Tea at Trianon: Ukraine and the Gift of Fathers and Mothers

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Ukraine and the Gift of Fathers and Mothers

From World:

Ukrainian men ages 18 to 60 are being conscripted to fight against Russian forces, and the children are mostly in the care of women. Here in war, the natural distinction between men and women is being laid bare. Andrew T. Walker here at WORLD Opinions and Mark Regnerus at Public Discourse have written on the issue. It makes sense to have the men fight, what with their natural physical strength and bigger size and risk-taking bent. Now, at the risk of stating the obvious, it makes sense to have the mothers stay with the children.

Ukrainian mothers remain with (or flee with) their children while the men go to war because their children need them most urgently. It is most obvious in the case of nursing mothers, but older children need their mothers, too. Children need food and protection, and they need care from an adult. In the case of Ukraine, many children are left with the sole protection of their mothers as fathers have gone to war. Is this really any surprise?

Lest it seems like the mothers would rather abandon their children, a mother’s love for her child naturally makes her want to stay close to him, to care for him, and to protect him. He is her offspring after all. The child is a one-flesh union of his parents—one layer of the double meaning of “the two shall become one flesh.” And so, the child is his father’s as much as he is his mother’s, of course. But it was in her womb that the child was conceived and grew from a tiny baby to a full-grown infant ready for the light of day. It was she who labored and gave birth to him; it was she who sat and nursed him. The bond between them is real, and it is strong. If the psalmist learned to trust while on his mother’s breasts, we may say that a child grows under his mother’s wings. It is good and natural for a mother to stay close to her children. (Read more.)