Session Alignment

Repeating the past

A lesson in family history .

What you did to your uncle ’s grave was unforgivable .

Your mother blamed herself , as always .

You didn ’t know what you were doing , she said .

I could accept that when you traded the shofar I gave you for that eMotiv headset , perhaps , or even when you befriended those young toughs with the shaved heads and the filthy mouths .

I would never have forgiven the swastika on your game pod but you are my daughter ’s son , not mine .

Maybe it was only adolescent rebellion .

How could you know , after all ?

How could any child really know , here in 2017 ?

Genocide is far too monstrous a thing for history books and grainy old photographs to convey .

You were not there ; you could never understand .

We told ourselves you were a good boy at heart , that it was ancient history to you , abstract and unreal .

Both of us doctors , familiar with the sad stereo type of the self - loathing Jew , we talked ourselves into treating you like some kind of victim .

And then the police brought you back from the cemetery and you looked at us with those dull , indifferent eyes , and I stopped making excuses .

It wasn ’t just your uncle ’s grave .

You were spitting on six million others , and you knew , and it meant nothing .