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December 3 I like to read, no doubt about that. Even while feeling the ‘funk’ I have continued to read books. When we left for Prague someone told me the second most important thing I could do (after learning their language) was to read the great pieces of Czech literature. Sad to say but when we arrived in Prague I didn’t know of any great Czech writers. However, my language teacher, Vera, did and has been more than anxious to point out what I should be reading.
Dear Olga, In recent years I’ve met several intelligent and decent people who were very clearly and to my mind, very tragically, marked by their fate: they became bitter, misanthropic world-haters who lost faith in everything ... In certain extreme circumstances it is by no means difficult to succumb to this philosophy of life. Nevertheless I think that giving up on life is one of the saddest forms of human downfall. Because it is a descent into regions where life really does lose its meaning. I guess one doesn’t have to be in a physical prison to give up on life, do they? I do wonder, at times, what is that kept Havel going? What is it that keeps me going? The next author I have begun to read is Milan Kundera. Kundera fled Czechoslovakia in the early 70’s in his quest for freedom, and, though it has become quite clear he doesn’t share my views on morality, he has an amazing perspective on the meaning of life. The Farewell Party, The Joke, Slowness, and The Unbearable Lightness of Being are just some of his books that have shaped my understanding about the banality of life, the purpose of suffering, and the key to survival.Two lines stick out from Kundera, sage advice that I’ve quoted countless times to myself and others. First: “to love is to interrogate.” In other words, if you love someone you will ask them questions. I suppose the Apostle Paul said something similar when he wrote to his friends to think of others as more important than themselves. To ask a question ... .yes, is there a better, more genuine, way to say, ‘I love you; I’m glad you exist?’ My other favorite line from Kundera is, “how defenseless we are in the face of flattery.” Enough said. There are other outstanding writers who called the Czech Republic home that I want to read and reread — Goethe, Kafka, Hrabal, Klima, and Capek — each geniuses in their own right. Even now I wonder how is it that a country slightly smaller than South Carolina, with less people than the city of Chicago, could produce such creative and provocative writers? |
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began with Vaclav Havel, the exiled prisoner who is now President. His book Living
in Truth awakened me to how critical it is to know and speak the truth, no
matter what the cost. And then I read Letters to Olga, a compilation of
letters that Havel penned to his wife, perhaps as an attempt to keep his sanity
in the difficulties he was facing.
Here’s one excerpt that’s urged me to press on.