There is a group of us exchanging comments, remarks and notes about the terror attack of October 7 and what it means for not only friends and family but the Jewish community around the world.
We’re still processing it all and trying to absorb the reactions of various other people and communities. There is support, there is gaslighting and outright antisemitism.
Among a circle of men I have known for an average of thirty plus years there are more conversations about who is or isn’t armed and what we are doing at the gym.
We’re cognizant that we are all in our early to late fifties and physically not who we once were. Even those of us who are in better shape than we were in college acknowledge concerns about what happens if we have to fight.
It sounds ridiculous but we are in ridiculous times and the conversation covers a wide swath of ground.
Been threatened online and in person by people who have called me all sorts of names and growled at one that they needed two hands upon their head.
Didn’t say whether it was because I wanted to shake sense into them or use my thumbs upon their eyes and remembered things I heard Irv Rubin say long ago.
Echoes of the JDL reaching into the present.
We Need To Be Smart
More groups are forming online and in person to offer comfort and share ideas for what the next steps ought to be. I hear some of the remarks and shake my head and or nod dependent upon what I have read.
The anger, sadness and outright rage always are tempered by a voice that says we need to be smart. This can’t be a knee jerk response, it has to be well thought out and predicated upon both a short and long term strategy.
We didn’t end up here overnight and we’re not going to fix it with duct tape and paper clips either. Not even sure what fix it means either but am interested in discussions about that along with what is reasonable, achievable and sustainable.
Can’t keep seeing post after post about how hard it is to be Jewish even if I understand and relate to it. We’re not in the shtetl any longer and we’re not going back, no matter how hard some people try to stuff us in.
The Ghetto days are over.
Not just because we say so but because we make it so.
****
Echoes of the 7th continue to ring, rock and dance about my mind which isn’t a surprise because we’re barely two weeks past and something like this isn’t ever going to disappear.
Dependent upon a variety of things it made fade somewhat but it is with us for life and is a reminder about how drastically life can change in a moment.
And so we move into a song that keeps playing in my head but I can’t say what made me think of it so I am just rolling with it.
And then we roll into the next one and just sit in the dark listening to the rain pound the roof.
Summer has been over for a good long while and yet in some ways it feels like it hasn’t quite left us. Maybe it is because it is a warm rain though I suspect it might be the last for a while.
If the weather report is accurate we’ll see it drop into the thirties during the night and days of fifty something which reminds me I ought to find where I put my sweatshirts.
Space heaters and sweatpants will come out soon and the dog will be interested in snuggling to share some warmth with me.
I can feel all sorts of changes coming and I suspect that will include some expected as well as a few surprises.
Sometimes your arms are wide open and sometimes they are closed. Going to be interesting to see what transpires.
Leave a Reply