History Offers a View of Nature

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Living in upstate New York, I've acclimated to this 2011 winter's zero degree weather by reading books inside the warmer house, with a kitty on my lap. I've just finished reading:

• The History of God, by Karen Armstrong
• A People's History of the World, by Christ Harman
• The Stuff of Thought, a history of language, by Steven Pinker

It's only a coincidence the books fall into the genre of history, but they fascinatingly complemented one another, keeping my interest piqued.

Karen Armstrong's research into the knowledge of God and its impact on the worlds three main religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, severed theology from eternity. Theologies are human-made and fluctuate as often as the weather. The History of God seemed to agree with my opinion that outmoded doctrines and restrictive traditions bring disrepute to religions. Armstrong warns against fundamentalism and encourages faith-a faith and audacity to exchange human ideologies for transcendent views of God, reality.

Harman's book, A People's History of the World, is fat, pregnant with social and political history apparently forming and reforming human nature. Discourses on religion and God are scattered throughout the book, pointing to the probability that the people's way of life, health, and systems of government indirectly mimic their concept of God, some good, some not so good.

Reading Pinker's The Stuff of Thought was like scuba-diving. It required serious exertion and concentration; resisting a ponderous oxygen tank from pulling you backward; remembering to breathe counter-intuitively through your mouth, and, abstaining from immediate verbal expressions when glimpsing an awesome view, in order not to swallow a mouthful of salty water. The history of language is entirely different from the history of words and Pinker analyzed language from many perspectives, concluding there is no complete adequate language to convey truth. Pinker is amazingly practical, humorous, and realistic.

I recommend The History of God to readers who are interested in reconciling religion to God. Religion can be beneficial when not mistaken for truth.

I recommend A People's History of the World to readers on the verge of escaping the prison of repeating deadening past activity.

I recommend The Stuff of Thought to people who value the open-mindedness of an educated engaging author.

My conclusion: History serves as a window into nature. But readers must decide which nature. Trying to understand the human nature is as promising as understanding falling snow. Admittedly, snow is no longer considered a miracle but is now known as a component of the water cycle. But this knowledge is plagued by human concerns. Too little snow causes droughts. Too much snow is a pain to deal with on the roads. Knowledge of the human nature is not satisfying.

The human struggle against concerns, hunger, suffering, and mind-numbing traditions cease only as I use history as a window into the spiritual nature. And, I did find evidence of spirituality in these good reads! Bravery, balance, insight, hindsight, compassion, morality, reform, honesty, integrity were not only obvious, but also inspiring, to the point I felt the reality of the spiritual nature.

Cheryl Petersen advocates spiritual thought before action. Cheryl blogs at http://www.healingsciencetoday.com/.

In This Hospitable Land Written By Lynmar Brock, Jr

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A spectacular history lesson telling how families in Europe, specifically those from Belgium and France, existed during WWII. The story is fiction but based on true facts and true people in their desperate struggle to keep their families alive and safe. The struggle to keep ahead of the Nazi's when the war started for those living in Belgium became an hour to hour situation, never knowing for sure which way the German's were heading, but always knowing that their search for Jews was the German's utmost goal. Hitler had spread the word down to all his commands to capture anyone that was Jewish or even part Jewish. They would then transport them to interment camps where, depending on their age, sex, and value to helping the Nazi's, they were killed or kept to work for the Nazi's.

Andre' Sauverin was a professor at the Free University in Brussels. Andre' and his family were from a Jewish family and he knew they would be targeted by the Nazi's because of their looks. Immediately the bombings started forcing all that could reach a shelter into the nearest place of safety, even though it might be only a crude place. In those first days the rush to flee the city became of the utmost urgency. Andre' and his brother Alex gathered their families and started the exodus towards France where they thought they would be safe for a while. All modes of transportation were jammed as were the roads with many fleeing their homeland to keep their families safe as long as possible. Andre' and Alex gathered their families and took their old Buick with a trailer attached behind for all their goods for which they had space. Their long travel was extremely difficult as they negotiated many mountain passes and trails. The days were long and the nights longer. Andre' and Alex laid out the best possible methods of travel to get their families through each day hoping for a safe place to stay at night and for some food to keep them nourished. They took what little food they had but it didn't last long. Some nights they were fortunate to find shelter, and even more rare, some food. Churches along the route helped tremendously as many pastors were a part of the resistance slowly being organized to resist the takeover of their nation. The problem was knowing who to trust and who would turn you in.

The trek by any means available from public transportation where available, to scarce automobiles, to horse-drawn carts, to walking was used while trying to avoid the German's and those that the German's made part of a controlling police force to assist in capturing Jews. Those in local governments were told they must help enforce the German law in all of Belgium, some willingly and many not so. The travels through Belgium and eventually France were long and hard.

They took the less traveled roads to avoid capture. Andre' had to leave to return to check on the Free University and his fellow professors. When he got there he was told that the university was closed for safety sake and all were to leave the area. The family had a stash of diamonds that they hid not knowing if those diamonds might save their lives some day or obtain food when all other sources were depleted.

Eventually they had to hide the Buick in an old barn and they continued on to race against time. They were advised many times where to go and who to trust but life was so hard as they, and many other refugees from Belgium felt insecure as they were continually notified that the German's and those helping them were searching the areas near where they traveled. The families were split apart, even some of each family had to go elsewhere thus breaking up Andre' and Alex's families even more.

The story has to be read fully to understand what these brave people went through in wartime. So many times when you thought you were safe you would hear of atrocities in nearby towns that thankfully you escaped this time. I thank Lynmar Brock, Jr. so much for giving us this story of brave people and how they existed as a family. As with every family there are deaths, illness, growing pains, maturity, reaching out to each other for help, and all other things that normally occur in lives but these were not normal lives at all.

Reader review by Cy Hilterman of a book supplied by The Amazon Vine Program