September 20-24, 2014
September 20, 2014 With all the plans we had for going places today, we actually stayed home for a quiet shabbat. It is really amazing how wonderful it is.
And then as the day was ending we drove through Tel Aviv. Everywhere there were crowds. Sarona is more beautiful and I longed to visit, but we were late. I didn't have much respect for the idea of turning a formerly German colony, a historical site, into something touristy and commercial, but now it looks so appealing I must explore it further. The crowds were in Habima too - there was some activity for children that filled the square and later on there will be the usual ballroom dancing that brings another batch of people. And while I was trying to get the kids to sleep in Ben Zion Boulevard, there was a demonstration outside that cramped my style. "What was the demonstration before?" I asked Ezi. "Oh, people." he answered in his usual precise and uninformative way. I assume, as I'm sure he does, that it was about preventing the next war, but I'm not convinced it is now up to us. Although if Yuval Rabin got into the picture, I'd be more convinced. But I think he's not cut out for the dirty politics of our neighborhood. Protest turned out to be about animal rights. I know the arguments FOR animal rights (I did run for the municipality in the animal rights party) - but i'd like to know the arguments against them.
How many human lives per monkey? September 22, 2014 Aches and pains are back - i'm hoping i can get back to normal crippled state soon, but it's cramping my style. The grocer understands and promises to send me everything I need to bully Ezi into doing the cooking for the holiday. For now I'm just resting and hoping it will go away. There are many things i think should just go away. at the moment it is Turkey. and Iran. Unfortunately big places like this don't go away. They promise you something so you won't simply destroy them and then lie. Of course they lie - they don't trust you and they need to get by so they simply tell you what you want to hear and then get on with their plans.
How can you blame them for lying? You can blame them for other things, but not lying.
September 24, 2014 Here's what our president is doing in his retirement:
You gotta lote Shimon Peres. The self-irony and sincerity is overwhelming. If only more of us could be like this!
Here's my schedule for this week. Meeting this morning to get PEN restarted in Israel. It got stopped years ago and I've been at a loss to re-energize it. then we meet some friends - i'm going to check out a good site for tashlich on thursday. Wednesday we cook and bring to niece. Thursday we take kids to throw their sins in the sea (the ones that decompose of course) and/or fly kites. friday we cook and bring to friend. saturday we cook for kids and serve. then we sunday we have a holiday. how does that sound?
Seriously, anyone interested in helping out with PEN? September 24, 2014 With warm wishes for the new year. We make all kinds of wishes and prayers and resolutions for the new year, but by February we're out of steam. I'd prefer not to make resolutions, but the wishes work year round.
To avoid traffic we made dinner for 7:30 - right now it's 5:30 and the roads are jammed. It's highly unconventional in this country.