" The Coffee Drinking Song/Thoughts about God and Concentration Camps", or "Why I'm not working on my Comp Paper even though it's DUE TOMORROW!!!"

Wonderful nectar of life....coffee. Ahh.

Stimulating drug that keeps me bright-eyed.....caffiene. Oooo.

From "The Coffee Drinking Song", composed by Joshuam.

~

I'm working on a paper that discusses the altered mind states of concentration camp inmates, using "Experiences in a Concentration Camp" by Dr. Viktor Frankl as my source.

And oh my gosh.

I know a lot about the Holocaust - I've read books, toured the Holocaust Museum in Washington, watched documentaries and movies - but every time I research it, I grow a little more horrified. It's details about the daily life of the inmates that affects me the most. For example, Dr. Frankl talks about this affliction called edema that makes walking a nightmare.

"Like nearly all the camp inmates I was suffering from edema. My legs were so swollen and the skin on them so tightly stretched that I could scarcely bend my knees. I had to leave my shoes unlaced in order to make them fit my swollen feet. There would not have been space for socks even if I had had any. So my partly bare feet were always wet and my shoes always full of snow. This, of course, cause frostbite and chilblains. Every single step became real torture. Clumps of ice formed on our shoes during our marches over snow-covered fields. Over and again men slipped and those following behind stumbled on top of them. Then the column would stop for
a moment, but not for long. One of the guards soon took action and worked over the men with the butt of his rifle to make them get up quickly. The more to the front of the column you were, the less often you were disturbed by having to stop and then to make up for lost time by running on your painful feet."

This is just a tiny, miniscule part of the nightmarish concentration camp existence Frankl describes. I wonder how God could ever let something like this exist. Why? What possible reason is there for such horrible suffering? At the same time, I marvel at His mercy for not wiping out humanity. A species such as us, capable of creating such evil...and yet He does not drown us to extinction.

Back to my paper. I pray, Reader, that you are not as stupid as I am about procrastination..... Have a good night!