Endlessly Complicated and Interesting

I'm currently reading the book Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, and so far, it's good. But I've only read the introduction. :)

I like to look up information on authors, though, and see what kind of people they are, so I googled Kahneman, and I found out that he and his family lived in Nazi-occupied France during WW2. He's written about his experience, and it explains, in part, why he studied psychology:

"It must have been late 1941 or early 1942. Jews were required to wear the Star of David and to obey a 6 p.m. curfew. I had gone to play with a Christian friend and had stayed too late. I turned my brown sweater inside out to walk the few blocks home. As I was walking down an empty street, I saw a German soldier approaching. He was wearing the black uniform that I had been told to fear more than others – the one worn by specially recruited SS soldiers. As I came closer to him, trying to walk fast, I noticed that he was looking at me intently. Then he beckoned me over, picked me up, and hugged me. I was terrified that he would notice the star inside my sweater. He was speaking to me with great emotion, in German. When he put me down, he opened his wallet, showed me a picture of a boy, and gave me some money. I went home more certain than ever that my mother was right: people were endlessly complicated and interesting."

That story has stuck with me for the last week, and I think it's because he's right. People are endlessly complicated and interesting. They do bad things for reasons others cannot understand, and they also do good things for reasons others cannot understand. At the end of the day, who knows, really, what is in each person's heart. It's a mixture of lots of feelings, and I, for one, am glad that all I'm commanded to do is love.

Thing I'm thankful for: the gospel of Christ