THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE

"Shmuel turned just as Bruno applied the finishing touches to his costume, placing the striped cloth cap on his head.  Shmuel blinked and shook his head.  It was quite extraordinary.  If it wasn't for the fact that Bruno was nowhere near as skinny as the boys on his side of the fence, and not quite so pale either, it would have been difficult to tell them apart.

It was almost (Shmuel thought) as if they were all exactly the same really."

These words from John Boyne's book, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" really stuck with me...

Two boys - the exact same age, born on the exact same day...

Yet, so different in their appearances until...

One of them puts on the "costume" of the other;

Then dressed exactly the same...

They look - well, maybe not exactly the same;

Yet, the same in many ways.

One lives on this side of the fence;

One lives on the other side of the fence.

One fence - separating two boys...

One fence - separating two worlds...

The other side of the fence -







What do you find on the other side of your fence?

Do we even have fences in today's world?

Well, the author thinks so!

Here are his words from an interview that was shared in the book:  "Fences such as the one at the heart of 'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas' still exist; it is unlikely that they will ever fully disappear..."

And, at the beginning of the book he speaks again about fences:  "Fences like this exist all over the world.  We hope you never have to reach such a fence."

This book, and especially the movie...

Really touched me to the core.  Knowing what would happen at the end of the book, I was not moved as much in reading; but when I watched the movie - I could not stop crying.

While living in Germany years ago, I had the experience of visiting one of the concentration camps in Dachau, Germany.  As we walked the grounds of this camp, I could clearly visualize the buildings and the people and the..."showers" - I could almost see and hear death all around that place.

After recently reading the book, I was moved to write down a few of my thoughts.  These thoughts turned into this post, which I have pondered over for days whether or not to publish it.

I think we do still have many fences that separate us to this day.

Look at the violence in Baltimore; violence is even in my home town where we have had many shootings and incidents with police versus "others", and "others" versus "whomever".

Violence seems to be every where!

Our prayer should be for peace and unity among ALL...We continue to pray for peace; but...

Is this possible?

I think that with God...ALL things are possible!

And I continue to pray it may be so...