"Even if there is only one decent German, [that person] would deserve to be protected from the barbarian rabble, and for that one German's sake, one should not pour out one's hatred for the entire people."
Etty Hillesum, born Middelburg 1914, died Auschwitz 1943.
For X, choose your 'category'. It's whatever makes you feel uncomfortable, whatever nationality, belief, human need inspires you with apprehension, alarm, unease, fear, annoyance, scorn.
Trust me. You already know that exception.
And there's more help from Etty. Think on this:
"Ultimately we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world."
One of my ongoing projects is finding ways to boost positive emotion in learners. What I have learned from this practice is how easy it is to spread goodwill. It helps, I think, that my formative years were spent in Africa, so I don't have the wariness towards strangers of my fellow Islanders, in the corner that lies south of Watford. I am given to striking up conversations at bus stops, for example.
But even at bus stops, I know the cloud in my thought...against those who fail to acknowledge that a queue, even a queue of one, requires respect. Trivial, innit? Observe how far I have to go in reclaiming peace within myself..... .
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