A Solemn Anniversary

With today being the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in southern Poland, I feel compelled to take a moment to reflect on it.

No words can do justice in describing the atrocious mass murder of the estimated 1.1 million Jews, Poles, Roma, political dissidents, homosexuals, and others at this one particular death camp alone.  Miraculously, despite the odds of survival against them, a number of people lived through the experience of the camp to tell the world about one of the darkest chapters in humanity's history.

Sadly and expectedly, survivors of Auschwitz and other concentration camps are passing away due to age.  As time goes on, there will be fewer and fewer survivors to tell their stories until eventually they will all be gone.

The stories of the Holocaust, however, will live on in books and in videos.  After making Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg founded the Shoah Foundation in order to film survivors providing their testimonies so that later generations can learn of what happened.  Through Spielberg's efforts and those of others, the memories of what happened will be preserved.

In the future, it will be libraries, archives, museums, and historical foundations that will give voice to those who experienced the horrors of the death camps.  Today with more people around the world denying that the Holocaust even existed, it will be increasingly important that such institutions provide a voice for the victims and to educate so that history will never be repeated.

Be sure to visit your local library or other institution to obtain materials on Auschwitz and the concentration camps.  If you can, spare some time to think about the past while casting a hopeful eye to the future.

Respectfully yours from the perch.

Ease Into the New Year

Are you feeling like me?  You hustle and bustle through the Holiday Season, buying and wrapping gifts, decorating, eating, traveling, and squeezing more things than normal into your days?  And now you're at the point when you collapse on your sofa feeling dazed and confused until you go bleh?

Then maybe we both need to take a break with the New Year, slow down, breathe, reconnect with ourselves, and bring some peace back into our lives.

We got a number of books at the library to help you get your groove again.  Whether you're looking for books on meditation, finding a new hobby, or looking for ways to organize your life.

Not catching the reading bug at the moment?  Don't forget we also have some great Easy Listening CDs, from Josh Groban to Barbra Streisand.  Additionally, there are new DVDs to borrow if you feel like hibernating in your warm, cozy lair on a cold winter's night.

If you do feel like venturing out, however, and want to do some fun things with others, we have some interesting programs going on.  For starters, we now have 2 Spin-a-Yarns a month on the 2nd Tuesday and 4th Thursday.  There's a Chocolate for the Spouses Soul planned for February when we get to decorate tote bags and, of course, eat chocolate.  Furthermore, there's the Big Read coming up, and we'll have all kinds of things, including a book discussion, on Jack London's The Call of the Wild.

So, be good to yourself, relax, and ease into the New Year.  You deserve it.

Namaste from the perch.