In spite of everything

   




In trying to come to terms with what happened in Boston, I find myself remembering Ann Frank:

“In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.”

 To me, this says more about her (and her youth!) than about how things really are  -- perhaps that's why it's so moving.

But it's one of the most powerful statements of what IS good in us -- and how important hope is, in real life and in books for the young  -- that I've ever read.

 

 (This image is from tricycle.com)