Before you ask ...

I often wonder what others think when they come over and our house is a mess or even just a little messy. One detail I don't think I'll ever figure out is what to do with our shoes. Right now, I shove them under the desk area in our kitchen, so they are mostly out of sight (that is, unless there are so many that they are spilling over, which is actually the case today).

When I was visiting my sister-in-law's house recently, I noticed that they keep their shoes in a cute bin by the door. At first, I thought, what a great way to contain them. But then, I had a creepy feeling that I could never follow a similar routine.

It dawned on me later that those shoes all thrown in a pile like that reminded me of my visit to Washington D.C. when I was a high school senior. More specifically, it reminded me of the piles of shoes (and piles of all sorts of things like eye glasses) that were on display in the Holocaust Museum.

Sorry if that sounds morbid, but it's a mental picture that will never leave my mind. When I visited Prague in college, we took a day trip to one of the concentration camps in the Czech Republic. Both experiences made me feel somber. It's so difficult to wrap my mind around how human beings can be so cruel. I can't even imagine.

This morning I read an article about a memorial in Hiroshima that is located in the place where the atomic bomb was dropped. I was intrigued because not many talk (in this country, at least) about the final death toll ... 135,000. What a horrific and shocking figure. I didn't take the time to look up how many people were lost in the war total, but I just feel so at a loss for words.

I never asked my parents about that war (or any wars,  really), but I hope my kids come to me if they have questions about this war. I hope they come to me with all sorts of questions. I have no idea what I will say to them, but I can share about ways to combat some of the hate that started those wars (and other wars that are still going on all over the world) in the first place even on the smallest level.

So, please don't hassle me about the shoes. (Or my messy house that matter! We live there!)