The Choice

 The Choice - link to podcast.

I'm a big Jack Reacher fan, but I'm trying to read more widely, so I'm reading the Choice by Edith Eger. It made me cry, but it also helped me grow a bit.

So I lost my phone the other day walking from the spare room to the TV room putting out the rubbish and changing from shorts to long pants.

Yep, its been gone for a week now.  Must be out with the trash.  No idea how, but from this moment of miraculous stupidity, I have now found myself in possession of my the work phone of my co worker, Maryam.  Maryam is widely read and a wonderful human being.

She and I have chatted about what books we read and of course she is completely ignorant of Jack Reacher and how satisfying this action packed rouge ex military cops adventures are.  It is a profound genre.  He stumbles into trouble while hitchhiking, kills all the bad guys, rescues the girl, who then falls in love with him and he then manages to save the world from serious calamity, all with four broken ribs, a fractured skull and the only weapon at his disposal is a blunt potato peeler.   She  seemed mightily impressed.  Anyway its not all a one way street in this intellectual banter and she has encouraged me to listen to an audio book on her phone called the choice, by Edith Eger.  
Let me read the preamble.

In 1944, sixteen-year-old ballerina Edith Eger was sent to Auschwitz. Separated from her parents on arrival, she endures unimaginable experiences, including being made to dance for the infamous Josef Mengele. When the camp is finally liberated, she is pulled from a pile of bodies, barely alive.

The horrors of the Holocaust didn't break Edith. In fact, they helped her learn to live again with a life-affirming strength and a truly remarkable resilience.

The Choice is her unforgettable story. It shows that hope can flower in the most unlikely places.

So, I’m about half way through - listening to the part of the story where she is in the concentration camps.  It describes her terrible suffering; starvation, bitter cold and the savage brutality all around her.  She shares about the senseless murders of her parents and the countless other atrocities of her experience.  

Last Tuesday morning I found myself eating a blueberry muffin, drinking hot coffee in a warm bed holding the lovely Sue's hand with tears streaming down my face. 

I was so grateful for that moment.  So sad that such horrible suffering is part of our world.  So moved to stop being so selfish and passive and determined to find ways to be more kind and generous.

I feel like I am a million miles away from most of the suffering in this world and it is so easy to sink into the comfortable easy ways of our modern materialistic pleasure seeking way of life.  After listening to this book and understanding this suffering in a graphic way, something has shifted in me.  It has connected me again to a wider humanity.  To people I don’t know and have never met.  To the responsibilities I have in the small circle of influence of my world. 

So I encourage you to read or listen to a book that will disturb you a little.  Lets make sure our minds don’t get too mushy and narrow. 

I am only half way through Edith’s book and I am looking forward to hearing how she resolves the  terrible injustices within her own spirit. 

I guess there are things to learn from Jack Reacher, like how to kill bad guys with potato peelers, but I will probably learn more from Edith, even if the lessons are hard to swallow and make me face the realities of my actual life.   I have choices every day about the things that happen to me.  Maybe reading Edith's story will help me choose hope and love more often.    

Bless ya,

Bryce