All I can write about is today - and what has been reported, televised, streamed, until this moment. And I am not going to write about it.
We all know, have seen, or have read about the shocking earthquake in Colombia which happened yesterday, not long after the shocking earthquakes in Venezuela. Fires in France, Spain, Greece, America, Canada. The great rivers of Europe are running dry. The war in Ukraine and Russia continues unabated, as it does in Sudan, the Middle East, goodness knows where else. Countries lying, subterfuge, espionage.
All I can contend with is my bubble. Why do I bother to write this - to try and explain something that people not living here, in Israel, can understand. I am supposed to be going to South Africa on August 24th. This trip was planned months ago. I want to go, I hope to go, and I plan to go. I am preparing to go. BUT, and this is what is hard to comprehend - until I am on the plane and have left the boundaries of Israel, I will not know whether or not I will be going. The news here changes by the nanosecond.
Everyone is upset, anxious, crazy, irritable, depressed, sad. To go anywhere by car is an exercise in faith, that you will arrive at your destination. Everyone else on the crowded roads wants to pass everyone else in order to get to the next light first. Motorcycles weave in and out without regard for anyone or anything else. I stood in line at the Mall - we all have to pass through security. Some young woman pushed through ignoring the guard - he told her to get back and pass through the gate - she began screaming, he screamed. The line of people waiting grew - it is boiling hot standing in the unrelenting sun - no matter - she continued yelling, he yelled. Eventually she went through again screaming and cursing. The day before going into another mall I sat down to drink coffee - suddenly the old lady sitting next to me with her family keeled over. She did not respond to her family, ambulances arrived, first aid people, and she was taken away on a stretcher not looking very good at all.
This is life in my bubble where I also go to the gym, attend yoga classes, work in the garden, paint, listen to concerts, watch wonderful films of ballets, live in airconditioning - and for all of this I am thankful.
And I hope I will be able to go on my trip and that the airport wont be closed, there wont be missiles and sirens. WHO KNOWS - I will keep you posted.
