Friday is a day for cooking, and we’re trying to get a family together before we go different ways this summer. So we invested in cooking for the various and different tastes of everyone.
For some reason, though, it exhausted me – maybe because I didn’t sleep at night, maybe because Trump didn’t sleep all night. I’ve never felt so strongly the immediate and intimate effects of world politics on my every move as I did today. Even the carrot soup was affected.
I don’t know why people like to fight, but I wish they would keep me out of it. What I’d really like is for everyone to stop bickering with rockets and let me work on my new book and enjoy some travelling. My grandson is coming back to tel aviv from scout camp up north where they built all kinds of structures for kids to climb on. I would like him to be in a place where he can rest up instead of worrying about rockets. I would like to take my granddaughter to vintage shops tomorrow instead.
he is pretty effective, and very charming. when he started talking, and actuall y all the way through. But when he was complaining of antisemitism in the States in his youth, he had nothing on me.. I remember my six grade class in public school when the teacher isolatd the four jews ahd banished us to the back corner. and she never called on us. When she was told that eveny kid in the class had to participate in the annual play, she had jews dancing in the back. Me and Sandy Shapiro and Alan Feldstein and i Think it was Tala Gurrell..so we did some ridiculous country dance and had no concerns for a being in the last scene in the back of the stage where we were part of the scenery.
i still know the steps because we practiced the stupid dance over and over while the rest of the class practiced their complex parts in the long play.
the year after we had a teacher who wanted to elicit our creativity from all of us. I wrote all the monthly class plays and starred of course in most of them.
But I still remember how our sixth grade teacher peered down on the jews from above her pince nez and refused to answer our questions.
We saw no point in telling our parents – they were having similar troubles on a more grand scale.
so Rahm Imanuel was here today -7.9.26 Read Post »
The sea was angry today. We stepped in the water and I remembered that I’d heard on the news a warning that the currents were extremely strong. The little children were playing in the water up to their knees where we stood and me and Meira were afraid to go deeper. And Meira agreed not to go deeper. But when I turned to go back i discovered I had sunk into the sand, and I could not even turn around. Meira had to pull me out.
I must admit that even though the afternoon was otherwise perfect, the feeling of being stuck in the mud is basic to my sense of what is happening in this country, this world. The entire universe is sending wave after wave while we are just unable to move. We need someone strong like Meira to pull us out before the really big wave comes.
Watching the Iranian funeral I can’t get over the difference between our cultures. The officials of the government seem to be in a weeping contest – my sadness is the most profound. If it were here it would be an attempt to show the containment of the tears. I feel this deeply but I must contain my grief and carry on. I imagine that in England there would be stiff upper lips.
In any event, I imagine that someone in the U.S. government is watching this funeral and realizing that it has been programmed to turn into a hate-fest against the U.S. and Israel and whoops, someone may have misjudged the desire for peace, and maybe we’re going to get nuked soon.
Now THAT is an occasion for tears.
The lesson every speaker gave in Lisa’s memorial was similar. If something is wrong, go fix it. Don’t wait for someone else to do it. Act like you are going to die tomorrow and get it done today. Because in her case, she could die tomorrow, and she did. Nothing ever stood in her way. There aren’t too many people like that in the world, and it is not surprising she sought out David Senesh, Hana Senesh’s nephew, for advice about how to go about helping the hundred of thousands of traumatized people after October 7. And he gave her advice that meant something – practical and daring. Go there, talk to people, listen to people, comfort them. We have so little comfort in these times. What she did was sorely needed
i have nothing against busses – even when they bounce around because the driver is going through every pothole in the city to make the scheduled stops. But today, in the heat, the voyage was too much.
it wasn’t helped by the fact that we were going somewhere we’d never gone, and were not sure of the bus route or the timing. So we wasted too much time in the sun walking and waiting. And we got to the memorial too early and had to use the time to catch our breaths. Coming home we missed the bus and got back too late – our gym teacher had been waiting and resting and was geared up to exercise the rest of our energy away.
it has been a while since I’ve been in Basel Square, and when I emerged from the underground parking garage I was a little confused. So much building, so much renewal. But I passed the old sign of the builders of Tel Aviv and immediately remembered how disturbed we were to discover the sign. When Ezi saw at least 20 years ago that his grandfather wasn’t in the list even though he built some very significant symbols of tel aviv, he called the city and the woman told him that for 30.000 shekel they’d add him.
But even though my destination was almost hidden among the all the building sites, my feet knew the way – Alkalay Cafe on Alkalay Street. A great place to meet and a great place to eat. Highly recommended.
