Recent Read

Last month I read, The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz. It's the authors re-telling of when he and a small group of fellow prisoners escaped a Soviet labor camp. "They crossed an entire continent - the Siberian arctic, the Gobi Desert and then the Himalayas - with nothing but an ax, a knife, and a week's worth of food."

I enjoy reading true stories from during war times of how people overcome incredible odds and hardships. Though, it breaks my heart to read how human beings can be treated so poorly by other human beings.

The first part of this book you witness how the author was treated so inhumanely, and then the last part of this book you witness how we really should treat others. As the author and his companions made their journey from the labor camp, I loved seeing how willing the Mongolian, Asian, and Indian people were to help them, and offer them aid while on their trek.

This part of the book stuck out to me: They came across a Mongolian man on their long trek, and he fed them, and gave them parting gifts. As the men said good-bye to this man that had opened his home to them, this was said:

"Marchinkovas spoke for us all when he said, "These people make one feel very humble. They do a lot to wipe out bitter memories of other people who have lost their respect for humanity."

These innocent men were treated so poorly while imprisoned, and then to read about how kind complete strangers were to them was really neat to read about.

Good read.