nothing without them?

Redemption. Will it ever arrive. Not a fleeting shimmer, but something you can sink the teeth into. In the Olympics, we have this family of nations, very much an act of symbolic reconciliation. And as the opening ceremonies unfold, it does superficially succeed; the big tough nations defending the family haven. Everyone is “normal.” At the same time, it is so contrived, fraught with tension, that only Ireland separates Iran and Israel in the march of nations, that these so-called redemptive power of the human family is thoroughly indicted.

Horrendous traumas seem engendered by this family, the IOC itself part of the monstrous, even satanic ideological processor blinding one and all to the nature of crime, the inability of “family” to resolve anything, and ultimately an obscene tragedy and a bitter taste of past suffering. The opening ceremony of the Games is part of an orchestrated remembering, that perhaps obstructs a path to the authentic personal response of the violence that is so prevalent and the stubborn power of hope that keeps it in check. …

Now a French swimmer has found another method of commemoration. Fabien Gilot, a member of the gold medal-winning 4 x 100 team raised his arm in triumph to reveal a tattoo in Hebrew reading: אני כלום בלעדיהם – in English: I am nothing without them….He explained that it was a tribute to his grandmother’s Jewish husband, Max Goldschmidt, an Auschwitz survivor and a huge influence on his life….Read More:http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/07/french-swimmer-stuns-olympic-games-with-a-silent-tattoo.html

Somewhere in the murky past, there was an expression, by the great poet called Anonymous who said,  “In remembering  lies the secret of redemption.” The idea is that each capsule, each fragment of life, taken separately, without connections, is in a prison. solitary confinement, and disconnected from its meaning. Like leaves from the tree of life scattered in a windstorm. Perhaps remembering does create a kind of wholeness, an act of redemption and completion, even if infinity seems beyond reach. Maybe any act in the context of remembrance is redemption. And to many, just  another step in the long march towards redemption of an entire world.

( see link at end)  Elie Weisel: All we know is that Auschwitz called that civilization into question as it called into question everything that had preceded Auschwitz. Scientific abstraction, social and economic contention, nationalism, xenophobia, religious fanaticism, racism, mass hysteria. All found their ultimate expression in Auschwitz.

The next question had to be, why go on? If memory continually brought us back to this, why build a home? Why bring children into a world in which God and man betrayed their trust in one another?

Of course, we could try to forget the past. Why not? Is it not natural for a human being to repress what causes him pain, what causes him shame? Like the body, memory protects its wounds. When day breaks after a sleepless night, one’s ghosts must withdraw; the dead are ordered back to their graves. But for the first time in history, we could not bury our dead. We bear their graves within ourselves.

…For us, forgetting was never an option.

Remembering is a noble and necessary act. The call of memory, the call to memory, reaches us from the very dawn of history. No commandment figures so frequently, so insistently, in the Bible. It is incumbent upon us to remember the good we have received, and the evil we have suffered. New Year’s Day, Rash Hashana, is also called Yom Hazikaron, the day of memory. On that day, the day of universal ju

nt, man appeals to God to remember: our salvation depends on it. If God wishes to remember our suffering, all will be well; if he refuses, all will be lost. Thus, the rejection of memory becomes a divine curse, one that would doom us to repeat past disasters, past wars. Read More:http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/holocaust/wiesel.htm

ADDENDUM:

(see link at end)…The Italian Olympic team at the London Olympic Games made a noble gesture Sunday and stood in silence outside the quarters of the Israeli team, in memory of the 11 athletes slain in the Munich Olympics 40 years ago, Voice of Israel radio reported Sunday.
Black September terrorist at 1972 Munich Olympic Games

Black September terrorist at 1972 Munich Olympic Games – Wikipedia

About 30 Italians were present at the ceremony, including Italy’s Minister of Sport, the heads of the Italian Olympic Committee and athletes. Israeli Olympic Committee head Tzvi Varshaviak and Olympic delegation leader Efraim Zinger also took part. Read More:http://www.israelandstuff.com/the-italian-olympic-team-commemorates-the-munich-massacre#.UBWLAuv4lsk.facebook