The passing of Elie Wiesel struck me cold. Yes, we’ve read his works. Yes, w’ve written about him. Then, too, like me, you’ve probably pondered the cold realities and controversies of his Holocaust experience. For, after all, he was a man. He painted his legacy with his own slants as he sketched his tales upon the page.
I think, we must all either love him; or profoundly hate him. His message of peace was profound, but the fact that he was a complex human being (and writer) also means that we all must draw out those threads of meaning that resonate with our own experience.
As we stand in memoriam for Elie Wiesel, we see the man as he was — his life, his words, and his stories. But, we also have the ever-more-troubling realization that the world is one of cruelty and barbarity.
