This day, others, and more.

OK, I've been wanting to write this for a while now. It fits today, but it's not just for now. We all have to remember that as human beings, we have faults, and most of us understand it. Most of us (and perhaps I'm giving too much credit here, and on this day of all the days, and contrary to what I always say, but hope is stronger than me, and that's a better condition than the other way around) try to see these faults, and perhaps diminish them.

Three faults are what I want to talk about. Cowardice, Ignorance and Indifference.

All of them played a major role in the Holocaust. As I wrote on my Facebook wall, the Evil may have made the Holocaust happen, but the Cowards, the Ignorant and Indifferent made it possible.

It applies to other things too. Whenever something is being done and people who don't agree say nothing they are overwhelmed by these faults. Speaking up and acting against what you think is wrong doesn't happen all that often (and no as often as we think and want to believe).

I would like to say I don't act upon these faults, but I do. We all do. The thing is, when it really matters, what then? Some people have proven these faults can be undone - not because they don't possess them, but because they stood in front of them with open eyes and chose what they felt was right, and knew that the price they would have to pay, if they pay it, was worth it.

So I say, and cliche as it may be, I hope we all learn to care more. And know more. And most of all, understand fear, it's irrational strength, but also the fact that it can be defeated, and that defeating it is worth the trouble.

*~*

In contrast, project "Clean Shelves" continues. March was particularly difficult, but from my last count I read five more books:

* Momik - David Grossman
* In another life [בגוף אני מבינה] - David Grossman
* Words into Flesh [שתהיי לי הסכין] - David Grossman (Yes, three consecutive books by the same author - my favorite Israeli author, I can now say, and I will read every prose book he wrote).
* How I became a nun [Como Me Hice Monja] - Cesar Aira (horrible, pointless book).
* Under Milk Wood - Dylan Thomas (amazing, amazing piece. There are many similarities between that and "Falling out of Time", which is David Grossman's - yes, him again - piece he wrote after his son Uri was killed in the Second Lebanon War).

I'm currently reading "The Enchanted Castle" by Edith Nesbit, which will not take much longer.

I'm determined to buy no books while working on this project (and even left "Tzomet Sfarim" without anything on Tuesday even though there were at least four books I wanted), but I think it won't work on book
week.

Still, I'm progressing well.