Here in the USA midterm election results are still being counted but it appears we have good chances now to continue to dwell and thrive in peace as a nation of free peoples. It's an existence requiring determination and diligence to protect but all well worth the effort.
About a month before discovering an artist willing to create a set of custom guitars to replace some lost in the Hermit's Peak Fire, that artist's homeland bravely exercised its right to ban transit of EU-sanctioned goods moving across its border from Russia bound for Kaliningrad as the war in Ukraine intensified. This move by Lithuania was heartening as free people of Ukraine were now in dire straits.
Considering Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in late February, this struck me as immensely courageous and I was thankful Lithuania was already a member of NATO. Standing up to tyranny is no trivial matter regardless of where in the world it happens and at what scale the tyrant is flexing muscle against free peoples. Banning transport of goods and materials bound for Russia's Baltic Fleet is a major action of defiance.
Happiness arising from finding an artist both capable of and willing to create such fine musical instruments is now multiplied by witness of his nation's bravery. I could have located an artist elsewhere in the world to do this but none of their creations stood out so distinctly as Lava Drops did, and it feels right and good at this time to be doing business with this highly accomplished Lithuanian artist.
Communications from Rapolas Gražys regarding the musical instrument's birth process are tantalizing, and imagining it all happening in peaceful environment of his studio so far away is a delightful daydream process. There are places in the world still not existing in peace and no peace persists without staunch, stoic resistance to irrational pressure from tyrants. I'm glad to have stumbled upon Lava Drops and grateful to have been graciously accepted as a client, never dreaming I would someday commission creation of art from a place so far away where people of such courage and determination to preserve and promote peace in the world dwell and thrive.
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