Holocaust Day is not a good time to watch television in Israel.  My mother visited us once and spent the entire day crying uncontrolably in front of the tv.  Orit was 3 I think and kept asking me why grandmother was crying. Usually I make sure to keep busy and stay away.  

But today my bruises from the accident two weeks ago were particularly painful and I couldn’t move comfortably, so I’ve fallen into the abyss of the terrible evil and the loss.  Then I thought of the changes in the Hungarian election and the possibilities of changes in the world as a result, and I convinced myself of the possibilities for peace – even in the near future.

But the word is out that we’re getting rockets again tonight, in addition to the constant fire up north.  When I joined with Ezi for his check up after  a skin procedure, I heard conflicting moods.  Somme people said that the peace talks with Lebanon were the big news, and others anticipated being bombed.

All this made me feel the need to compensate myself with a present, and I found myself in the Mandarin Duck shop picking out a new handbag.  “I don’t know why I’m doing this,” I told the saleslady, “I just came to keep my husband company.  I have a hundred bags at home.”  “Better a hundred bags and one husband than the opposite,” she said, and rang up the sale.

I went back to the clinic thinking – better concentrate on the peace talks, and think less about the anticipated rockets….