Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Holocaust...and Why Remembering is Good

Holocaust: bad.  Remembering: good.  

Why?
People.  Life.  Future.

These three things are more than enough reason for me.

It is right to honor people, many just like you and me, who were rounded up for something someone didn't like about them.  We should remember their lives because they are people, and when we remember them, they still live.

Life.
It is right to be thankful for life, and remembering that death will come, and often far too early and for terrible reasons, is a stark contrast that reminds us to appreciate the life we DO have.

Future.
Remembering makes us aware of mistakes and it makes us capable of a better future.  The people who survived (and even many who didn't) hoped for a better future than the situation in which they were living.  Keep hoping, keep seeking out the future of your dreams because you are alive today!

In the words of a very young and brilliant-beyond-her-years young woman...

"People will always follow a good example: be the one to set a good example, then it won't be too long before the others follow...How lovely to think that no one need wait a moment.  We can start now.  Start slowly changing the world!  How lovely that everyone, great and small, can make their contribution toward introducing justice straight away...And you can always, always give something.  Even if it is only kindness."

I couldn't have said it better.

May you live with kindness and hope today and always.

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