War, beach and other nuisances

We just want to feel a little bit less unfree than usual

The photo is mine.

We went swimming in the Dnipro River today. It was exciting and weird. For the last two years, a bathtub was our river, lake, sea and ocean. It’s odd to take a dive in a real, actual, proper city river with slippery algae and green, cloudy water. It also makes you realize how unfree has your life become.

Open waters have never been so closed and inaccessible.

Borders are closed for men — oceans are closed for men too. Cities at the Azov Sea are occupied. Cities at the black sea are under attack. We, personally, don’t have a car so it’s hard to reach rivers and lakes unless they’re in cities. Even if we had a car, there’s always a risk to get a draft letter at one of the checkpoints made of blocks and old tires.

We had so many options in the past.

We have so few in the present.

This level of unfreedom is depressing.

Does it help to end the war?

I doubt it.

I write about unfreedom a lot.

I go to a beach, I take a dreamy picture, and I still complain about restrictions and prohibitions.