Hello again so soon!  I guess I'm getting tired of Netflix because I've been choosing to read more often than usual on these long winter days.  "Lament for a Father" (2021) by Marvin Olasky was a freebie that came in the mail since I'm a subscriber to WORLD magazine.  It seems that I identify more with Eli Olasky (Marvin's father) than I do with the author, specifically in the religious department.  Eli has grown cold and lost his motivation after his service in World War II.  As a Jew, he had to live with what he had seen at the concentration camps in Germany.  I've had no such life-changing experience, but somehow I seem to have ended up at the same place - unmotivated and short on faith in a loving God.  This book does not seek to condemn any of the characters, but I can't help but feel like I'm part of the wrong side - the German people, the Catholic people - all were hugely anti-Semitic.  I see it in myself sometimes.  But isn't it hard to accept an entire race that declares themselves to be declared special by the Creator of us all??  The Chosen People.  Why would God do such a thing?  Sure, it seems that later in New Testament times He decides to go with "there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28, NIV)  Maybe he could have led with that idea??  Ehh, we're still not really ready to hear it.  My only problem with this book was how the author tried to use the present tense for things that happened in the past.  It worked in some places, but not throughout.  And I guess with a book like this, I should probably recognize my own father.  But I have no complaints about Bob Hess, so that is that.  Sometimes when he comes up with witty, barbed retorts, I can see where I got my dry humor.  Like with Marvin and his father, I suppose the appreciation tends to grow with time.  When I was little, I used to imagine a time when my parents would be gone.  I wasn't so much afraid of it, but I thought I was preparing my emotions to handle it.  I don't suppose that's possible at all.  I'll be lost, but it doesn't really feel like I can be more lost than I am now.  We shall see.