Everyone I speak with agrees with me.  The primary reaction to the failure of all our efforts to influence the actions of our government, of our enemies, of the environment, the heat – is helplessness.  All we can do is cultivate our gardens.  

One of the reasons I first fell in love with Israel was the sense that every individual can make a difference here.  When I was visiting as a student, I hitchhiked a lot around the country and met many different kinds of people.  One man who picked me up was an Arab doctor whose daughter sat in the back.  I don’t remember the entire conversation or even what he looked like, but I remember that he warned me that I couldn’t control every situation.  It was a warning about hitching rides and also my sense that this was a country much more complex than my sense of freedom and control warranted.