Charles “Moe,” “Murray,” Bernier, well before he was my dad, before joining the Army at age 19.
“War . . . What is it good for?”
In this episode of Alligator Preserves, Laurel shares another letter from her father from WWII Army training and talks about her recent experience at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. She ponder the question of human evolution and asks the question, “How?”
NOTE: Serious subject matter in part II of this episode.
Show Notes:
Letters from WWII, from Laurel’s father at age 19
Military uniform changes, garrison caps
Army K.P. (kitchen patrol)
Army cooks
Peanut Butter fudge
Brainstorm on “War”
Old friends
Visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, description and blog post
Discussion on awareness of atrocities against humanity
Message to listeners
Encouragement to donate to the museum
Next episode: The Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon
Submit your books to the prestigious 2018 CIPA EVVY Awards. The website for more information is at cipabooks.com, and here’s a reminder to submit your books before March 16th for early bird savings!
If you felt today’s episode was valuable, please subscribe to Alligator Preserves on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts, and tell your friends about it! Please consider supporting Alligator Preserves on Patreon. You will be rewarded!
Every cursory experience I’ve ever had relating to the Nazi attempt to exterminate an entire population has left me in tears. I remember the first time I cried in front of my 10th graders, reading the part in Elie Wiesel’s Night where the prisoners are filed by and made to look at the latest hanging victims, one being an angelic-looking young boy flailing and gasping for breath as he dies excruciatingly slowly because his tiny body . . .
I cried every time I got to that passage, every year.
A family, or a class, perhaps. Not animals. People.
I just returned from the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D. C. and before I entered, I thought I’d be immune from the horror, immune from the outrage, immune from what I already knew to be the truth of that despicable series of events culminating in a country’s complicity in a madman’s scheme.
A beautiful woman. Not an animal. A beautiful woman.
But I was not immune, and because I am still able to cry at the brutal video footage of heaps of emaciated bodies dragged, tossed, bulldozed into pits, I am reassured. And I am reassured by the long line in front of the museum door and the crowds inside the museum on a Wednesday, and the awed hush of multi-colored humanity walking as if in a trance through three floors of displays, and the visceral reactions I saw on most faces through my tears.
Happy children. Not animals. Happy children.
But I cannot rest complacently in my reassurance, because this was not the only holocaust, and as I type this, racial slaughter continues. Hatred, fear, and insecurity continue across the globe. Megalomaniacs in positions of power continue to frighten me, because for every tear-filled eye in the museum today, there is a stone-faced denier who will believe a lie.
People. Not animals. Not criminals. People.
I left the museum today with the same questions that have plagued me for decades: Why have we not yet evolved as as species? And how is it that anyone can look at a child, a beautiful woman, a family, and decide those beings are anything less than human?
“Have you ever been punished for something you didn’t do?” asks a young boy in the “Daniel’s Story” exhibit of the museum. How could a child possibly understand the experience of a holocaust if I can’t even understand it?
Millions of people. Not animals. People.
I was struck by a fleeting moment of panic when I stepped into the large, overcrowded elevator in the museum after my friends and I made it through the security checkpoint at the entrance, which was much like a TSA checkpoint at the airport. Before the door closed, we were instructed by an official-sounding woman that we would be taken to the third floor of the museum, and then she stepped out and the doors closed.
Rail cars to extermination camps.
We believed her.
Millions boarded crammed rail cars with the understanding they’d be taken to work camps.
Didn’t they know?
Didn’t they know?
Dear God, didn’t they know?
The photos I took in the museum today were mostly of the people, and of inscriptions here and there like the one that read: “Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned.”
And I no longer feel reassured.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Please consider a contribution to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum HERE.
Submit your books to the prestigious 2018 CIPA EVVY Awards. The website for more information is at cipabooks.com, and here’s a reminder to submit your books before March 16th for early bird savings!
If you enjoyed this and other episodes, please subscribe to Alligator Preserves on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts, and tell your friends about it! Perhaps you’ll even help support Alligator Preserves on Patreon.
Are you listening? Am I listening? Do we even know how to listen anymore?
Ken gave permission to use this portrait illustration by Ian McKown from a photograph by Ann Braun (on a page at http://unfetteredmind.org)
Laurel’s visit with Buddhist practice teacher Ken McLeod, a peaceable man in a turbulent world, will provide you with glimpses of different ways to live your lives.
Now retired, but still publishing books on Eastern philosophies for Western minds, Ken talks about his own journey and offers suggestions for listeners.
[and his voice alone will leave you feeling more peaceful!]
Show Notes:
Ken McLeod has taught and translated Buddhist practice in the Los Angeles area and has authored several books about his experiences with Buddhist practices.
He discusses the far-reaching impact of the California wildfires.
His principal teacher, Kalu Rinpoche, and acting as his interpreter.
His early family experiences with religion.
How he became a teacher, though he didn’t feel prepared.
Teaching in the ’80s in the challenging environment in L.A.
Ideas on success and being an “expert.”
The intention of Buddhist practice and the freedom that comes with it.
Wake Up To Your Life: Discovering the Buddhist Path of Attention is his first book, release in 2002. I quote from the book’s description, “The key to becoming fully alive and joyful is to develop our natural capacity for attention and to be fully present here and now.”
How Ken completed his first book and his next,
Reflections on Silver River in 2014.
Discussion on “freedom, peace and understanding” and a different way to live. Are we evolving?
The Thirty-Seven Practices of the Bodhisattvas
“The world is not designed to support the life worth living.”
Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene
His thoughts about The Power of Now, 2004, by Eckhart Tolle.
Is ignorance bliss?
Suggestion for listeners: One practice you can do now.
I have a correction to make from my last episode in which I told you about the prestigious 2018 CIPA EVVY Awards. The website for more information is at cipabooks.com, not .org, and here’s a reminder to submit your books before March 16th for early bird savings!
If you enjoyed this and other episodes, please subscribe to Alligator Preserves on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts, and tell your friends about it! Perhaps you’ll even help support Alligator Preserves on Patreon.
Best-selling author Sherry Ficklin (second from right) attended my book launch party for Waterwight Flux! Other authors in attendance included (left to right) Lynn K Hall, Diane Smith, and Carol Bellhouse. That’s me on the right! Not in photo: Stephanie R. Sorensen. Photo credit: Marcia Martinek, Editor of the Leadville Herald Democrat newspaper
Sherry Ficklin, best-selling author of the Stolen Empire Series, visits with Laurel McHargue in this episode of Alligator Preserves! She explains how she has become “a toucher of things,” and shares amazing stories of her own life and how her experiences have influenced her writing.
Show Notes:
Sherry Ficklin tells a secret about a visit to the White House
Sherry is “a toucher of things”!
Earliest memories with books, telling stories, and winning her first monetary award
Her writing over ten years and feedback from Penguin Books
Writing challenges
Autobiographical elements of her work
“Vantablack” material (favorite color is black!)
Dark side characters, 1st person books, and choosing names
Contract negotiations with publishers
Research and Canary Club adventures
Marketing to YA and other audiences
Queen series books
Sherry’s “Dragon’s Eye” adventure, the fruit that “ruffied” her
Advice to new authors and what’s next for her
Her childrens’ response to her writing
Introduce next topic: Visit with Buddhist practice teacher Ken McLeod
CIPA EVVY Awards open for submissions @ cipabooks.com
This one has no intro or outro or show notes. It’s just me talking about relationships, motivated by Mike’s suggestion this morning that I listen to a Hidden Brain podcast about the difficulty of a long marriage!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
HA!
Happy Valentine’s Day, and tell me what you think!
South Korean tailors could have learned a few things from the tailors at West Point!
In this episode, Laurel recounts a time she nearly instigated an international incident when she was an Army officer in South Korea, and several comedic situations during her three months in support of Exercise Team Spirit ’89.
Show Notes:
Laurel discusses an embarrassing and frightening incident in a public restroom in South Korea
She talks about her 3-month deployment to support a Team Spirit exercise in 1989
South Korean soldiers and their interaction with a female Army officer
South Korean tailors try to make clothing to fit
Laurel encourages audience to imagine being in a situation in which you are misunderstood
Introduce next topic: Visit with best-selling author Sherry Ficklin
Listen to today’s episode–my very first Alligator Preserves interview–to discover the answer to my question and many more as we discuss the writing process, character development, author challenges and much more.
I’m excited (frightened, anxious, and feeling lots of other emotions, but mostly happiness) about my new podcast Alligator Preserves and the launch of my Patreon Campaign to support it.
Once per week, I’ll publish an episode about writing and storytelling with tips and ideas for writers and storytellers! Interspersed with my solo episodes, I’ll host interviews with other authors and individuals with memorable stories as well.
Perhaps you have a memorable story to share?
Please consider becoming a patron of my podcast. Details about Patreon and the rewards you will receive are below, and thank you for allowing me to entertain you!
Who remembers the song by Five Man Electrical Band (1971)? I do, and in this episode of Alligator Preserves you’ll hear how some signs can be not only confusing, but downright embarrassing.
Laurel McHargue describes a time when misreading a sign led to a situation that left her feeling far from virtuous.
to my 7th grade Language Arts class and 
four years in a row while teaching 10th grade English, and I’d seen the movie 
.
(movie)
(VANTAblack items)
(V.C. Andrews books)
(Clive Barker)
(Canary Club Series books)
