August 30, 2010
I have come across a book that has really shaken me by the soul. Its funny how books like those come into our lives. I found this one in the Monteverde Library on a rainy Saturday. I stopped into the library for a break from the rain and a rest on my trek up the hill to my soggy house.
Sometimes I am no good at choosing books and sometimes I know just by glimpsing the spine that we are going to be great friends. The latter was the case with this book, a few small candles: war resisters of wwii tell their stories by larry and lenna mae gara.
I loved this book from the start for its all lower case title and black cover (who writes WWII in lowercase?!? Unfathomable! The “i”s no longer look like roman numerals and the only reason left to do it is because that’s the way its always been done but it doesn’t even make sense any more but somehow I suspect that’s the whole point! Genius!) I don’t remember if I started this book that same evening or the following morning but I do know that by the time I walked to meeting on Sunday morning I was filled with ideas and questions.
…
And that was two weeks ago. I’m still not finished with larry and lenna mae and their collection of war resisters. Everyday I plan out another small piece of the detailed and insightful essay I will write and post about pacifism, ideals, religion, support, beliefs, spirituality, politics and history. Every book I read and every podcast I listen I relate back to what I’m reading in this book and I add another small section to my essay.
But lets be real – unlike Laura Norton-Cruz and Raquel Maldonado (my inspirations when I think about how I want to write about powerful ideas and share them with the world) I will never write this essay. Maybe I’m just not an essay kinda girl. Maybe I’m not a war resister and locked in a cell 23 hours a day for going on a work strike because I’m not down with segregated dining halls even though it’s the 1940’s and I’m white and now I have nothing left to do but read and write. Maybe I love my job more than ever this year and find that I don’t have much down time between work and exercise and reading and phone calls to Brooklyn and sleep.
This is my wish: that you will read this book and then talk to me about it. Maybe you will be as touched as I was by John H. Griffith’s father who supported him through his resistance with the same fervor that he supported his other son who was in the navy because he felt that they were both trying to do the right thing. Maybe you will stop and sit up when you read Ralph DiGia’s account of how he realized that he was going to jail because “what would ideals mean if one gave them up when they were put to a test?” Maybe you would then spend days searching for your own ideals and wondering what you would stand up for if given the opportunity. Maybe you too will realize that you’ll never be a Quaker because even though you think pacifism is important and admirable, you think the butt-kicking scenes in The Girl Who Played With Fire are just so cool you want to go out and take Thai Kick Boxing classes so you too can beat up bad guys. Or maybe you’ll have a totally different experience with the book and we’ll discuss and clash horns but it will still be a wonderful conversation.
I’ll leave you with my list of “Things to follow up on from a few small candles: war resisters of wwii tell their stories” even though I am just over half way done:
1. U.S. support of Hitler in the late 1930’s
2. Anti-Nazis in Germany in 1930’s and 40’s
3. U.S. immigration policy from Germany during this time. What did the U.S. know?
4. Nazi-Soviet Pact 1939
5. All Quiet on the Western Front and Johnny Got His Gun, two anti-war novels
6. The Power of Non-Violence by Richard Gregg
7. “Civil Disobedience” by Thoreau
8. Gandhi
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Used copy on order for me.
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