It was recorded in the early thirties.
To my horror, I did some research and found that one of the main singers had a terrible fate.
- He was a popular entertainer in Germany in the 20s and 30s*
- He was offered work in Hollywood but chose to stay home
- He fled to the Netherlands to escape the Nazis, who soon snatched him there
- At the concentration camp, the Nazis forced him to direct a shameless propaganda film about what a swell place it was. Cooperate or you and your family will be killed, the told him.
- When the film wrapped, they sent him and his family to the gas chamber anyway
Whoa! I told myself. That's ghastly! Cruel! Unfair!
And to think you get unglued when you're stuck in traffic the computer freezes. Put things in perspective!
You're not in a death camp,aboard a slave ship, inside a burning building or under a bomb! Remember that, you self-absorbed jerk!
This should have been a profound moment, yet...
Luck is wasted on the lucky.
*I've kept his name and picture off the blog so I don't tarnish his image/memory with cartoons of me whining about the phone not working.
3 comments:
Namowal, that's a sound lesson for all of us, especially those of us who have the wonderful, blessed fortune to live in North America.
Having some things so easy (reliable electricity and water, fairly maintained roads for the most part) can have an effect on how hard it is to keep things in perspective. Somebody cuts me off in traffic when I'm on my way to eat and I'm swearing up a storm? There's a better way. Gotta keep in mind that I'm not barefoot and shirtless in the African bush, brandishing an AK-47, being forced to fight a civil war for ideologies that I don't even understand.
That's kinda weird, this post is stamped as Wednesday, April 25, 2007, but it definately showed up after. Did you start it the same day and save it as a draft to publish later?
It was dated wrong because I began writing the post on April 25th but didn't finish and publish it until yesterday. I've been crunched for time the last few weeks so I've been blogging in bits and pieces.
I agree we tend to overlook how lucky we are. It must be human nature to get steamed over minor things. Probably dates back to our ancestors, when philosophical musings took a back seat to shoving the guy who's hogging all the mammoth meat.
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