This paragraph from Mark Twain’s autobiography[1] stands alone as introspection for the human race.

“The last quarter of a century of my life has been pretty constantly and faithfully devoted to the study of the human race—that is to say, the study of myself, for in my individual person I am the entire human race compacted together. I have found that there is no ingredient of the race which I do not possess in either a small way or a large way. When it is small, as compared with the same ingredient in somebody else, there is still enough of it for all the purposes of examination. In my contacts with the species I find no one who possesses a quality which I do not possess. The shades of difference between other people and me serve to make variety and prevent monotony, but that is all; broadly speaking, we are all alike; and so by studying myself carefully and comparing myself with other people and noting the divergences, I have been enabled to acquire a knowledge of the human race which I perceive is more accurate and more comprehensive than that which has been acquired and revealed by any other member of our species. As a result, my private and concealed opinion of myself is not of a complimentary sort. It follows that my estimate of the human race is the duplicate of my estimate of myself.”

Oh, if only each parent and every child, if only every laborer and every employer, if only all the generals and their soldiers and if only every teacher and every student and every future soldier and every future hero destined to die for a nation or ideal could see inside this collective breast of ours and discern this truth—We own each other’s strengths. We own each other’s weaknesses. We own each other’s dreams.

And then, if only every one of us will decide to make our opinion of ourselves into a complimentary sort, a most complimentary sort. What then?

Bentari is a story about war—its cruelty, its randomness, its tragedy—how no one on earth is safe from its terrible reach once the vengeful spectre is loosed from its fragile bottle, the human heart.

Bentari is also a story about how families abide war, how they must abide and will abide.

Image: Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) US Postage stamp — issue of 1940,10c, brown.[2]

[1] Ch. 26, Autobiography of Mark Twain: The Complete and Authoritative Edition, Volume I, see Amazon or Powell’s Books: http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Mark-Twain-Volume-Authoritative/dp/0520267192 and http://www.powells.com/s?kw=autobiography+of+mark+twain&class=

[2] Image in public domain, found online at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Samuel_L_Clemens4_1940_Issue-10c.jpg