I remembered my time visiting Dachau Concentration Camp. A cold, eerie feeling resonated there, even 63 years after the genocide had ended. I felt a reverence for the place, even though it had been a place of evil, there was still something to be learned and revered—for the millions who had taken their last breath within those gates of hell. How did these men focus on the good in the world? How do you see beauty and life when everything surrounding you is evil and dead? My goal became to figure out how one finds beauty in a world of turmoil.
I began by interviewing four people, all different ages, to figure out what they revere in this world—good or bad...
The first was a wide-eyed, innocent five-year-old boy who had yet to experience the heavy substance of life. The boy stated that he finds the most happiness when he is playing games with his mommy and daddy.
Next, I spoke with a teenage girl in high school who stated that she finds the most reverence when looking at the stars at night. “Every time I gaze up at the lit up sky, I feel like it is swallowing me whole; I feel so small and minute. I know that there is someone who must love me enough to even keep my sinful heart beating when there are bigger and more glorious things to tend to.”
Thirdly, I spoke with a middle-aged woman who is an OBGYN at her local hospital. She stated that she finds reverence almost daily in the help of childbirth. Seeing another life be brought into this world is incredible. “Seeing someone’s first breaths on this earth is exhilarating.”
To end my interview I decided to find someone who has experienced the ups and downs that planet earth has to offer. I found a man who is nearing the end of his life, who finds himself behind the closed doors of a nursing home. “My children and grandchildren” he stated. “Never in my life have I seen or experienced anything more wondrous than to see my beautiful family grow and prosper.”
What can one learn from those that I interviewed? One can learn that reverence doesn’t always have to be the stereotypical things of ‘beauty’ or ‘happiness.’ I learned that reverence can be experienced by focusing on the small things around you, or even within yourself. Your body can be something to revered since it really is not ours but our creators. We are simply here, renting this body, to fulfill the work of our Father. Reverence can be looking up at the sky on a clear night, or watching your children grow up. Reverence doesn’t just occur when life is going great for someone or your feeling happy. Your world can be upside down. I realized that maybe the women in Afganistan still find beauty, or the children in Thailand still laugh. Admist turmoil, one can find pleasure. There is always something to be revered no matter the time or place.
I have learned that reverence doesn’t exist in a perfect world, it exists in a catastrophic and tragic one. There is still beauty amidst chaos; there is greatness amidst disaster. Yes there are things in this world that we, as minute humans, will never grasp. We will never comprehend why things ensue the way that they do, but instead of focusing on the unpleasant in this world, there is so much good to notice. A smile, the sound of laughter, a warm hug, a soft helping hand, a tall sturdy oak tree, a sunset, a child…these things are excellent and beautiful.
I have learned that reaching out to those who are in need shouldn’t come from a source of anger, but instead from a place of love. My way, in the beginning, of approaching the madness in this world was not one of reverence or love but of pessimism and spite. To help another one must have peace and joy. As Diane Ackerman showed her readers, the Rabbi and the Orphanage Owner helped those in their community out of love for the people, not out of anger at the Nazi’s. Nowhere in their writings does one read the factual reality of life for Jews in occupied Poland, nor even the words “Nazi” or “German.” Instead, their mission was compassion—“to project the supernatural powers of kindness into the realm of speech, so that they might take on concrete, specific form.” That is the message: compassion for life and reverence for all will perpetuate goodness, even in the midst of inferno.
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