Too busy for who, what, where, when and why |
I figured something out. There is a lot of chatter about how Israel’s PR is a big source of its problems. This, I can’t confirm or deny.
However, on this Independence day, after having moved here a year and a half ago from Canada, I have figured something out about this country.
But truthfully, I cannot fully express to you what it is I have figured out. It’s a feeling you get when you’re here.
And you really have to have been here to understand it.
This beauty, this wonder, this purpose driven land whose ripe and delicious fruit is born from the blood of the parents and grandparents and sisters and brothers of its founders.
This country, built of out of necessity by people who had nowhere else to go.
Sowed, seeded and showered with the love of every innocent soul who didn’t make it out to see it.
It’s not something one can describe, it’s a feeling you get when you’re here. And you simply have to be here to get it.
And when you land here you realize.
The people of this country are too busy living their lives, and fighting for their lives, to tell the world who, what, when, where and why.
They’re working hard and playing hard.
They are building and learning, innovating and assisting, healing and creating and composing.
And then, when the sun goes down, they are basking in the presence of their family and friends.
In their houses and in the parks, in the bars and in the restaurants, in the markets and in the streets. In the places of worship and the wedding and bar mitzvah halls, at the beaches and the clubs.
In the mountains, and in the in the valleys and in the salty sea, under the desert sun, they are living.
The inhabitants of this tiny smudge on the map, but oh so mighty land mass, are living their lives, like really living , every single second of every single day.
And then there are those who are fighting for their lives on the battlefield every second of that day, to protect these lovers of life and to protect the only place they can rely on to welcome them home at the end of the battle.
The people of this country are not spending their time telling the world how they live and why they live, and how they fight and why they fight.
There are simply no spare minutes in the day for this pursuit.
I can’t tell you if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.