"Digni-TEA"

On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. (Psalm 22:11-12, ESV)

The importance of dignity was emphasized throughout the book, Unbroken, (Hillenbrand) as humiliation and shame continued to wear down the prisoners in the Japanese War camps. Dignity, with any semblance of respect as a human being, was what they needed. It came, albeit rarely, in a variety of unique ways, even thievery. Stolen food, namely sugar.

"And in a place predicated on degradation, stealing from the enemy won back the men's dignity." (p. 244)

Anytime a country espouses their sacred duty, as a leading superior race, to eradicate or enslave members of inferior ones, the first tactic is to take away the dignity, thus robbing them of emotional strength. (Ibid, p.43)

It has happened throughout history and is happening, as I type, to my friends in Ukraine, and families of my South Sudan church buddies. 

Thankfully, I finally "found" an uplifting book about WWII. Once Upon a Town. A work of non-fiction, it is a WORTHY read about the kindness of the towns folk in the small town of North Platte, Nebraska (12,000) and it began on Christmas Day 1941. Some folks called it a miracle! Troop trains stopped for only a 10 minute break, but all aboard were welcomed!

The numbers alone are staggering---enough to make one cry. 
Every day of the war--3,000 to 5,000 military personnel came through North Platte and were served food, drink and magazines by the towns people, from 5 am until the last train passed through after midnight. Not with government money but $$ from their own pockets---ration tickets and gardens.Toward the end of the war, that number grew to 8,000 a day, on as many as 23 separate troop trains. Six million soldiers passed through North Platte and all were greeted at the depot. (p.7)
This is their true story---a love story between a country and its sons. (p.8)
A story worth sharing.
Pic not loading--will try later.

Digni-TEA---a cuppa needed by all mankind.....and served with gratitude to GIs by North Platte residents as a way of honoring the brave and dedicated sons, wearing our nation's uniform.

SABBATH SNAPSHOT : atroci-TEAs

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is rife with atrocities---and if there is a cuppa I abhor, it's any cuppa with a blend of atroci-TEA. Thus, a lengthy span of time was created as I would pick this book up and put it down---again and again. BUT, I was drawn to this book, as both my dad and Larry's dad were stationed in the Pacific during World War II, with his dad actually in Japan for part of his deployment.

It's a real page turner, though I had to read it only during the daylight hours, as sleep would allude me after reading of the horrors and realities of war, in particular Japanese POW camps--where Geneva convention rules were not followed.  This lady did her homework and documented every smidge of detail---think, a 14 page index and 50 pages of notes and citations.
Definitely a work of non-fiction! If this were a work of fiction, you wouldn't believe it!

Starvation I have never known and torture I couldn't begin to imagine, chronicled in the book, changed my thinking. I may never dump leftovers in the sink again or read current newspaper stories of on-going wars with out a sickness in the pit of my stomach.

As strange as it sounds, I'm glad that I read it. Hillenbrand introduced me to real heroes. Regular guys just like my dad. Places mentioned awakened my Daddy's voice in my head recalling his story of basic training at Hickam Field in Honolulu, even though he was in the Army and not the Air Force. As a young married 19 yr. old, he had his first taste of "fresh" pineapple in fields near that base. He and some of his buddies pulled the fruit up right from the field. Daddy remembered how those pineapples they burned his mouth---not like the Del Monte canned ones on the shelf at Davenport's grocery in Clarksville, TN, owned by his father-in-law.

Later, he was shot by Japanese snipers on the island of Leyte in the Philippines, an event that would require hospitalization thus saving his life. The sergeant who replaced him, along with his entire platoon, was killed the next day. Having read the book, I understand why Daddy rarely spoke of those events. As the real life characters in the book, he, too, must have found it too painful to recall.

Unbroken is, as the subtitle suggests, a story of survival, resilience and redemption. Well-written and "needful" but a hard read all the same---not for complexities of text but because of topic. Atrocities of war!

If you do pick it up---you MUST read to the end---that's where hope lies!! The final chapters and the Epilogue make it "worth the read."