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Long Ago is Not Far Awayby Daniel Cook, M.D.(Western Massachusetts Author) I. THE WAR YEARS (excerpt)
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Long Ago is Not Far Awayby Daniel Cook, M.D.(Western Massachusetts Author) I. THE WAR YEARS (excerpt)
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| The beast in us lies silently crouched and waiting. Given the right circumstances and opportunity, it will bear its fangs and claws to pounce on innocent flesh. How else to explain armed men murdering civilians. The dark side of our nature exists in all of us. Periodically, individuals and nations manifest these dreadful impulses. Why does the herd then often remain mute to the horror unfolding, the heart beating out of habit, dulled to feeling?
Yet, we instinctively know a parallel universe. For next to the diabolical side of the soul there exists a kind, gentle and peaceful world. A divine world of compassion, generosity and altruism. What inner voice guides us to act, choosing good over evil, to love others often more than ourselves? A six year old French boy's eyes settled on the masses of British soldiers marching in formation on a hot afternoon in May 1940. These young men in the prime of their lives were on their way to die on the sun-drenched beaches of Dunkirk. Standing on the balcony of their house, he and his mother listened to the rousing song, "It's a long way to Tipperary." Why were they wearing those funny rubber masks with hoses and glass lenses creating a bug-like effect. Gas masks his mother told him. "What's gas?" he asked. She fell silent. |
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