i don’t know if all my friends are well-meaning when they write ‘it’s hopeless.’  Are they saying I should be busy packing up my stuff and heading for some welcoming place like the imaginary places of tv series I use for cutting my anxiety about Bibi’s blindness?   Or are they trying to remind me that they were right years ago when they said this country couldn’t hold?

I keep thinking of the stage of the Farband building where I used to perform, where Yiddish organizations used to lecture, where conferences were held and declarations were made.  It was a scene of chalutzim farming the land. 

The pride I took in being on that stage was immeasurable.  All the refugees in the room felt that pride as well.  At last we could build a home.