Wednesday, October 11, 2006

standing by

Arthur Gregor, in his memoir, A LONGING IN THE LAND, describes what it felt like as a teenager in Vienna in 1938 to have the Anschluss, the Nazi takeover, suddenly dropped on you. A friend of his had to leave the country almost at once, at a time when thousands were getting out and the train stations were filled with weeping parents sending their children away, etc. Here's his description of that feeling:

"Even his departure had for me that curious aspect of unreality--or is it reality?--we experience when confronted by something beyond our control, something that runs entirely counter not only to our wishes but to what we are able to comprehend, and we stand by, utterly helpless, letting what is happening happen as though will had been wiped away, choice an illusion, and something we sense dimly as destiny has taken over, and what must be, is, and we can do nothing about it."

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