Today's speech was different - the voice not of a leader, but of a witness to the unimaginable suffering of the concentration camp.
What his speech called to mind to me were the words of a minister I met in London who worked with the homeless at the Hinde Street Mission. He said that the homeless were stripped of their humanity - passersby did not look at them, or speak to them, or acknowledge in any way the commonality of humaness between them. And after years of that indifference, the homeless no longer knew human company.
I was struck by the very meanness of the act of averting one's eyes from a fellow, thereby ignoring him and as Wiesel puts it, making his life worthless.
I remember in particular, that day at the Hinde Street Mission, the way one lady's bright, blue eyes lit up when the the Minister came towards her with a kind word. She reached out her hands to him, he recognized her as a sister.
There are a thousand ways that we all practice indifference to our neighbor each day. It is complicated and messy to be in community with people, it is tiresome to share burdens and to give of ourselves. And yet, where would we be without the kindness someone has shown us along the way? And where will we be, when experiencing our own troubles, we look outside ourselves for help? So we lift up our eyes from where we averted them, we look up, and we choose to say, "Good Morning." We must choose not to ignore.
8.02.2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Although Wiesel’s topic was indifference, do you think anyone can hear him speak and not think of the holocaust? When these survivors are gone will our indifference allow the Ahmadinejad‘s of the world to totally revise history and declare it never was. That would be the ultimate show of indifference and a sad day for the legacy that we leave.
I hate the story of the Saint Louis and those refugees. I never was able to understand why we turned them back. It doesn’t help to know that other countries turned them away too; I have always felt that was an inexcusable and shameful act.
I think there are probably at least two kinds of indifference and I have been guilty of both kinds at one time and another. First, casual indifference – this is just not noticing because you are busy or selfish. This happens everywhere from home and family to workplace. You don’t have to be ignoring a great social injustice to be indifferent; you can demonstrate it at the kitchen table. Then there is purposeful indifference and this is the kind where you decide not to see the beggars at the railroad crossings in Buenos Aires. I used to remind myself that these beggars were professionals and begging was their job each and every day. Knowing that was not a defense against the voice in my head saying “maybe this person really does need my help –“ I read something once that was sort of like this …If you both love and hate your children, emphasize the hate so that they will at least know that the pale love you give them is not all there is to love…that might be like indifference too.
I don’t know if one kind of indifference is worse than the other but I know they are both hurtful to individuals and to society. As usual, you are correct -- it is a choice to make every day and every day a chance to get it right.
Post a Comment