Perhaps that is a product of my sometimes volital upbringing. Perhaps my heart is soft and my gift of caring holds greater power over me than I can counter. I am happy to engage in contention. I am willing to have tough conversations. But war, genecide, international conflict completely undo. And in my life time that has all been experienced from afar. It has all been my choice to engage or not. I don't have to pick up THE WEEK and read the article. I can turn off the evening news. I can walk away from a conversation. Those living in the midst do not have that option.
I am listening to a book on CD in my car; From Sand to Ash by Amy Harmon. She is one of those authors you can't put down, but HAVE to put down. Hers is the story of Italy in 1943. Germany occupies much of the country, placing the Jewish population in grave danger as WWII explodes around them. It is the story of a catholic priest and a Jewish woman and with the world at war and so many in need, they face one agonizing choice after another. It is Jews being ripped from their homes, put on over crowded trains to head to work camps or the gas chambers or having to witness the shot to the head of a family member and left in the streets to 'be the example'. All this because they are Jewish.
I attended a simulcast conference last week and heard from speaker Immaculate Ilibagiza, an author of many books and a motivational speaker. That she was! She is the only person to make it out alive in her family, Tutsi, during the Rwandan Holocaust. She lived, hiding, in a 3X4 foot closet for 3 months with many others. That closet is where she found God. Her story was absolutely remarkable and a miracle.
As uncomfortable as it is to read or hear about the history of oppression, it is our duty to be educated. Both these books draw on the breadth of history lived by two remarkable women. One fiction, one non-fiction, but both a powerful reminder that every human counts. Both books depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity and hope. See what you think?