Letters and Papers From Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer Page A

would immediately hold myself ready for any other service. But that is not a matter that I have to decide.
    To his parents
    [Tegel] 24 June 1943
    Dear parents,
    I’m beginning this letter today, though I hope that I shall be seeing you in person tomorrow. In the week after Whit Sunday I had a great many letters, which pleased me very much. First of all yours, which is always such a great comfort, though I cannot get over the fact that you have now had to suffer so long under my misfortune; then Maria’s letter, which made me well content with its fabulous dreams of the future; even Hans-Walter has found time for a letter to me in his short, duty-free moments - I’m particularly grateful to him for it. Splendid that he is now so near to Berlin.
    Christoph wrote so nicely in his letter from Sakrow - I do hope that the children will soon be relieved of this burden - and in the last parcel little Michael even sent his sweets to his godfather in prison. He is not to do it again, but I’m sure that this sacrifice - and it really is a sacrifice for such a small boy - will be remembered, and that he is as glad about it as I am. When I am free again, I will do something that he particularly wants; ask him to think what that might be. And Karl-Friedrich has written again so nicely; I think I’ve already said thank-you for Ursel’s letter. I see from the parcels that the whole family keeps sharing in them - and the children and Maria’s family. I want them all to know how grateful I am. It is a real help. What a blessing it is, in such distressing times, to belong to a large, closely-knit family, where each trusts the other and stands by him. When pastors were arrested, I sometimes used to think that it must be easiest for those of them who were unmarried. But I did not know then what the warmth that radiates from the love of a wife and family can mean in the cold air of imprisonment, and how in just such times of separation the feeling of belonging together through thick and thin actually grows stronger. I was very pleased about Walter’s 56 induction; I forgot a while ago to send him good wishes for that and for his birthday; I’m also very pleased for Susi, who was so attached to the community and has done so much for it.
    Letters from mother and grandmother have just come. Thank you very much. From what you say about strawberries and raspberries, school holidays and plans for travel, I begin to feel that summer has really come. Time is not of much account here, I’m glad the weather is mild. A little while ago a tomtit had its nest with its ten little ones in a recess in the yard here. I enjoyed going to look at it every day till some cruel fellow went and destroyed the lot and left some of the tomtits lying on the ground, dead; I can’t understand it. When I walk in the yard I get a great deal of pleasure from a small ant-hill and from the bees in the lime-trees. I sometimes think of the story of Peter Bamm, who was on a lovely island where he met all kinds of people, good and bad. He dreamt in a nightmare that a bomb might come and destroy everything, and the first thing that occurred to him was what a pity it would be for the butterflies! Prison life brings home to one how nature carries on uninterruptedly its quiet, open life, and it gives one quite a special - perhaps a sentimental - attitude towards animal and plant life, except that my attitude towards the flies in my cell remains very unsentimental. In general, a prisoner is no doubt inclined to make up, through an exaggerated sentimentality, for the soullessness and lack of warmth in his surroundings; and perhaps he may react too strongly to anything sentimental that affects him personally. The right thing for him to do then is to call himself to order with a cold shower of common sense and humour, to avoid losing his sense of proportion. I believe it is just here that Christianity, rightly understood, can help particularly.
    You, father, know all this quite well