We have all just learned of the death of Alexander Solzhenitsyn at the age of 89.  The cause, it is said, was heart failure. I don’t believe it.  No, I’m not stirring up trouble and proposing some new conspiracy theory.  I am saying something much more serious than that.  I would like to take today’s blog to consider the life of this man who, at the end, might have had his heart give out, but who never once had his heart fail.

We all know his story of detention in the Soviet gulag camps, an angry exile in America and a Nobel Prize, and then a triumphant return to his beloved Russia only to find a nation full of fellow countrymen who had never read his books.  Despite the danger it brought him, he always spoke out against what he saw as the world’s vices, whether they be the injustices of the Soviet era or the weakness and decadence of the West.
“We have to condemn publicly the very idea that some people have the right to repress others.  In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousandfold in the future.”
The Gulag Archipelago
There are many ways to force the world to face up to its evils, all of them requiring great bravery.  Unfortunately, the past few months have seen the passing of some of our age’s greatest and most heroic voices.  I had been mourning the loss of George Carlin  (and yes, I do believe it is appropriate to link him into this discussion).  And now, we mourn the passing of Solzhenitsyn.  His wife, in her statement to the press, said his life had been “difficult but happy.” I believe that his work and his writing has helped give all of us  who have lived through this very difficult age a greater chance at happiness.  May our hearts never fail.
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I would also now like to point the way towards a new website I just discovered written by Anna Reiers (aka Marit Meredith) called My Writing Life.  It’s full of interesting news about writers, new books, her own work and now, a new endeavour called “The Challenge”.  As Marit says:
“It’s all about haircuts and mishaps at the hairdressers/barbers/by my own hands — and for every poem, story or article contributed, I will match the word count in writing my own manuscript ‘Another Haircut.’  Contributions to The Challenge will be published as an ebook and sold in aid of charity.”
And so here is another way for a writer with a generous heart to help change our world.  What a wonderful idea!  Why not give it a go?