Beautiful Day

So I was kind of complaining to a friend the other day. I was just kind of feeling some anxiety over feeling a lot of uncertainty in my life. I think it had just been building up for a bit and I think I just reached my boiling point. She was pretty good about keeping me grounded (thanks, by the way). Something that helped me to get myself back to earth was reading something on NRO, of course. I won't link to the article, but I will cut and paste the portion that helped put things in perspective for me:

Want to close with something from Peter Kirsanow, a frequent contributor to NRO. But first I have to take you back a bit. In one of these columns, I was talking about Richard Pipes, the esteemed historian of Russia (and teenage refugee from Poland). In his memoirs, Vixi, Pipes wrote,

The main effect of the Holocaust on my psyche was to make me delight in every day of life that has been granted to me, for I was saved from certain death. I felt and feel to this day that I have been spared not to waste my life on self-indulgence or self-aggrandizement but to spread a moral message by showing, using examples from history, how evil ideas lead to evil consequences. Since scholars have written enough on the Holocaust, I thought it my mission to demonstrate this truth using the example of communism. Furthermore, I felt and feel that to defy Hitler, I have a duty to lead a full and happy life . . .

Pipes added, “I admit to having little patience with the psychological problems of free people, especially if they involve a ‘search for identity’ or some other form of self-seeking.”

My comment (of course) was, “Amen, amen, and amen again.”

And Peter sent the following note:

Loved the Pipes quote. I suspect it reflects a sentiment shared by most who’ve fled a totalitarian regime. When I was a kid, I sometimes complained about some task or spot of misfortune, as we all do. And my father — who survived being buried alive in a Nazi prison camp and twice escaped NKVD detention (the second time permanently) — would simply say, “Beautiful day.” Put me in my place right quick. Like Pipes, he had “little patience with the psychological problems of free people.” He was just terminally giddy about being in America.

Me again. Just realized what day it is. I'll be posting something appropriate to the day....