Resistance to tyranny — embraced in a smile — Dmitri Lovetsky's AP photograph from Moscow

© 2022 Peter Free

 

25 February 2022

 

 

Today, I draw your attention to a photograph

 

Click on the below link. The picture is by the AP's Dmitri Lovetsky and published by Al Jazeera:

 

 

https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2022/2/25/photos-hundreds-arrested-as-russians-protest-invasion-of-ukraine

 

 

 

Lovetsky's photograph was taken at an anti-war protest in Moscow — just after Russia invaded Ukraine.

 

 

Notice the smile on the young woman's face — and the light in her eyes

 

Let's address both.

 

 

Premise

 

Soulful nobility comes from opposing oppression. Despite the institutionalized hopelessness of our opposition.

 

 

Return to the photograph

 

Notice again the glow in the arrested Moscow girl's eyes.

 

Is this a God-imbued soul looking out?

 

Or just a kid having a good time expressing herself?

 

Is there a difference?

 

 

The moral? — We define and refine ourselves . . .

 

. . . in resisting tyranny, oppression and evil.

 

Placidity and cowardice are the human norms.

 

Those pessimism-inducing characteristics elevate the importance of the few people who do resist wrong-saying, wrong-actions and (ultimately) wrong-living.

 

The vibrant girl in the photograph makes me happy.

 

I thank Dmitri Lovetsky for noticing her light. And the AP for publishing his record of her defiance.