Recent Mail

I recently received a copy of a magnificent  book: “Against The Odds” by Robert Laplander. It’s on a topic I know something about through my father - it’s the story of the most successful escape by allied officers in WW2, from Germany. I know about it because my father forged the papers of one of the escapers.

Laplander’s book isn’t just good because he’s done extensive research and done it with deep intelligence. It’s good because he’s passionate about what he writes. Anyone can enjoy this book, because it burns with the spirit of inquiry. Quite simply the author’s passion envelopes the reader. We reach the end of the book having felt the emotions in our bloodstream, but more importantly we have a profound sense of one of the well-springs of human motivation, that uncrushable desire to reject anything that could cage us in.

We, all of us, need to be aware of this, because we all, at some point, step into a self-made prison every bit as confining as Stalag Luft III. To get out, to become truly free, we have to mobilize that exact same courage that Laplander describes so precisely. We have to test our souls and lend our hands, even if it’s our fate to be simply one who helps others to get free.

This looks like a story of WW2. In fact it’s about the human struggle for dignity. It’s a war-story only in the same way that The Odyssey is a war-story.