It feels weird to say this, but one of my all-time favorite books is Night by Elie Wiesel. It’s weird to say one of my favorite books is a holocaust story. But I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise—I’ve already blogged about how I love sad songs and sad books and sad movies. And cemeteries! I think a lot of people might think I’m morbid, but I don’t feel morbid. I’m not fixated on death, or even fascinated by it. IMO.
But I am fascinated by the capacity for evil that humans have. I always want to try to understand it. I think if I can understand the motives for it, what causes it to happen, then it won’t seem so awful somehow.
Part of that might come from growing up in a town with one of the worst and most notorious serial killers of all time, the Green River Killer. I went swimming and fishing in the Green River as a kid. My dad’s cousin was the principal at a high school for troubled teens, and one of his students was one of the Green River Killer’s victims. As an adult I worked at a bank across the street from a motel where he picked up one of his victims.
It was such a relief when they finally caught him. It’s strange, growing up and living in a place where an uncaught serial killer had been for years. When they caught him, he was living in the town next to where we lived.
Anyway, Night is a heavy book. It’s short, and it’s brutal. And brutally honest. Wiesel talks about his experience as a teenager in concentration camps, losing his family, and losing his faith in God. One of the most powerful lines in the book for me is short and simple:
I was 15 years old.
It comes after describing a horrifying scene. He was being transported in a train car with a bunch of other concentration camp prisoners. I think they were in a cattle car. He and the other passengers are all starving, and one of the guards thinks it’s funny to toss some crusts of bread into the car and watch the prisoners scramble and fight over it. Wiesel witnesses one starving man kill his own son over a crust a bread. And the chapter ends with that one simple sentence:
I was 15 years old.
I get teared up just thinking about it.
Wiesel survived the holocaust and became a writer and a university professor. He and his wife run a charitable foundation. And I recently learned they were swindled out of not only their personal fortune, but also the foundation’s funds, by Bernard Madoff.
It boggles the mind. Well, the holocaust boggles the mind—or beyond-boggles it. A money swindler is unfortunately not that mind-boggling. But that he could do it to someone like Elie Wiesel. And to Wiesel’s foundation. I’m guess I’m not that concerned about Wiesel losing his personal fortune—of course he earned every penny of it, and he’s very old, but he still has an income from teaching. And he has a new novel out, which I’m going to make a point of buying just as a little personal show of support, as lame as that sounds. But to steal from his foundation that does so much to help those in need—that’s mind-boggling.
I read an interview with Elie Wiesel about Madoff, which can be read here. He talks about the outpouring of support his foundation has had from the American people:
And it’s incredible the generosity of people who want to help. It was just something about the American people. Just as in 9/11. [It] was the greatest tragedy, but it also brought out the best in the American people. I was here then. And to see people on the street, strangers, would speak to one another, would share the pain, give bottles, they stood in line to give blood…. And so, here again, the generosity, it cannot compensate, but it shows again, a human being is capable of both very great, good things, and very horrible things.
At the end of the interview, he says this:
To my students, and sometimes my leaders, I say whatever you do in life—medicine, business, engineering, architecture, journalism, whatever you do—think higher, and feel deeper.
So, my question is: Are you someone who is contributing to society in a productive way, or are you someone who is a drain? I think most people can say they are productive members of the human race, rather than a drain. But I think it’s a worthwhile question to think higher, and feel deeper, about. What are you contributing to the world?
March 18th, 2009 at 7:19 am
This is our book club book this month. It’s also one of my favorites. I tend to read it in tandem with Man’s Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl — they just need to be read together in my opinion.
I was really bothered by the Madoff issue, too, in regards to the foundation. It’s incredibly unclassy. I think your show of support is what makes America (or maybe just humanity in general) so great. You’re only one, but who says one can’t make a difference?
Your question is making me really think. I don’t know what I’m doing to contribute. I am pretty sure I’m not a drain, but mostly we just exist — you know, we don’t take much, but we also don’t give a whole lot.
There is one place where I feel like I’m contributing, and that’s in taking the time to raise productive, intelligent, independent children. I hope they’re my greatest gift to society.
March 18th, 2009 at 8:56 am
This is a great book—an important book.
I’m of the same mind as Julie. Sometimes I think if my only contribution or legacy is to raise kind, compassionate, productive children who always give a little more than they take from society, I can feel satisfied. But there is always more we can do. I’m going to look for the new book too.
March 18th, 2009 at 10:55 am
[...] friend of mine recently asked the question, “What are you contributing to the world?” To be honest, [...]
March 18th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Ugh. Most of the time I don’t feel very ‘contributing positively’.
Madoff…ugh, again. He just disgusts me.
March 18th, 2009 at 11:20 am
I think I’m doing some good. But, when I look at people like Elie Wiesel I don’t feel nearly so much that way.
Of course, I feel like a superhero compared to Madoff, so maybe it balances out?
March 18th, 2009 at 11:26 am
What fascinates me is how someone can come up with a really awful/evil idea and how many people they can get to follow them. I just don’t think that way and no matter how many times I get burned by people, I tend to trust others until I have a reason not to trust them. I can’t comprehend wanting to hurt people, step on others to get ahead, or take advantage of them. It’s hard to put myself in the place of people who do think like that, so I tend to think that they are rare.
When Matt’s tool bag fell out of his truck, thousands of dollars worth of tools, I couldn’t help thinking that someone honest would find them and turn them in instead of someone who would keep the tools or sell them. The man who found them turned them into the police and they were returned to us. We were so grateful.
I think I contribute to the world and try my best not to be a drain. I have a lot of desires to help and do what I can, hoping that someday I will have the means to do more.
March 18th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Here are the things I do to contribute; I bet you are all doing them too.
I smile at nearly everyone I make eye contact with.
I hold doors and am normally polite.
I make people feel better about themselves when they talk to me.
I make talking about the Gospel really easy.
I love teaching.
I am constantly trying to improve myself and my surroundings.
I am genuinely interested in the people around me.
So those are the things I contribute. An equally long list could be made of the way I’m a drain. But I’ll only list those in my prayers and ask for help to overcome.
And as for thinking higher and feeling deeper, well those are two of my most favorite things to do.
March 18th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
the Madoff pyramid scheme is the biggest pyramid scheme victimizing the jews since…. the pyrimids! – jon stewart
Well all I’m saying is that I want to look back and say that I did it the best I could while I was stuck in this place. Had as much fun as I could when I was stuck in this place. Played as hard as I could when I was stuck in this place….. – Don, Dazed and Confused
March 19th, 2009 at 12:58 am
I read Night in high school I don’t remember what I thought about it. I guess I’ll give it another look.
As far as contributing. I’d love to say yes, who wouldn’t? But I’m not really sure. I think I’ll have to work on that.
March 19th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
I can’t seem to form the words I want to say regarding Mr. Madoff.
I cannot form easily the words I feel about those people like Mr. Weisel who have endured so much and come out the better person.
As far as myself, I would hope that I am not a drain, nor static in my existence, but rather like a plain clock on the wall that pretty much everyone ignores, save a few glances now and then. The clock that silently goes about its job, its service without too much todo and fuss, constant and reliable. I try to do the mundane chores in the world, the jobs that are last to be picked. I try to work for/advocate for those who are more like the plain white wall in the room; there, but largely ignored.
There is always room for improvement, and today, your post has motivated me to do more. Thank you.
March 20th, 2009 at 9:09 am
“Night” is one of my all-time favorite books, too. I need to read it again…
I think that sometimes I’m a drain on society because I’m so selfish. But I try hard to be productive like others have said, and the best way I do that is teach my kids to be productive, kind, unselfish, polite, inventive, independent, etc. I’m hoping that will help!
As for Madoff, I can’t believe I didn’t know about all that! I swear, I’m a drain on society just because I don’t know what’s going on –but then again, my optimism is pretty high because I don’t know about ALL the crap out there. Still, maybe I should read a newspaper or something…
March 21st, 2009 at 8:32 pm
“So, my question is: Are you someone who is contributing to society in a productive way, or are you someone who is a drain?”
You don’t know how much that statement has shook me up.
Thank you for that.
If you like heavy sad books but with a sort of good end, may I suggest:
Against All Hope (terror filled and makes us never forget how important freedom and God is)
By Antonio Valladares
Witness (heavy and soul wrenching at times)
By Whittiker Chambers (it inspired a man to create a magazine that then inspired a president and then the Berlin Wall came down amongst other things)not what the book is about, but what it was about put those events into motion.
March 22nd, 2009 at 6:18 am
Thanks for the book recommendations, Mario, I’ll keep an eye out for those.