Attitudes and Concentration Camps

Where there is no vision the people perish. Vision is what's missing in the world today.

Let me tell you a story of vision and faith.

We fill our lives with things that keep us busy. Giving us a sense of importance or purpose and value to our lives. One of the greatest times this was brought home was at a course in public speaking. We had just two minutes to say what we had to say, then finish with “the point I am making”.

A man in his sixties who had amazed us with his line of work and the intricacies of it came in and told a story that showed a totally different side of his life. We could tell that he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the topic he was about to deliver, but he started to share a very personal part of himself with us.

It was the end of a long day and fourteen year old Louis was sitting on the step at the front of the dormitory with his father. The day had been a long one and there was little hope of relief. Each sat with his own thoughts, soaking up the last feeble warmth from the sun as it was setting over the mountains. Many things can go through a person’s mind at a time like this. Happy things, sad things and just things that wander through the mind when it’s not actively engaged on a particular task.

His father broke the stillness and pointing to the setting sun said “see the beauty of what God has given us. A sunset and mountains that we see are beautiful”. Placing his hand on his sons shoulder he added “Remember this. God has given you this evening, this sunset and no matter what they take away from you this can never be”

This may seem of little significance until we are told the year was in the mid nineteen forties and the place was a camp in Poland, call Auschwitz. The point Louis was making was in a matter of moments, with a few significant words, his father had shown him the quality of taking the time to share something special with someone that would have a lasting purpose in their lives.

This would also have a profound impact on others somewhere in the future.

It left me wondering if at the end of the twentieth century we hadn’t somehow managed to make ourselves so busy with the urgent things, that we miss out on some of the very important things. Like seeing the sunsets. Feeling the air as the seasons change. Being aware that the night sky is really like the dome inside a cathedral.

The other thing that Louis didn’t say, and I’m sure that everyone in the room that night was aware of, is that 'everyone has a story to tell' and through what they have experienced have in their own unique way earned the right to tell their story. From this comes an understanding of really taking the time to not only listen, but hear what people are saying.

In my line of work it is a very special point in knowing the people I do business with when they start to share the things that are important to them. So when someone offers a cup of tea or coffee I find it quite easy to say yes. Work can always be caught up on later, but times as unique as hearing Louis’ story don’t come very often and who knows when the next one will. It’s like the changes that are going on around us that aren’t acknowledged until something stops us. Like the sunsets that are there every day yet we rarely “see” them.

From 'There’s Never Enough Time' Attitudes and Concentration Camps.

© Kim Stedman 1996

Autumn Evening

The shadows grow long across the land

and the air’s become cool and damp.

The sun's lost it’s merciless heat

and there’s movement around the camp.

Leaves hanging from a limbs on the trees

make patterns across the bright setting sun.

Frogs now give voice to the cooling air

and the peace of the evenings begun.

The colours now fade from blue into pink

then into grey as darkness begins to fall.

There’s an afterglow low in the Southern sky.

In the trees the last of the birds gives a call.

There’s stillness and peace and time to reflect

on matters that are a part of each day,

like sitting in the open under the stars

quietly conversing the hours away.

And so in this evening that Autumn has brought

there’s relief in days growing shorter and cool

and the fragrance of damp on the dry dusty earth

and stars blazing in that high deep indigo pool.

© Kim Stedman