reading messy handwriting...

I'm back in the archives again, this time mostly reading typewritten manuscripts & newspaper clippings. However, I do still come across the occasional handwritten item, including one with these excerpts:

... make him one for whom recognition is most difficult

OR, it could actually read,

... make him one for whom recognition is not difficult

How one letter can change everything!!!

History and what it is...

Haffer, in justifying his story, reveals what real history is:

I am convinced that by telling my private, unimportant story I am adding an important, unrecognized facet to contemporary German and European history -- more significant and more important for the future than if I were to disclose who set fire to the Reichstag, or what Hitler really said to Rohm.

What is history, and where does it take place?

...It may seem a paradox, but it is nonetheless the simple truth, to say that on the contrary, the decisive historical events take place among us, the anonymous masses. The most powerful dictators, ministers, and generals are powerless against the simultaneous mass decisions taken individually and almost unconsciously by the population at large. It is characteristic of these decisions that they do not manifest themselves as mass movements or demonstrations. Mass assemblies are quite incapable of independent action. Decisions that influence the course of history arise out of the individual experiences of thousands or millions of individuals. (182-3)

Depth of Influence...

Experience, not perception, of events and circumstances build reactions and philosophies. Until something actually affects our inner being and our private life, it cannot fundamentally changes our values and beliefs.

In his book, Haffner writes of the Nazi "takeover" of Germany:

All this was still something one only read about in the press. You did not see or hear anything that was any different from what had gone on before. There were brown SA uniforms on the streets, demonstrations, shouts of "Heil," but otherwise it was "business as usual." In the Kammergericht, the highest court in Prussia, where I worked as Referendar as the time, the process of the law was not changed at all by the fact that the interior minister enacted ridiculous edicts. The newspapers might report that the constitution was in ruins. Here every paragraph of the Civil Code was still valid and was mulled over and analyzed as carefully as ever. Which was the true reality?...

I must admit that I was inclined to view the undisturbed functioning of the law, and indeed the continued normal course of daily life, as a triumph over the Nazis. They could behave as raucously and wildly as they wished. They could still only stir up the political surface. The depths of the ocean of life remained entirely unaffected.(109-110)

Confusion and difficulty to perceive events breed inaction, as Haffner writes:

Daily life also made it difficult to see the situation clearly. Life went on as before, though it had now definitely become ghostly and unreal, and was daily mocked by the events that served as its background. ... now it was no longer possible to deny that daily life itself had become hollow or mechanical. Every minute merely confirmed the victory of the enemy forces flooding in from all sides.

Strangely enough, it was just this automatic continuation of ordinary life that hindered any lively, forceful reaction against the horror....

It was hindered by the mechanical continuation of normal daily life.... It is the cause of his reluctance to do anything that could "derail" his life -- something audacious or out of the ordinary. It is this lack of self-reliance that opens the possibility of immense catastrophes of civilization such as the rule of the Nazis in Germany.

...In this way, unsure of myself, temporizing, I performed my routine daily duties. At home, I gave way to fruitless and ridiculous outbursts at the dinner table. Excluded from events and passive like millions of others, I let events come at me.

And they did. (137-9)

How poignant his words, but how true to our experience! It seems even with the momentous days that we live in, my inner being and my reason for living have remained the same because my inner life has been unaffected. Part of it is youth and ignorance, and part of it is simply absence or distance from the happenings. I don't live in Washington or New York City, so how does it really affect me? True, prices have increased and the administration is about to change, but that remains far from my private life because it does not touch my inmost being.

How scary this was for Haffner who looked back and realized that a generation of Germans had allowed their country to be taken over by the Nazis all because it did not affect them. How could it? He says, "I was inclined not to take them very seriously -- a common attitude among their inexperience opponents, which helped them a lot, and still helped them." (104)

It's food for thought at least.

Youth...

What experience did Ponce de Leon and others hope to gain by finding the Fountain of Youth? What is so appealing about being young? Is it simply freedom from pain and responsibility?

Sebastian Haffner offers one hint in his book Defying Hitler, it was

...so full of innocent fun and youthful gravity, of dreams of the future and of universal fellowship and trust... (p. 80)

At the age of thirty-two, Haffner was already remembering his youth with nostalgia. There was something so carefree into those days, something he no longer had, something he left when he grew older or at least was no longer young.

Further, he casually observes the parents' role in the training of a youth:

Is is not said that in peacetime the chiefs of staff always prepare their armies as well as possible -- for the previous war? I cannot judge the truth of that, but it is certainly true that conscientious parents always educate their sons for the era that is just over. (p. 102)

Perhaps, this is why there always seems to be a generational gap, especially at the time of the younger one's youth. It is not so much parents' fault as it is to be blamed on the passage of time and the changes that necessarily come with it.

Youth and the Gospel of grace

In my quest to know the past and become acquainted with my own heritage, I have been studying the Second Great Awakening in the America. A powerful movement between 1770 and 1830, the Second Great Awakening marks the conversion and definite salvation experiences of thousands of Americans across the country. Evangelical Christians -- predominantly the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists -- spread the gospel through itinerant preachers and large gospel meetings, reaching many nominal Christians and many unbelievers. The Second Great Awakening is responsible for the fact that the southern United States, despite being settled mostly by Anglican people in search of wealth and a better life, has become the Bible belt and the home of many of the country's evangelicals.

In this move of the gospel, salvation reached many people, and the way was opened for them to freely speak of their experiences of the grace of God. Young and old, black and white, male and female all had the opportunity to hear God's speaking and receive His salvation, and many of these took the opportunity to share with others this newfound joy in the grace of God.

Evangelical leaders realized that the young would shape the future religious landscape of the country and particularly worked to convert them to Christianity. Further, they encouraged young men to cultivate a burden for the gospel and their fellow mankind. Subsequently, many left kith and kin to serve as itinerant preachers. With little formal training, they were forced to turn to God as their source, particularly in spiritual matters. To assure people of salvation and to find solace and supply, they resorted to frequent prayer and the Bible, reading works by the Wesleys and other evangelicals as well. Through trial and tribulation, they realized that the ultimate power was not in themselves or in their eloquence but in the compelling message of the gospel. Though life was often hard and they lived in "holy poverty," many consecrated themselves to serve God at least for part of their lives.

It's amazing to me how God worked in this country two centuries ago. Because these people poured out their lives and were faithful to God and to His word, we are here today.

For more details, see Chapter 2, The Season of Youth, in Christine Leigh Heyrman's Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt.

Living Life...

As a young person, one doesn't always reflect on what life is about and whether or not one is living it to the fullest. Bust, recently, that thought has crept up in my mind. Not just whether or not I live in a way that glorifies the Lord and prepares me for His coming, but whether I'm enjoying life in a full and human way.

A couple things I read today make these thoughts all the more concrete.

The first comes from Anne of the Island by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Anne has just finished talking to Ruby Gillis in what turns out to be their last conversation together on earth.

Heaven could not be what Ruby had been used to. There had been nothing in her gay, frivolous life, her shallow ideals and aspirations, to fit her for that great change, or make the life to come seem to her anything but alien and unreal and undesirable.... She had laid up her treasures on earth only; she had lived solely for the little things of life—the things that pass—forgetting the great things that go onward into eternity, bridging the gulf between the two lives and making of death a mere passing from one dwelling to the other—from twilight to unclouded day. God would take care of her there—Anne believed—she would learn—but now it was no wonder her soul clung, in blind helplessness, to the only things she knew and loved....

Anne walked home very slowly in the moonlight. The evening had changed something for her. Life held a different meaning, a deeper purpose. On the surface it would go on just the same; but the deeps had been stirred. It must not be with her as with poor butterfly Ruby. When she came to the end of one life it must not be to face the next with the shrinking terror of something wholly different — something for which accustomed thought and ideal and aspiration had unfitted her. The little things of life, sweet and excellent in their place, must not be the things lived for; the highest must be sought and followed; the life of heaven must be begun here on earth. (Chapter 14)

The second comes from Haffner's Defying Hitler:

A generation of young Germans... had never learned to live from within themselves, how to make an ordinary private life great, beautiful, and worthwhile, how to enjoy it and make it interesting.

...There were some who learned during this period, belatedly and a little clumsily, as it were, how to live. They began to enjoy their own lives, weaned themselves from the cheap intoxication of the sports of war and revolution, and started to develop their own personalities. It was at this time that, invisibly and unnoticed, the Germans divided into those who later became Nazis and those who would remain non-Nazis. (68-9)

Without a doubt, private life needs to be valued as it is lived and as something to be studied. It is the ordinary things in which we ought to find pleasure and meaning.

There is much on the earth that is fleeting and very much earthly. Ruby spent her life, enjoying boys and worrying about her looks. There's so much more to life that is meaningful and worthwhile! We ought to put our heart into something lasting -- something many Germans, Haffner says, never learned to do. Like Anne, we ought to have a deeper purpose while taking time to find the good in life.

Thoughts on History

I've been reading through Defying Hitler by Sebastian Haffner. It's an interesting read thus far, and it's helping me to reconsider history and how I study the past. I actually read this book freshman year of college in my class -- History that Never Happened. Both times, I've been struck by this passage:

Clearly, historical events have varying degrees of intensity. Some may almost fail to impinge on true reality, that is, on the central, most personal part of a person's life. Others can wreak such havoc there that nothing is left standing. The usual way in which history is written fails to reveal this. "1890: Wilhelm II dismiss Bismark." Certainly a key event in German history, but scarcely an event at all in the biography of any German outside its small circle of protagonists. Life went on as before. No family was torn apart, no friendship broke up, no one fled their country. Not even a rendezvous was missed or an opera performance canceled. Those in love, whether happily or not, remained so; the poor remained poor, and the rich rich. Now compare that with "1933: Hindenburg sends for Hitler." An earthquake shatters 66 million lives.

Official, academic history has, as I said, nothing to tell us about the differences in intensity of historical occurrences. To learn about that, you must read biographies, not those of statesmen but the all-too-rare ones of unknown individuals. There you will see that one historical event passes over the private (real) lives of people like a cloud over a lake. Nothing stirs, there is only a fleeting shadow. Another events whips up the lake as in a thunderstorm. For a while it is scarcely recognizable. A third may, perhaps, drain the lake completely. (page 7)

Haffner reminds me again why I study history and which type of history I study. There's something so fascinating, so compelling, so important about the lives of everyday people. It's not just that their stories are overshadowed by the lives of more important people. It's that we, you and I, experience history as individuals. Even the most famous person, Abraham Lincoln for instance, lived in his times as an individual. He had to make decisions, make friends, and live in the midst of all sorts of different and difficult circumstances.

The stories of unknown individuals make up the pulse of history. Their stories are not overshadowed by their greatness. We as historians are not absorbed in understanding why they made a certain decision at age fifty and in tracing everything that led up until that point. Simply because they're unknown, we can focus on their philosophies, their values, their emotions -- in short, their hearts. Their stories reveal which events were actually important, touched people's inmost beings, and caused them to reconsider their deeply-held values.

We do well to remember that the past is only collective in hindsight. While it occurred, it happened in lots of little pieces with lots of individual thoughts behind every move. In many ways, we fight our own personal battles, isolated and cut off from society. What makes each of our stories so remarkable is not the struggles themselves but the details and personalities behind each one.