When was the last time you were stuck on an airplane, ready to depart when, suddenly, a solemn voice offers. “We have a mechanical issue.” It’s a bummer ain’t it? Folks, deplaning to change flights, others staying on board wondering if they can make connections. Stuck. It sucks.
What to do? Well, this aging jock bore deeper in the the morning newspaper. What to wandering eyes appeared? A story that served as a powerful reminder to a simple, but very difficult, truth to embrace. The importance of forgiveness. Nobody wins when we carry a grudge, especially us.
The wonderful reminder came from a Denver Post story read while darling wife and your humble scribe were trying to get to Florida. A much anticipated weekend of celebrating birthdays for this knucklehead and younger brother’s amazing bride. It was one tick closer to six decades for me and a milestone moment for Susan. I’ll let her share the number.
Anyway, I’m sitting on an airplane, waiting and reading. Many remaining on board are yakking away on mobile phones. The woman in the seat directly ahead tells her two boys: “You start school 90-minutes late today. Tell your dad.”
A story in the “Denver & The West” section catches the eye and bores into soul. Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, say hi to Eva Mozes Kor. The 81-year-old Auschwitz survivor had spoken the night before at an event in Denver. The keynote speaker, at the Anti-Defamation League’s 34th annual Governor’s Holocaust Remembrance Program, talked about a decision made 20 years ago that transformed her life.
Mozes Kor and her family were detained at Auschwitz. Nazi doctors performed experiments on her and other family members. A half decade later, in 1995, Mozes Kor returned to the site. Surprising even herself, the founder of CANDLES: Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors, asked to speak with one of the still-living doctors who performed the tests. The two met.
“I discovered I had a power; no one could take it away from me, and no one could stop it.” said the auburn-haired warrior. It was the power of forgiveness. In retrospect, the also-founder of the Indiana-based Holocaust and Education Center, says she just “stumbled upon it” and wishes the restorative spirit would have appeared sooner.
Mozes Kor lectures occasionally but the message remains constant. She implores audience members to embrace the choice made 20 years ago, forgive. In Hebrew, “teshura” is a word used to describe the difficult but necessary mindest.
“You can say anything you wish in a letter, but at the end you have to say, ‘I forgive you’ and you have to mean it,” stated Mozes Kor. “That is what sets you free.”
Amen sister.
An amazing woman figures out a way to let go. To say “teshura” and refuse to be stuck in anger, resentment and rage against perpetrators, or self, for the atrocities endured.
What a flight-delay delight. This week, follow Mozes Kor example. Teshura!
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