Denial #2 (see August 31)

I am not an historian. I find it difficult to remember the date of my own birth, let alone the date of the Battle of Waterloo. But I do believe history has profound lessons to teach those who are willing to pay attention. And, one of the greatest lessons history has to teach us is, to pay attention.

Nicholas Stargardt is an historian. He is a lecturer in modern history at the University of Oxford. He has a special interest in the social history of Nazi Germany including the Holocaust and the history of childhood. In his monumental book Witnesses of War: Children’s Lives Under The Nazis, Stargardt who is the child of a German-Jewish father and an Australian mother, has paid careful attention to the experiences of European children during the Second World War.

Denial #1

I can still picture the scene vividly in my mind. I had been away from home for some years and was back to visit my parents. My mother and I were alone in the car. She was driving. Our conversation edged into dangerous territory when she informed me that a man from the church in which I grew up had been arrested for child abuse.

Disintegration

I have been thinking about Tiger… the golfer, or perhaps now more famously, the man who betrayed Elin. It seems I am not alone in having given some thought lately to the famous athelete from Florida.

But it is not the golf part of Tiger’s life that intrigues me.

Feelings I

It is possible to learn a lot from watching a two-year-old. A toddler is in many ways a miniature of the adult she will later become. One of the things that becomes quickly evident watching a small child is what a powerful role feelings play in our lives.