Mission, sans permission..."I didn't sign up for this!" Shanghaied. 

No signature required: Most of us, of course, got signed up for stuff, roles, missions, without our full consent, our permission, even our awareness. 'Volunteered'. Early and often. Such as when our parents signed us up for school and a whole range of other obligations; it's a small wonder we had any discretionary time whatsoever. They (our parents) began volunteering us for all kinds of things, ranging from a free public education, to religious activities, to..."extracurriculars"! It's like they, themselves, were on a mission. Did they even ask us our opinion, let alone obtain our consent? And that wasn't even covered under the topic they started teaching us in adolescence, the "age of consent". If this latter area of engagement was good enough for them, why not us? What a double standard -- we couldn't opt out of things they volunteered us for, but then we could not opt in for those we wanted to volunteer for. 

Drafting, Dodging: Runners, sailors, car racers can all relate to the positive power of drafting. Giving the one clever enough to allow the one in front to 'pull them along', until they put the other in their own rear. Sometimes even disallowed, due to is potential advantage. But then along came the "draft" when there insufficient soldiers signed up, 'volunteering'. A draft that was countered by some objectors, conscientious types, as well as some dodgers, the latter leaving false addresses and other fake-outs to put the "draft board" off the trail. Selective service. Inductions. Conscriptions. Call it want you want. Way back in time, there were also the "Sons of Liberty" and other such groups "volunteering" to fight for liberty, against tyranny. Today, around the world, there are people, young and old (teens through 73, reflected by interviews last few days in and around Ukraine, for example), "determined to defend their homeland from invasion, occupation..." -- from an interview this morning with a few different 'citizen soldiers' taking up whatever arms they could get their hands on. This, following an interview with a U.S. citizen, "retired soldier" on his way overseas to lend a hand, whether it "be humanitarian aid or taking up arms to at least slow down this all-out assault on unarmed civilians..." Exemplary of those volunteering to put themselves in harm's way, refusing to leave, and some, represented by the foregoing interview, heading "over there". A whole range of options for servitude, from compulsory to 'voluntold' (semi-volunteering for those of us who are semi-willing in many circumstances, short of war) to completely of our free will. What would you do, I wonder? Well...

"Survey Says": A host of surveys have been done, with their results being aired on social media as well as mainstream, through our "free press" (which many don't seem to have based on the propaganda we have witnessed being aired "over there" in Russia) as to whether, in the unforeseen circumstance of a foreign invasion here, you would stay and fight, or take flight for a neighboring land, assuming they would take you in as a refugee. Whether you align yourself with the stay-at-homers or the departures is, at least in this abstract scenario, in your awareness, a choice you are conscious of, but what about a situation where you suddenly, wake up to...

A New Reality: Such as being "Shanghaied", where you may have been tricked, duped, or literally doped up, put on a ship to who-knows-where, after which you are forced into servitude. Another situation that seems so abstract to us but is happening right this minute throughout the world. Or you are "roped into" something, literally or figuratively. Or, finally, as cited by a few correspondents "on the ground" in and around Ukraine early this morning, "...legions of Ukrainians are waking up to a new reality, following a night of bombing, finding their city under siege...they couldn't leave now if they wanted to..." We, ourselves, while watching and becoming incensed at what they are experiencing there, still may experience...

Distancing Ourselves: Something we did the last few years but never really got used to. Now, we may find ourselves, while experiencing incredible compassion, empathy, outrage, psychologically distance ourselves a bit as we get on with our day, perhaps not even being aware of the distance between our city of residence and that of Kyiv, or between Kyiv and the residence of their primary nemesis (578 miles), or between Shanghai and Xinjiang (remember when this area was the focus of so much news, when the Olympics were in Bejing, the area where many one-way trains were destined, caught by drones, the "re-education camps" that seem to be housing so many ethnic minorities?) And finally, the distance, whether in miles or psychological distance, between ourselves, and the ongoing 20+ "major", "minor" conflicts throughout the globe, some that stretch as far back as 1947...

"I must be dreaming" A common statement of disbelief, bewilderment, when waking up to a "new reality" But, this AM, I was lucky enough to realize, after a vivid encounter of finding myself on a plane to a major city I did not remember booking myself, trying to find a ticket counter to get a return flight, being obstructed by hordes of people (unmasked!) who seem in no hurry (don't they know who I am and where I need to get to?!) and, as I was trying to find my way to a nearby town to 'connect' on foot, sirens sounded and military vehicles started arriving...trapped! Whereupon I finally woke up; took a few minutes to get my bearing. "I gotta' stop watching the news..."