Guy's Books and Thoughts

I recently finished reading FROM MYSELF TO MY SAVIOR by Ellen Myers. Mrs. Myers grew up in Nazi Germany. Her father was a lawyer and politician in the German legislature (Reichstag) and her mother taught economics at the University of Berlin. Both parents lost their jobs. (They were 'politically incorrect:' The father belonged to the wrong political party and the mother was Jewish - by race not religion.) The family managed to survive by moving to the country farm and keeping a low profile.* By a set of interesting circumstances Mrs. Myers became the translator for General Lucius Clay from 1946-1948. When the interviewer, Dr. Pollock, asked Mrs. Myers (then Miss Cremer) if she was related to Carl Cremer, Mrs. Myers responded that he was her father. Dr. Pollock responded that when he visited the Reichstag 20 years before with a student delegation, Carl Cremer was their tour guide. My guess is that this was a big help in her getting the job.

The book is an interesting autobiographical account leading up to Myers becoming a Christian and her Christian walk. One can see the providential hand of God protecting and guiding her. I have spoken to Mrs. Myers on the phone on occasion. Someone once asked her what she was like before she became a Christian and her response was an "arrogant intellectual." While I was quite impressed by her intellectual talents, I was somewhat dismayed by the foolish actions of this "arrogant intellectual." Had it not been for the hand of providence she could have gotten herself killed. I guess this book shows that intellectuals are not infallible and can make silly mistakes.

While the book is primarily a spiritual book, I think it also has historical value. It gives one an insight into history that standard textbooks do not. Mrs. Myers makes history come alive. The photographs enhance the book. The pictures also provide a glimpse into history from a picture of her father in 1896 to her mother's Jewish identity card. Also in the book is a photograph autographed by General Lucius Clay. In this particular photograph, one can see General Clay's writing. He writes "To the Grand Interpreter." Also included is a photograph of a Kansas Newspaper which says that General Clay considered Mrs. Myers to be his best interpreter.

Since I am a member of a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (L.C.M.S) congregation, I found her comment about "religious education" to be most interesting. She wrote that in retrospect the best "religious education" she received was at a religion class conducted by a Lutheran pastor. This class gave her the basics of Christianity. For some reason, Nazi Germany allowed for religious instruction in the schools. That does not mean the Nazi's were pro-Christian. Sebastian Haffner, in his book DEFYING HITLER complains about the anti-Christian bias of the Nazis. The Haffner book makes me think that Mrs. Myers' first novel should be republished, even though she did not think it was a good novel. I think her novel could provide an insight into history.

(Sebastian Haffner did not want his book DEFYING HITLER (written 1939) published, but I thought it provided an insight into the Nazi era. I think the work was published posthumously. I don't know if Mr. Haffner was a Christian.)

Anyways, getting back to Mrs. Myers book. There are all sorts of little things which caught my attention: her description of Christmas in Germany, her small paragraph on what makes a good history teacher, and the intellectual viability of Christianity. It was most amuzing to read of her confrontation with the guest speaker brought into promote evolution. I think she shows in this book that Christians need not be afraid of intellectual challenges to the faith.

The book is available at www.providenceproject.com. I think for now one can only order directly from the publisher by credit card. In a few weeks it will be registered with books in print. I hope that means we can order through bookstores such as Barnes and Noble. [Update: full ordering info now at the bottom of the post. -ed.]

The story of the writing of the book was most interesting. Starting in the late 1970's, Mrs. Myers would write Christmas letters to her children about her life. Sometimes she would write 20 pages, other years she would write less, and sometimes she would not write anything for that year. But over the years a thick file of letters was compiled. Her son decided to edit these letters. I was unaware of these Christmas letters. I was one of the people encouraging her to write her memoirs. How strangely providential that she was writing her memoirs all this time, without her realizing that she was indeed writing her memoirs! It sort of reminds me of the scene in KARATE KID where Daniel-san is learning to block a punch without realizing that his training was in the polishing of the cars ("Wax on, Wax off"). As I wrote before, the book is not only of religious interest, but historical interest. Her son said he was surprised by the material his mother had such as the Jewish identity card of Mrs. Myers mother. Someone at her son's company thought it significant (or providential?) that Mrs. Myers came from a well to do family. Because of that, they were able to afford to take pictures. There are a number of pictures in the book including one from 1895 of her father.

*Their wealth served as a cushion for the twelve years of unemployment. By the time the war ended, their wealth was greatly diminished if not gone. I believed they had mortaged their house.

Mrs. Myers married an American soldier and eventually moved to Kansas. She lost her husband to a heart attack in 1972. She had to raise six children on her own.

In spite of the losses, she has persevered.

Updated Ordering Info:
This spiral bound book is 12.95 plus 2.00 shipping in the continental United States. The mailing address is:

PROVIDENCE PROJECT
14566 NW 110th St
Whitewater, KS 67154.

One does not have to use the website. One can simply write a letter and a check.

If you want to use the website, once again it is: www.providenceproject.com

I was watching Charlie Rose last night. His guest was Paul Nurse, Nobel Prize winner 2001 in medicine. I think the discussion on the find in Indonesia of the remains of short creatures nicknamed "hobbits" caught my attention. Mr. Nurse said the creatures were 3 feet tall. I had heard about this find a few weeks ago. I wondered if this discovery ties in with the legends of the leprechauns of Ireland and the Menehune of Hawaii.

I checked the book TALES OF THE MENEHUNE, which was originally written in 1960. This is a collection of Hawaiian folklore. According to that book, the Hawaiians described the Menehune as being two to three feet in height. This about the same height as the creatures in Indonesia. What an interesting "coincidence!" This book was written in 1960, about 40 years before the find in Indonesia.

I also looked at the book the OXFORD DICTIONARY OF WORLD MYTHOLOGY. The short entry on the Menehune describes them as a "mythical" pygmy people, who later moved to New Zealand. The Hawaiians got them mixed up with the indigenous people of New Zeland, called the Maoris. But this happened at a later time. The entry also states that the Pacific Ocean region has stories of little people and that little people allegedly built a temple in Java, which is part of Modern day Indonesia. I don't recall if the little people who allegedly built the temple in Java were called Menehune.

I would differ in my interpretation of the find. Paul Nurse thinks these creatures are hominid creatures or creatures between ape and human. I would say that they were fully human only shorter than the modern "average" human. Nurse says the remains
are only 12,000 years old and humans inhabited that region for 50,000 years; so these little people and "normal" people lived at the same time in Indonesia. I personally question how the long the humans and hobbits live there, but that is another matter. I don't doubt that these people did live "side by side." The legends of the Menhune in Hawaii state that they hid in the highlands and came to the lowlands only at night. They tended to avoid contact with the Hawaiians. On occaison, the Hawaiians would make deals with the Menehune. Someone would prepare a feast for the Menehune and they in turn would engage in a building project such as a wall. My impression is that these Menehune were quite capable of communicating with the Hawaiians and were not "primitive" lesser evolved creatures. The Menehune appear to have been quite clever and industrious. Certain walls in Hawaii are pointed to as examples of Menehune's handiwork. Nurse mentioned the legends of dwarves. I wonder if he is aware of the Menehune?

This same dictionary also has an entry under "gogmagog." This refers to some chalk carvings in Britain, I think Cambridge. The entry also says there are stories about giants in British folklore. The Bible also mentions giants such as Goliath.

Here is my theory: perhaps the range of humanity in terms of height was greater in the past than it is today. Perhaps "Natural Selection" weeded out the "unfit" extremes and left the middle to survive. Perhaps bigger does not always mean better and the Jolly green giants were actually more vulnerable than their shorter advesaries. Blythe was probably the first to propose the idea of natural selection. He viewed natural selection as a "conservative" or weeding out force. Darwin viewed it as a "progressive" force which generated greater diversity. I tend to go with Blythe.

Update:
In response to my comments, I received an email fromAustralia expressing agreement. That person referenced an article for me. The article pointed out that intepretation of the find in Indonesia is by no means universal. The Indonesian scientists interpret the remains as fully human and NOT hominid. The Indonesians believe the remains to be only 1,800 years old not 12,000. The Indonesian scientists are NOT in agreement with the Australians. The Indonesians claim that they were the original discoverers and regard the Australians as late comers or intruders. Some speculate that there is a "turf war" between the Australians and the Indonesians. I think that one point in favor of the Indonesian's interpretation is that NOT all the bones are fossilized and there is recognizeable DNA in the bones. DNA has a "shelf life" of 10,000 years. This indicates the remains are NOT very old.