Transformation

I'm reading The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.  It's a hard read--not difficult to read because of it's written expression but because of the subject.  I'm not finished it yet, so I won't review it.  What I want to post about is a scene in the book.  One of the soldiers experienced a horrific death of a friend.  He was hurting badly and wanted to hurt back.  He picked on a young, innocent water buffalo.  He shot off its tail: then its ears: its knee caps, etc.  You get the idea. He didn't want to kill it.  He wanted it to hurt, like he was hurting.

It reminded me of Richard Rohr's "If you don't transform your suffering, you'll transmit it."  You must choose to transform your bad feelings, change your mood, make yourself happy.  Of course, you can't perfectly, but you must force yourself to try.  You have to, if not for yourself, for the sake of others.

Heart and Soul

For the past few days, I've been absorbed in the book The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.  It was one of those times when you can't put the book done.  I highly recommend it as a very enjoyable read.

Near the end, the character Isabelle tells her sister something that someone told me a long time ago.  I've never forgotten it.  Isabelle, broken and beaten, suffering and sick, tells her sister "They couldn't touch my heart.  They couldn't change who I was inside.  My body...they broke that in the first days, but not my heart..."

Where I heard this before was from a prison inmate.  He was trying to tell me the very same thing.  He said, "they've taken everything away from me, but not my soul.  They can't take that."

Who you are, can't be taken away.  Maybe identity cards and name changes look like you've changed, but you don't.  Not if you don't want them to.  It's up to you.