Thoughts are Warm
by Elie Wiesel “…Granted, our task is to inform. But information must be transformed into knowledge, knowledge into sensitivity and sensitivity into commitment.
How can we therefore speak, unless we believe that our words have meaning, that our words will help others to prevent my past from becoming another person’s — another peoples’ — future. Yes, our stories are essential — essential to memory. I believe that the witnesses, especially the survivors, have the most important role. They can simply say, in the words of the prophet, “I was there.”
What is a witness if not someone who has a tale to tell and lives only with one haunting desire: to tell it. Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.
After all, God is God because he remembers. “
Though not directly related to this passage, I feel like I’ve been everywhere and nowhere at the same time the past year and a half. I’m meeting new people and developing new connections, yet feel more alone. So how do my feelings of isolation relate to Elie Wisel? I miss sharing my daily experiences with people. Those conversations where you can talk to people about what you learned and vice versa and all the while increasing your learning through the discussion are one of the greatest things in the world. Or even those conversations where nothing might be learned, but it made the bond between the two people stronger. “…information must be transformed into knowledge, knowledge into sensitivity and sensitivity into commitment.” The new information that I have come across is leading to knowledge, but it’s not being converted into any discernable commitment. I don’t trust that what I have to say has meaning anymore. My experiences are being wasted on me.
Maybe my idea that freeing oneself from others would make life less stressful. Freeing oneself from others is a misleading statement. It means that others were a burden in the first place and that I was detained by force to be connected with them. That wasn’t/isn’t the case at all. Instead of freeing myself from others, I ought to be actively engaged with others. I think having real conversations/experiences, where more than one party actively participates, is something I am missing. I can go through the motions and have fun with people, but not be actively engaged. I should really be more proactive and help build the conversation/experience that I am seeking. How can I remember the conversation or experience if I am not committed to the conversation or event? When I get old and my brain processes memories differently, I’m not going to remember the details of the event or conversation, but I will remember how I felt and what it meant to me. I worry that I won’t remember this point of my life.
