ShakingLife

  Stop the Bullet   Lincoln resisted going to war, against the "better angels of our nature." And when the civil war was over, even the photos were discarded, their glass plates sold to gardeners for conservatory walls. As the sun burned the images away, hundreds of red roses absorbed the light to grow.   Over a century and a half later, an 82-year-old surfer rides the waves, recalls being strafed by machine-gun fire on Pearl Harbor as the planes flew low, the red circle on the fuselage etched in memory.   So many bodies, not enough caskets, they had to put two men in each – young American men along with the Japanese pilots who killed them. Is there a better metaphor for war?   When the soldier arrives, bleeding in the doorway, can you recognize him as yourself and let him in?   Amy L. George, The Fragrance of Memory   (Amsterdam Press, 2010). Uit: Kyoto Journal Issue 77.   ☢ In de NRC van 26 nov. 2022 las ik de column van Marijn de Vrie...