Inspiration

In these difficult times it is important to find bits of inspiration to make your day easier and happier. I begin each day with reading. While I like to scan various newspapers and articles, I have found that often these just offer me confusion and discouragement. Instead I try to go straight to the latest book I am reading. Yesterday I finished Apeirogon by Colum McCann. And I tell you, I was inspired.
Now I read it thinking it was non-fiction. Never mind that it stated "novel", it felt like a true story. Two fathers, one Palestinian and one Israeli, have each lost a daughter, the first to a rubber bullet fired by an Israeli soldier the second by a bomb carried by a Palestinian. Each father (and all of the rest of the family) after some healing, had choices: hate? revenge? attacks? depression? reconciliation? I believe each father went through all of these potentials but each eventually chose reconciliation, finding each other in a group called Combatants for Peace. The title sounds as if placed in juxtaposition, actually it is a way for those who wish combat to find peace.
This book really sets the reader's mind into contemplation and wonder. What if everyone everywhere determined ways to just get along. That doesn't mean bobble-headed agreement but rather rich conversation, compromise, and forgiveness. Is it possible? The father Rami imagines a world with no walls, no lines, no separation, no demarkation - just understanding. I loved this image and many more throughout the book. It gave me hope.
Apeirogon is a geometric figure with an infinite amount of discernible sides. The figure may appear to be a circle but microscopic examination offers the viewer the tiny infinitesimal change that delineates the slight angle of each segment. An apeirogon, just like life, has infinite twists, turns, and possibilities. Which road, which decision, which manner of living... It is a perfect title for this thought-provoking book and for an engaged mind.
In the Epilogue I was reminded that although the book entailed research, many interviews, and much travel ultimately it was fiction. I felt disappointed and a touch angry until I went to my news reading a found an article about an Israeli who had been arrested and imprisoned for creating a series of online conversation meetings between Israelis and Palestinians designed for open discussion.
These individuals are trying to talk and solve rather than shoot and kill. This makes peace possible.