[Tax-chick]

I remembered being 14 so clearly, reading that. It’s such a self-absorbed age, when you imagine everyone in the world is obsessed with judging you, because that’s how you are about yourself.

The poor little girl would probably have turned out to be a perfectly normal, even unremarkable, adult, if she’d lived.

[EternalVigilance]

I have no doubt about that.

But sometimes the times in which we live, especially if they are times dominated by evil, don’t allow for normal.

[untenured]

I don't know about that assessment. My 13-yo daughter has friends who, facing considerably less danger, seem to be considerably less impressive than the 14-yo Anne Frank. Anytime you point the critical lens at yourself it bespeaks a certain wisdom. Because of all the waste of what ultimately never was, I can understand why the diary is such a popular school assignment.

BTW, today is also the 100th anniversary of the German declaration of war on Russia, which began the 31-year death of the European era in world history. The coroners of history ruled it a suicide.