July 26, 2022

Today’s blog

Lynn Murphy Mark

Books and more books

Some people collect artifacts, porcelain figurines, photographs, and all manner of things. My weakness is books. I have three bookcases pretty much filled with books and random precious knickknacks that have floated into my life over the years. There are quite a few books that I haven’t even read yet, so if I’m ever confined to home I’ve got a reading list all ready for me. Sometimes I’ll be reading three books at once, each one in a different place. I might have a bedside book, a living room book, and a book in the car for when I stop for coffee.

Really I don’t need all these books because of the nature of my forgetful self. I can pick up a book that I’ve read and start on it, only to feel a vague sense of having been here before. If I like the book enough, though, I’ll read it again and enjoy it just as much the second time around. Some books are so meaningful that they are worth a second read.

One such book is called, “A Life Transformed”. It contains the writing of a young Dutch Jewish girl who lived during the holocaust. She was in her 20’s, and lived like a wild child. She was also a deep thinker who was affected in so many ways as the Nazi scheme to exterminate her people developed into a maelstrom. Unlike many of her fellow citizens she could see the handwriting on the wall and she assumed that at any time she could be found out and sent to a camp.

Her anger and fear and bitterness did not last. Instead she began to grow spiritually, to develop a close relationship with God, and to hold the love of God as close to her heart as she could. This was the context in which she wrote her diaries and letters. She chronicled what she saw developing around her and, during the early days of concentration camps, she worked at one as a member of the Jewish Council of Amsterdam. The essence of her work was to develop relationships with the inmates and do what she could for them. Before too long, however, she was taken prisoner and sent to that same camp.

Etty Hillesum did not survive the camps. In 1943 she was deported to Auschwitz and was murdered there. Somehow her writing has come down to us in several powerful books that contain her letters and diaries. 

Books open new worlds that live in the bound paper pages. I have spent many hours lost in those worlds, and am ever grateful that my parents taught me the importance of reading. I was in a crowded place once and behind me were people who were talking about not liking to read. One guy summed it up, “Reading is just too hard!” he proclaimed. I’m happy to report that my grandsons both love books and like being read to. That’s how it starts, when a child is young and impressionable.

So I apologize in advance to whoever will be cleaning out my possessions after I’m gone. If I have enough notice, I will invest in boxes to hold my treasures. It’s the least I can do.