic world as “neither a warm nor a cold culture, but it is passionately extreme.”
Passionately extreme… I like that. Why?
Probably because I’m that way. Maybe part of my love for Ukraine is that I don’t have a problem with there simultaneously being two polar extremes. In fact my life tends to operate in that manner.
Please don’t read this the wrong way… I am a huge advocate for bringing balance into your life. However, it is also true that for every situation there are two opposing sides. I usually see both sides too clearly, understand both sides of arguments to well and sometimes I admit I get lost trying to reconcile the extremes.
They don’t always have to be reconciled though. The fact of life is that there is death and life, beauty and suffering, rejoicing and mourning, knowledge and mystery.
I still don’t think I have found a good way to explain it the way I see it and understand it, but for now I would say “passionately extreme” is a good description of both Ukraine and myself.
Fluttering By 