In the books of Solzhenitzyn there is a character, and sometimes more than one, who is or was in the camps, a man who has been a prisoner. In that condition he has had to realize survival means most, more even than life. Day to day is the limit of his future, and sometimes even a day is too long. Getting by is the mark of success. It is all he can allow. He has bread, breath, and shoes on his feet. Nothin else counts.
As he comes to the end of his sentence, allowing himself to look to an end of time in the camp, he begins to live beyond the moment of thinking a day after the one in which he is. A slave's blood no longer fills his body, because he can begin to hope and dream. These are the signs of free men. Stepping across the barrier of survival, reaching into tomorrow, give life to today. Being able to see beyond where we are, living inside our dreams, and allowing a horizon beyond which we can see, all these mean more than what is.
Unlike the heroes of these books, we are not bound by wires or walls If they are there, we have built this camp ourselves. We have built it of fear, a fear not only of tomorrow but of the us who will live in it.
No comments:
Post a Comment