Every day i write the date I think of my young friend who has been telling me about me about his girlfriend, then his fiancee, then his bride-to-be, then his wedding planned for November 11. How much time is left for the corona limitations to end? Will the wedding take place? Start counting off with me….
Even though we don’t really see doctors any more – unless it’s an immediate emergency – we do write a lot of posts. i now know exactly what medications i need to take, and fill in the forms on line – and sometimes i actually get all of them. the ideal is to get 3 month prescriptions so i don’t have to endanger myself too often, but sometimes I forget to ask for all of them, and sometimes a situation comes up where i need something i haven’t used for a long time. But often I get the answer that my needs have been met. lately, however, since my doctor is also head of a ward that seems to be converting to corona (or maybe they’re just more than usually overcrowded), he doesn’t have too much patience for my little itches and pains, and mixes things up a bit. So when I remembered I’d forgotten to ask for something i take twice a day, and i was running out, i made a special request. i got the answer back in an hour, but it was for one month only. Okay, I needed it right away and didn’t have the strength to go back to my computer, so i went out first thing in the morning and arrived at an empty health clinic drugstore before everyone else. Except of course the pharmacists who were getting themselves ready for the usual Jewish daily onslaught.
Lately my friends and I have been getting from welfare offices, health offices, and even the municipality to ask if we need help with anything. I’m almost going to ask the next one I get if they can straighten out my medications. Not really. There are so many greater problems to solve – and with me, it’s just a little irritation. it’s pretty amazing how well so many of us are doing in this situation. When I think of it, my grandmother probably had a kidney infection in Stuthoff and for that reason, she was carted off to be made into soap. when I had a kidney infection – at a much more advanced age than her – I was in the hospital here getting iv’s before I could even feel sorry for myself.
october 15, 2020 – pharmaceutical challenges Read Post »
At least twice a day we get phone calls from organizations checking to see if we’re all right or need something. We may be among the very few who do not, but the fact that the health clinic, the municipality, and numerous individuals check in to see how we are is pretty remarkable. The isolation that characterizes the nature of this disease has probably killed more people than the disease itself and it has emphasized the need for interrelations, for caring about each other. Even the fact that our actions – our success or failure to protect ourselves – influence the lives of other, something we have not been sufficiently aware of for decades – is something that now is becoming more central in our minds.
The numerous television spotlights on individuals who have been experiencing incredible grief and hardship comfort me even as it brings me to despair. We CARE that a 39-year-old man has thrown the contents of his shoe store into the street because he can’t pay rent anymore. And he found comfort in the fact that the shoes were picked up by needy people – even though he has no idea what will happen to the rest of his life.
And somehow this gives me just a bit of hope. Maybe it’s not going to be a jungle even though our Knesset is doing everything possible to make it one. Maybe the people WILL get together to make the situation of this civilization possible. I know our politicians have been terrible examples, causing chaos wherever they interfere, instead of taking responsibility for order and unity, but it really appears that human beings can be so much better than this, and maybe we’ll figure out that left and right are the same, that Arab and Jew are the same, that Black and White are the same, even if only we are dependent upon one another to maintain our own existence. Remember the line i repeat every once in a while in these pages from Alexander Pope: “Man, like the generous vine, supported lives/ The strength he gains is from the embrace he gives.” I know Pope got blasted for that poem of his. He was trying to talk about how critics and writers have to work together to make for a better culture, but he got pounced upon for being a little, ugly, outsider. that too is a lesson for us.
october 14, 2020 – unity Read Post »
we’re definitely dividing into tribes – the extreme religious are following their own rules while we can’t seem to get any one else to follow them as long the others don’t. in other words, everyone is going their own way. We may be the only ones observing everything that the crazy government forces on us, But that’s because we’re terrified and old. okay, so we broke them by meeting with kids, and maybe going a little farther than 1000 meter here and there. but it doesn’t count.
but people need to do what they need to survive. the religious feel their rabbis understand much more than the government that hasn’t proved any succees in fighting corona. They hide their sick at home and bury them in secret and put a top priority on sending their kids to school – talmud torah, and yeshivas. they say that 25% of the men have contracted corona. on the other hand the arabs have seemed to stop the spread in the villages by cooperating with each other.
most of my neighbors also seem to follow the rules, but we all cheat. even though we don’t have financial problems, we’re going crazy from loneliness and boredom.
we ‘re not in the situation of the people in small business who have been shut down without any air, and means of support or any hope for the future. the people who work in the market, the little shops who have been having to contend with big businesses and chains for years and now are totally screwed. the government has no interest in them and doesn’t sustain them in any way, and their have gone past despair. maybe they’ll help us get back to socialism if we live that long…
in the meantime, we’re all trying to get by in our small groups – leaderless and frightened.
october 13, 2020 – tribes Read Post »
Please excuse the fancy stuff – the experiments with format will go on a bit until I figure it out.
There is a square near our home that was always crowded with cafes and restaurants. At least 3 hairdressers, a nail salon, a dress shop and what – maybe 4 cafes, the center so crowded with tables and chairs it is hard to tell what belongs to what. And now the cafes are closed. But food stores are open so there have sprung up a whole bunch of high class bakeries, delis, chocolatiers, and other take-aways. It seems to be working, even though the usual joy in not apparent. We went to visit the new neighborhood butcher – a famous television chef and personality – and his shop was full of amazing delicacies. Aharoni himself was there, guiding our purchases, explaining his products, delineating his plans, and sharing with us his plans for future products to brighten our lives.
Well, maybe he isn’t all that unrealistic. Like Donald, Bibi is promising a vaccine soon. We’re testing on humans now. A homemade product that might relieve the plague and the constant depression that seems to have overcome us.
october 12, 2020 – surviving – with luxury edibles Read Post »
Our oldest citizen has passed away at the age of 117. Born in Yemen, he came here on “Eagles’ Wings” and worked in the orange groves. Since we always wish 120 years on birthdays, it is amazing to discover how few of us make it to this age, and how blessed this man was to remain so long in good health, and die of natural causes in this time of corona. May you rest in peace, Shlomo.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/analysis-guidance-some-pleading-how-an-arab-israeli-city-is-crushing-covid-19/
in order to understand a bit more about Corona, it is important to compare the mortality in the Haredi communities with the Arab communities and to see how they treat the disease. i am grateful for this article but i think it is impossible to get the statistics. This is another sign that our government has lost control of the communities, and that we are returning to a tribal situation.
october 12, 2020 – longevity Read Post »
thank goodness someone cares enough to complain to me about how boring this new site looks! let me try some new possibilities . okay – not this one, right?
i
okay, let’s try again later. suggestions are welcome. let’s go on to more important subjects: viz. the street cats. They are busy all the time, running around the neighborhood and making themselves look very individual and important. and they are all in it for themselves alone. i watch them a lot. i’ve even adopted one of them – she’s totally terrified all the time, especially when it comes to other cats, and if we feed her outside, we have to guard her, because she gives in to any other cat who comes by. we call her peecee but in my heart i call her Benny. In fact, I can name all the cats in the neighborhood by the ministers of parliament they resemble. For example, one fat cat who obviously has a home, but is never there, and has a particularly nasty way of hissing at almost anything that passes, is clearly Miri. She’s got some Persian in her and she seems to flaunt her fluffy tail in people’s faces. The ginger cat, who looks sleek and refined, never lets you near, and appears to be doing very well when others are all ragged and worn, and i call her Gila. There is also another particularly large cat with an enormous head who runs the territory – Bibi. And there are lots of other cats who are starving, some who seem to have disappeared from the neighborhood entirely – they are the people.
of course i can’t complain…yet.
october 11, 2020 – a walk around the block Read Post »
We’re beginning to feel Tel Aviv again. Demonstrations on the corner of our street remind me that things are going to have to change around here, and the news on tv reminds me of all of the corruption in the present government. Only Ganz is honest, in my book. he just doesn’t know how to behave in a crooked world.
And we too broke rules and met with our kids again. Children in Tel Aviv remind me of the new health fashion. When I was a child, Israel was the place where the image of the weak Jew was disproved. And then we got soft. But even before the epidemic it was turning around again, and now it’s almost a religion. Everyone is some kind of athlete. Me, i’m exercising my brain.
Most important is the political involvement of the young people. look at tonight:
october 10, 2020 – back to Tel aviv Read Post »
