Ukraine is on everyone’s mind, enough in my case to make it a column subject for two weeks in a row.

I missed the news yesterday evening because of a meeting. I try not to miss my news broadcast these days. I want the latest on the Ukraine invasion from trustworthy news sources like a daily newspaper or the evening news.

I also felt a need to read something extra that could indirectly shed some light on the war. I have at least five history books at home that could have met the need. I’ll have to read them again sometime soon.

For now my choice was something that comes direct from classic Broadway. It was my copy of The Sound of Music, the musical from the 1960s depicting the von Trapp family of Austria on the eve of World War II.

I enjoy reading plays and musicals. They’re written in a way that enables the reader to envision actors, scenery, costumes, lighting, and sound of a world class stage.

Theater is a way to give life to ideas, to make a literary interpretation three dimensional for a large audience. Any production of The Sound of Music, including those from high school and community theater, is likely to accomplish that goal.

In the first act there’s Maria, the postulant who doesn’t fit in at her convent. She’s sent to be a governess for Captain von Trapp’s children, and begins to see that her real calling is family life.

The drama intensifies in the second act, as Maria marries the Captain while he’s being pressured to support the 1938 Nazi occupation of Austria. The musical ends as the entire family makes a daring escape over their local mountain range to Switzerland. From there they settled in the United States.

Marshall has a very direct connection to the family. Johannes von Trapp’s wife is from Marshall. He’s the son of the Captain and Maria who was born in the United States after the escape.

They can testify that creators of the musical used dramatic license in developing their script. The real-life escape wasn’t as intense as the second act, but it still demonstrates a family’s quest for freedom.

There are plenty of similarities to Ukraine in 2022, as two million people have fled the country with many thousands of children.

Plenty of Ukrainians have demonstrated the same kind of heroism shown by Captain von Trapp. They include metalworkers who are making war implements and arts center crafters as they create camouflage materials.

The world is hoping for them just like audiences have hoped for the von Trapps. One post on my Facebook today showed a Ukranian child with a flag and a patriotic costume, and pledged to pay higher gas prices for her. Another post showed strollers left by Polish mothers at a train station for Ukranian refugee families.

We’ve been left to wonder what’s going through the minds of Russian soldiers. It might be very similar to the character named Rolf in The Sound of Music, the boyfriend of the Captain’s oldest daughter Liesl von Trapp.

Rolf as a young Nazi SS recruit spotted the family hiding in the garden of the abbey, but called out to his officer that he didn’t see anyone.

How much could the same kind of sympathy for the people play out in Ukraine?

Anything’s possible. We’ll find out in the next few weeks.

The Sound of Music became a 20th century classic because of how it offers hope. We can have similar hope for the Ukranian refugees, that they’ll be as comfortable as possible in their destinations and that those who want to return home will someday have the opportunity.

For now we can turn to fiction, music and visual arts as traditions that can offer insight into life’s conflicts, even one of the greatest international crisis situations in many years.

People everywhere are watching as it unfolds halfway around the world. It goes beyond concern about how it might affect daily life close to home. There’s sympathy for those who are affected most.

— Jim Muchlinski is a longtime reporter and contributor to the Mashall Independent