In the USS Arizona Memorial Museum at Pearl Harbor, hidden amongst the many historical and heartbreaking artifacts is a tiny, frayed miniature book.

 

So small it would fit comfortably in your shirt pocket and barely larger than a gold ring, but it’s impact on me when I discovered it was immense. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Someone who sadly perished on that terrible morning in 1943 held the contents of those tiny pages dear. The warm,soft worn leather still protecting the wafer thin pages which hold verse after verse of the Bible.

I’m not born into any religion, although I read, learn and accept aspects of most of them. I don’t lean to any one creed but I respect them and believe knowledge and learning breaks down ignorance. I also believe in science and evolution and the wonders of the natural world.

Does it matter if you carry a tiny book to read for comfort when you are missing your family? Or in a time of fear for reassurance? Does it matter whats in the pages?

Does it matter if you believe in something outside of our world? The moon, the stars, the planets, the solar system?

Does it matter if you believe in none of these, instead believe firmly in science and the blue planet we live on for a short time?

If it makes you a happier, peaceful human being to be around. If you realise your own version of happiness, then No. It doesn’t.

Whatever you can find in life which ‘sticks’ and works for you then hold it tight and close to your heart, safe in your top pocket and you won’t go far wrong. I promise.