I have been reading Gunter Grass’s biography. It is an open window into the soul of a young Polish/German Nazi and his repentance, slow rebirth, and maturation as a great German writer and intellectual. I read the Tin Drum, many years ago and still remember its gnome protagonist. I see where Gunter took scenes from his life and used them in the Tin Drum, and as he notes does in his other novels, which I now want to read. The tragedy of the biography, is that his experience as a true believer describes so many of us, and how I doubt we will learn from his and other German’s lives, who thought they were free while they followed Hitler and his propaganda machine. Will we have to suffer total defeat, before our fellow Estadounidentes learn that war is not the answer? His writing is detailed with introspective descriptions of his life as 14 years old Nazi Youth, 16 year old German soldier, 17 year old wounded prisoner of war, culinary student, miner, and grave stone cuter. This is where I am in his life now. His language describes German life in human detail and made me realize how much we all are the same. Most profound for me was how mundane the Polish Germans were as they slid into genocide. I once knew a German young man who said to me, there is a little Nazi in all of us, and I can see that in Grass’s biography. One learns of German life after the war, now he is discussing the change in the German money from one species to another while working on repairing the marble facade of bank. He notes, “They changed the money to make us consumers.
I have also included my photos of my backyard patio. I did them last year. I worked hard to create this little garden. Most of my plants are in pots including and orange tree.