Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Back in the atmosphere. Read this quickly and then move on.

I think of you all as a plain ol' Jane who never could fly, but... always could land? No. Not gonna lie- I can never remember song lyrics. Oh well.

I am back in the States! Back from my 4 month getaway to Israel. The land of milk and honey. Neither of which I consume. I shall refer to it as the land of Hummus and Bamba. I am back, though! I met wonderful people, I saw amazing places, I heard lots of Hebrew and I felt homesick, as well as at home. Israel truly is a mysterious land. A world of its own. It is indescribable and incomparable. A land of the chosen and hated people. The strongest, hardest working, some of the most dishonest, and some of the most generous people. The laws are lenient, the cops are absent but waiting at every mall and airport and center. The army is intense, the veterans are damaged. The land is barren, yet alive. The city is wild, yet quiet. The cats are everywhere, the dogs bark constantly, the children are self-sufficient, and those who are 30+ and single are failures. Religion is rampant, but most of the citizens are tired of it. Hostility is kept to a minimum. Everyone is running from something or somewhere or someone. Tons of refugees and not enough room. Not enough jobs or money or homes. From Sudan and Palestine and Ethiopia and the Philippines... More than 30,000 runaways, rejects, outcasts, scared women, men, children, homosexuals. Muslims, Christians, Jews, and everything in between. There is a fear in the air, but you can't ignore all the love, either.  Every loud noise. Every raised voice. Every screaming child. Is it a joyful sound or reason to run and hide and cry and hate? There are many walls and borders and patrols and semantics. Occupied land or just more land? Who is being given more care and money? Should refugees and Palestinians receive more money and housing than Israeli citizens? There is jealousy alongside the concern. They are friends, they are compadres, but is it fair? So much controversy over the land and who deserves what money and power and titles. Names, labels. If no one has claims to land or should own it, as some say, why are these same people saying Palestinians should have more land? Or less land? Or any land? Or all the land? Is a "Jewish" state sustainable? Is it anti-semitic to think not? Is it Zionist to think so? Do most people who talk about Zionism know what Zionism is? Does anyone care? Do people just read the newspaper and decide what country is right, what people, what government, what religion? Have they every spoken to someone living in the reality? Would it matter if they did? Are people just looking for something to be angry about? Are they right? Should a country kill children in order to protect their own children? Should a country protect their leaders by using children, knowing they will die? Do two wrongs make a right? Do we always have to choice to what is right? Is decency a luxury? A privilege? Yet, right there we find Muslim and Christians and Jews sitting together on a Friday night. Barbecuing together. Similar rules and laws and expectations. Families together. Ice cream trucks. Playing and chatting. The children don't know or care. Their parents are happy to make new acquaintances. The sea and the beach is for everyone. The holiday is understood. The food is beloved and shared. The customs are remembered and taught. The same buses, the same roads, the same fantasies. Knowledge of why things are what they are. They want peace. They all want peace. Their governments don't. Their extremists don't. The media does not. The conspiracists, war mongers, blood thirsty propagandists. The people putting children's dolls and toys and clothing among the wreckage. One side of the story. One lifestyle that will never understand another. A world far from our comprehension. My comprehension. Your comprehension. A reality. A lifetime, a history, a battle that must be fought. Is it a necessary evil, necessarily evil? Avoidable? Are we, they, someone fighting the wrong people? Everyone cries together. The ones who celebrate. You know who to point fingers at. The ones dying with pride. The people looking forward to Heaven...? Can love be universal. Is it truly what the world wants? Is the middle east our trainwreck? Is it our colosseum? Our boxing ring? Oh, the horror! The horror!

My trip. My travel. My lesson.

Now my absolute favourite monologue from 'Whatever Works'. A Woody Allen masterpiece acted out by whatshisname.... Larry David!

"What the hell does it all mean, anyhow? Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nothing comes to anything. And yet, there's no shortage of idiots to babble. Not me. I have a vision. I'm discussing you. Your friends. Your coworkers. Your newspapers. The TV. Everybody's happy to talk. Full of misinformation. Morality, science, religion, politics, sports, love, your portfolio, your children, health. Christ, if I have to eat nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day to live, I don't wanna live. I hate goddamn fruits and vegetables. And your omega 3's, and the treadmill, and the cardiogram, and the mammogram, and the pelvic sonogram, and oh my god the-the-the colonoscopy, and with it all the day still comes where they put you in a box, and its on to the next generation of idiots, who'll also tell you all about life and define for you what's appropriate. My father committed suicide because the morning newspapers depressed him. And could you blame him? With the horror, and corruption, and ignorance, and poverty, and genocide, and AIDS, and global warming, and terrorism, and-and the family value morons, and the gun morons. "The horror," Kurtz said at the end of Heart of Darkness, "the horror." Lucky Kurtz didn't have the Times delivered in the jungle. Ugh... then he'd see some horror. But what do you do? You read about some massacre in Darfur or some school bus gets blown up, and you go "Oh my God, the horror," and then you turn the page and finish your eggs from the free range chickens. Because what can you do. It's overwhelming! I tried to commit suicide myself. Obviously, it didn't work out. But why do you even want to hear about all this? Christ, you got your own problems. I'm sure your all obsessed with any number of sad little hopes and dreams. Your predictably unsatisfying love lives, your failed business ventures. "Oh, if only I'd bought that stock! If only I-if only I purchased THAT house years ago! If only I'd made a move on THAT woman." If this, if that. You know what? Gimmie a break with your could have's and should have's. Like my mother used to say, "If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a trolley car." My mother didn't have wheels. She had varicose veins...."

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