Lots of people seem to have come down with something, sometimes similar to what I have had over the last week - my cousin Sarah, niece Josephine, friends Fionnuala, Sharon, and I wouldn't put it past Liam to get in on the action. I wish all a speedy recovery. I'm getting there, no sore throat anymore just a lingering temperature which I guess will go in a day or two. The news we happy to report is that Peter, Liam and myself are going to Poland during Easter week, even if Ciarán who is presently there happens to come home. We're not sure if he will yet. If he stays, it'll be us four making our way around the old cities of Poland by car. It will even be good for my research as I'll get to visit Lodz where the Jewish ghetto was, and of course, Auschwitz. These kinds of visits I'll only inflict upon the others for at most a day or so, but they'll have an interest themselves anyway. I'll get to visit the place where the author of these noble words (Etty Hillesum) met her death.
‘… I still suffer from the old complaint. I cannot stop searching for the greatest redeeming formula. For the one word that sums up everything within me, the overflowing and rich sense of life. … I shall wait patiently until the words have grown inside me, the words that proclaim how good and beautiful it is to live in Your world, oh God, despite everything we human beings do to one another.’
27 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY MORNING, 10 O’CLOCK.
'[…] How rash to assert that man shapes his own destiny. All he can do is determine his inner responses. You cannot know another’s inner life from his circumstances. To know that you must know his dreams, his relationships, his moods, his disappointments, his sickness and his death.
Something else about this morning: the perception, very strongly borne in, that despite all the suffering and injustice I cannot hate others. All the appalling things that happen are no mysterious threats from afar, but arise from fellow beings very close to us. That makes these happenings more familiar, then, and not so frightening. The terrifying thing is that systems grow too big for men and hold them in a satanic grip, much as large edifices and spires, created by men’s hands, tower high above us, dominate us, yet may collapse over our heads and bury us.'
3 JULY 1942, FRIDAY EVENING, 8.30.
'Living and dying, sorrow and joy, the blisters on my feet and the jasmine behind the house, the persecution, the unspeakable horrors – it is all one in me and I accept it all as one mighty whole and begin to grasp it better if only for myself, without being able to explain to anyone else how it all hangs together. … And we have to take everything that comes: the bad with the good, which does not mean we cannot devote our life to curing the bad. But we must begin with ourselves, every day anew.'
‘After this war, two torrents will be unleashed on the world: a torrent of loving –kindness and a torrent of hatred.’ And then I knew: I should take the field against hatred.’
3 comments:
Wow! I can't believe you are going to Poland! Fantastic. I am still off (until fri) with the flu, shuffling about, watching day-time tv...actually reading 'Girl with a pearl earring' which I know you would like. Talk again soon and take care of yourself. F.
Man's inhumanity knows no bounds it seems. And we can all become complacement, including me. When was the time that we stood shoulder-to-shoulder with our gay brothers and sisters, with our Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish or Athiest neighbours ?
I watched a programme on Channel 4 last night called "Gay Muslims". I felt sad and angry at the same time. We can disagree about whether sexual orientation is "nature" or "nuture". We can disagree about what the Bible or Koran says about sexuality. My God tells me to accept people and love them for who they are, not for what I want them to be.
I can only imagine the horrors of Auschwitz. I quote from Bhagavad-Gita " If you want to see the brave,look at those who can forgive. if you want to see the heroic, look at those who can love in return for hatred".
Fionnuala, I hope you're feeling a bit better by now, but don't go back to work too soon. I have that book as a film on DVD and I watched it again recently. I have the book but haven't got round to reading it all. But I think that it's a story that really should be a film. If you want I can bring it up for you. And yes, that means I've come down to get on with my work. Exam scripts are beckoning, but i will visit soon. The same goes for you too Dominic. I had to come down to put in an appearance, but see you shortly I hope.
As for man's inhumanity to man, I'm reading alot about that at the minute, and it does make for some gruesome reading. Then i turn on the tv and the politicians and journalists are going ape about chewing gum on Dublin's streets - the reading sort of puts all that into perspective. And you're right about the gay thing. They are one of the most discriminated against groups, and openly so. People don't even worry about lambasting their characters at the mere mention of their sexuality. In the future people will look back on this period and see this as one of our society's greatest injustices. But people like you, Dominic, will help things change. And that piece you chose from the Bhagavad-Gita is very apt and is reminiscent of Jesus.
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