metonymy4u

In 1920 my grandfather fled the pogroms of eastern Europe for a country he envisioned would protect and support him. His family left behind was soon slaughtered wholesale in a genocide not even born yet.  It is tempting to believe this was an anomaly, something located in a precise space and time, deserving of a special name like The Shoah.  And yet such cruelty is all too mundane as we have seen, as I have seen, time and again.  Understand that on this whole entire planet, there is no teacher, no colleague, no familiar, no lover, no friend who would not sell you out in a moment of weakness, of personal panic.  What would it take for you to walk away from your dearly beloved?  (Everyone has an answer to that question, validated or not.)  That is the price of your own personal holocaust.  It is not as dear as you thought.