74 Years ago
Never loose sight of the fact of how much each of our lives impacts one another.
How our private struggles and injustices, if we allow them to can and should be used for the betterment of humanity.
Imagine, if the struggle behind this bookcase, stayed behind this bookcase, and never was revealed to the world. Imagine if Otto Frank, Anne Franks father, never published her secret diary; how different the world would be.
It is amazing to come to understand, a seemingly common teenage girl – in her own way -changed the world.
We all can do the same.
In our own way.
It is human instinct to put one’s best foot forward, to put up your own personal bookcase.
To face one’s struggles privately is human nature.
But to do so stifles and limits the benefit of the struggle.
The world needs to see the struggle.
To reveal the struggle behind one’s bookcase takes an extraordinary amount of courage and truly benefits the world.
We need to listen to the people behind the bookcase in our own worlds.
And find a way to help them.
To be their Miep Gies.
Everyone is struggling with something no one knows about.
Recognize when a bookcase is hiding a struggle or injustice in someone’s life.
Find the secret entrance and get to them.
Otto Frank once said, “I hope Anne’s book will have an effect on the rest of your life so that insofar as it is possible in your own circumstances, you will work for unity and peace.”
74 years later and Anne Frank’s book is one of the most-read books in the world.
Through Anne Frank’s struggles, the world saw the invincibility of the human spirit.
A seemingly common thirteen-year-old-schoolgirl did her part to change the world.
Now, let us each do ours.
Live brave.