By the chimney

(Poland)

“Lucas, please come inside!”?

“I’m waiting for my mom. I spotted smoke from down below. Every single time when smoke flowed up there, another group of people arrived. I asked them why they came, and they said something about cruelty.  Aunty, what is cruelty?”

“It means you commit a wrong thing toward others without any reason, and the people you committed this act to are  incapable of defending themselves.

“Last month, I pushed a girl Anna. She fell and cried.  Am I cruel?”

“But you did not mean that, didn’t you. Did she make you mad?”

“No, I just liked to push her because I think she’s stuck up.”

“How is that?”

“Oh, no actually she never stuck up to me, I didn’t like her look too much.  I wanted to hit her. Does that mean I was cruel?”

“Lucas, perhaps not because you have a soul, my dear!”

“What is a soul? There is one soul like one nose, two souls like two eyes, or many souls like candies. Can somebody give me souls?”

“No. No one can give you soul because it is born with you,  stays with  you and cared for by only you.”

“By me? How come I don’t know?”

“You are too young now. You play all the time and don’t understand such thing.   Soul is sometimes small, sometimes big, sometimes average, sometimes larger than you.”

“So I am only cruel when I don’t have my soul, like when my soul runs away playing and forgets to come home?”

“It’s not like that either. Although your soul runs away and not with you, but it still exists somewhere. Cruelty means evil, when the soul is dirty.”

“Oh, we can wash the dirty soul in a bucket of water. If it still is not clean, we dump soap into the bucket.”

“Dear, soul cannot be washed with water and soap.  When you get older, I’ll explain more.  But assume that your soul can be washed by water and soap, not everyone can remember washing it and forget as time goes by like you and me sometimes forgot to wash our white shirts.”

“But I don’t think anybody cruel;  everybody is basically good!”

“Why do you think so?”

“Sister Anne told me.  She wrote it in her diary. ”It’s difficult in time like these: ideals, dreams, and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals; they seemed so absurd and impractical. I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people truly good at heart. ” [1]

“Probably so.  Perhaps, the Dutch has a different view from mine.  By the way Lucas, did you and Anne steal flowers again? You smell like lily and your star  is filthy with dirt.” [2]

“No aunty, this scent is from the flowers my mom gave me and you also.”

“What? Your mom arrived here?”

“No, I saw her near the chimneys, where we, sister Anne and others came from. I don’t understand why mom cried. Mom laid the flowers down near me and you and she cried.  The people standing nearby didn’t look happy either.  I don’t know why mom did not wear her white shirt with blue stripes [3]. She knows I  likes that shirt a lot. I don’t like black shirt.  Does mom cry because I’m cruel and my soul left?”

“Your mom cries because you are not with her anymore, and she cannot visit you at the now.”

“So can you take me back to the chimney to see mom? My soul ran away and came back, just like I want to get back to mom.”

“You can think of her, and you can see her. And she will always think of you. But you can’t visit her anymore.”

“Why?”

“Sometimes, you will encounter many situations when you have to move on with your life; you will arrive at new places, meet new people, create a new life. What you no longer have, they will remain nice memories. Just like you and Anne, you both will always be the most beautiful things to all who have known and loved you.

Poland-Auschwitz- The bloodiest killing field of the Third Reich

6.16.04

[1] Anne Frank who wrote “The diary of Anne Frank”
[2] The star of David
[3] The flag of the Jews has white background with blue stripes

When passing the display window storing suitcases of the people in this camp, our guide pointed to a small one, with name, birth date, arrival date, and the leaving date, and said:  “When the boy arrived, he was only two.  He  stayed here less than one year.”  I don’t remember the name so I call him Lucas, a popular Polish name.