Before their jewelry and gold and silver was stolen, before they were commanded to wear yellow stars, before they were moved into ghettos, before they were shoved into cattle cars, before they were taken to Auschwitz, before they were starved and frozen, before Elie saw his father beaten, before an old man’s bread was stolen by his grandson, they were warned to leave.   That’s the heartbreaking truth that Elie Wiesel tells in his book Night.

A first hand witness came back from the dead to warn them. Moishe the Beadle, was taken in the round up of foreign Jews. He escaped. Moishe believed he was spared by God to warn his neighbors of the camps and the trenches. His neighbors could not believe that such evil existed. That such evil could happen to them. It wasn’t just evil that did them in. It was being blind to it.

We are capable of great evil. All of us.

The baptismal liturgy of my church asks the initiate to “renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world and repent of their sin.” It sounds so anachronistic. Aren’t we are too sophisticated to talk about spiritual wickedness? It’s in fashion to talk about love and acceptance and mercy.

The world is good. But evil is real.

We avoid the trap of accusing whole populations of being evil because of the actions of a few just to fall into the pit of denying evil exists.

Volkswagen executives commit fraud and convince themselves it’s good business. They poison the air. Government officials in Michigan do not follow federal regulations to save money in a struggling city. They poison the water.

Air pollution caused by Volkswagen executives. Lead poisoning caused by officials in Michigan. All perpetrated by people who are probably good to their families, keep their lawns mowed and their sidewalks shoveled, and return their library books on time. They are “good” people.

Did Cain kill Abel because he didn’t see the evil that lurked at the gate of his own heart?

It’s National Novel Writing Month and I’m frantically trying to write 50,000 words on a novel by November 30. I’m at 26,724 words as of Monday, November 23 at 5:37 PM. Yikes! Here’s what ‘ve learned so far:

1. It’s really hard to write a novel – even a bad one.
2. The amount I don’t know about driving from Chicago through Mexico to Guatemala is astonishing.
3. Sometimes it’s simply easier to make stuff up instead of do research.
4. The first rule of writing is to put your butt in the chair and write.
5. When you put your butt in the chair and write, sometimes the story surprises you. That’s when it gets fun.
6. Checking Facebook does not help you write.
7. It’s really hard to not use adverbs. But your writing is better when you don’t. (“sputtered” vs. “said haltingly;” “trotted” vs. “walked quickly”)
8. It might seem like a good idea to pour yourself a glass of red wine to sip on while you write in the evening. It’s not.
9. You have to write a lot of crap in order to get to write anything remotely good.
10. You can’t tell when you’re writing if what you’re writing is total crap or if any of it is remotely good.
11. You will feel inadequate. Accept it and write anyway (remember number 4).