Within sight of the spires of Moscow, the German army froze practically to death, in all his preparations, Hitler had not prepared for the Russian winters. In 1941, Russia had very few paved roads, traction with German tanks was impossible with sheets of ice freezing the tanks to the ground. Over night, the German army was defeated, with just one ice storm. Even the 600,000 western European horses the Germans had brought along to pull their armaments through the ice sludge was just a lesson in animal cruelty.
The Russians used horses for their warfare, but smaller horses, horses whose hooves were adapted to ice. Hitler made many mistakes in his attempt to crush Russia, he had the trains and the train tracks to haul the disabled, the dissenters, the Jews, to the holocaust death chambers, but with all the brilliant military minds of Germany, they did not figure ahead of time, while the door was shut, about the difference in gauge of the railroad tracks in Europe and Russia.
The gauge on the Russian railroad tracks is different from that of Europe. When this writer was crossing from Europe into Russia, the trains were jacked up, wheels exchanged in order to accommodate the difference in track gauge. I still remember, Russian women did this work. So, Hitler was not only bogged down right at the gates of Moscow, but bogged down in his siege of Leningrad.
Have you ever walked down the streets of any great city, looking at the fronts of townhouses, cathedrals, and wondered what the inside was like? Often, it is very difficult to determine what it is like behind closed doors. I still had a small amount of vision in my left eye the first time I was in Venice, Italy. I remember walking down those ancient streets, crossing bridges over ancient canals, looking up at the Doge's mansions, so plain and rustic on the exterior, but through open windows could be viewed, a magnificent crystal candelabra. It took centuries for the building of many European cathedrals. The weather-worn exteriors never reveal the warm and welcoming interior.
Pitiful the day when the poorest among God's children do not find warmth and welcome inside a cathedral, a church, or even a mosque. Even in third world, very poor, very Catholic countries, I found the cathedral was a center of security and stability for the people. Ancient cities always had walls, the walls of Babylon, one of the wonders of the ancient world, were known for their width, wide enough that chariot races could be held on them. You remember the first city encountered in Canaan, the first city that the Isrealites encountered was the city of Jericho, a fortress city with great walls. Can you even imagine 2 ½ million Jewish people marching around this city once a day for seven days, and God telling these Jews not to say one word. The seventh day, God told them to march around the city seven times and then to sound their trumpets, when this happened, the great walls fell, much to the surprise of the pagan onlookers, standing on the walls, watching and heckling these “crazy” invaders.
Now Rahab, the harlot, survivor of the city, knew that the people of Jericho knew that the children of Israel marched through the Red Sea on dry land. From 2000 BC until now, we do not like to be told what is behind closed doors, we do what we do because we believe what we believe, our belief economy is structured from our faith economy. We live and learn, their second walled city, Adid, the people attacked the Israelites, but found refuge in their fortress. It was a military experiment with Joshua, which brought them out of their fortress and to their defeat. The second encounter, part of Joshua's army fled, Adid's army came out of the gate and pursued, a second Israel army then entered the defenseless city, and destroyed it. Such as with ancient Troy, such as with Jerusalem, even today, you can observe the walls of Jerusalem, the walls of Dubrovnik, even the Great Wall of China.
I have walked on the Great Wall of China twice, like a great snake, winding its way through the Himalayas for 2000 miles, built and rebuilt since the 5th Century BC, to keep out the invading Mongols. The wall is wide enough that three horses can ride abreast, a guard tower every sixteen feet, yet it was penetrated almost immediately because of the bribery of guards. Your walls, your gates, your doors, are only as valid as your materials used to build them, the strengths of your locks, the character of your guards.
The “smart” people, the wealthy people are now living in gated communities. Even in these homes, there are security systems, people of wealth now travel on private planes, have their own security escorts, there are more weapons purchased now than ever before in history. About 4.5 million new firearms are sold in America each year, according to local papers there are more killings, robberies, crimes than ever before, your home should be your castle, impenetrable, your sanctuary. We are told that your government, both from the air and the ground, knows everything going on in your house.
Maggie worked for me, cleaning, some driving. At 73, her mind was still good, but I got word that Maggie had died, my handyman walked past Maggie's house each day to get to my house. One morning he told me that Maggie's niece from New Jersey was cleaning out her house in order to put the house on the market. She told me, “tell the doctor he can have anything in the house he wants, and I am cleaning it out and putting everything on the street for the garbage man.” She just wanted to get the money out of the house that Maggie had left to her. We hauled back some old prints, nice old wooden picture frames, several tables and chairs, all antiques, all real wood. I have sold many of the old prints, the niece was throwing out silver simply because it was tarnished, she thought it was worthless. She told Joe, the handyman, to clean out the attic and he could have anything he found of value. He found an old Victorian type brooch with one stone missing. He said, “I am going to take it downtown and see what a jeweler will offer me for it.” I paid him the twenty dollars he wanted, gave it to my only sister, and she said that the jeweler who replaced the stone told her it was one of the nicest pieces of Victorian jewelry he had ever seen.
Only through education can anyone, black/white, young/old, rich/poor, learned/unlearned, find the necessity involved in the importance of discovering what lies and what goes on behind closed doors. There is so much to learn about everything, you can't know it all, but learn as much as you can about everything. Knowledge opens doors, ignorance closes each and every door.
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