This week I’m hosting Judy Christie with The Glory of Green, Gail Martin with A Dad of His Own, and Maureen Lang with Springtime of the Spirit. If you want to enter the drawings, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (March 6th) evening.
Heroine Interview from Springtime of the Spirit by Maureen Lang:
1.Annaliese Duray, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
I wholeheartedly believe we can all make a difference in this world. Having been born in Germany in the year 1901, I’ve grown up fighting the idea that women can’t or shouldn’t or aren’t equipped to contribute to society. Well, after living through all the deprivations of the Great War, I can fully claim I’m just as strong as many men. And I have something to say. Now that the war is finally over and people realize the war was fought at the expense of the workers of the world, I think women have an opportunity to jump on this idea of fairness that some of the workers are demanding. A fair society will treat everyone equally, even women. Anyway, that’s what I believe and I’m not shy about shouting out the message—on street corners, if I have to.
2. What do you do for fun?
I don’t have time for anything frivolous, but I’ll tell you the most satisfying thing in the world is connecting to an audience. Seeing on their faces that they’re learning something, or agreeing with something you’re able to put into words. Speakers can change the world if they give voice to those who don’t know how to use their own.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Going home. Oh, I know my parents love me. Even my father probably does, although his love of money and status makes me ashamed. But I know my mother misses me, and I also know they had a hard time losing my sister. I did, too. That’s why I have to do something! I have to help those who don’t have a voice. If I don’t, my sister died in vain, and even my parents wouldn’t want that. If they understood, they’d support what I’m doing here in Munich.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
Not doing enough; indecisiveness; not being useful.
5. What do you want out of life?
To make a difference. To be a voice. I know Christophe thinks I should listen more, at least to him and certainly to God, but all I can hear right now is the voice of the workers, starving, needing so much. Used and killed in an unnecessary war. It’s their turn to be heard.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
To see fairness in action. Christophe keeps telling me life isn’t fair, that the only way we’re really equal is in value—oh, yeah, sure, to God. But Christophe doesn’t seem to understand that it might be necessary to force people to share. Once people realize fairness is the highest moral, they’ll understand. Won’t they? People ought not be too rich, anyway. Riches are immoral when people are starving.
7. Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?
Well, I’ve read the Communist Manifesto and even though I don’t want any violence, I think we can learn from the idea of sharing everything. Of course, Christophe keeps telling me the Bible is the Book to read if you want to know how to live, and maybe he’s right. But God has been silent in my life for so long maybe I forgot how to listen to Him. Christophe says sharing and generosity is the way God wants things, too, that such things are easier when given freely. But too many people don’t, or won’t! Besides, the people I work with say there’s no room for God in the real world. And since I hate indecisiveness, I’ve convinced myself they’re right. Where was God the last four years, when people were dying on the battlefield, and starving right here in my own hometown?
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I wish I could be the woman Christophe seems to see in me, but I think that woman might never be realized. I had faith when I was a child. Who doesn’t, if your mother tells you what to believe? Her faith was never mine, even though Christophe seems to think it was.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
No one has pets any more; we can barely feed ourselves. It’s sad, though, because I’ve always wanted a dog—perhaps the kind my friend Meika has. Any kind of dog will do, really, because there’s nothing more fun to watch than a wagging tail.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
I’d go back before the war, to 1914, and tell everyone what a huge, horrible, irreparable mistake they were about to make. I’d shout it from every street corner; I’d make the newspapers print it. I’d figure out a way to stop it from ever happening. Then my sister would still be here, and Christophe wouldn’t have those nightmares about the men he killed at the battlefront. And maybe I’d be that woman he might have wanted, the one with some faith.
But I do have hope. I must have. I think I have hope. When I listen to Christophe talk about God, I think maybe he’s right . . . maybe . . . Oh, how I hate indecisiveness . . .
Thank you very much for having me visit your blog!
