It’s just another panic Monday?

August 6, 2006 - 12:30 PM by

A blogger in Hadera wrote yesterday about her feelings at hearing the first “booms” in her town:

I can feel how tense I am, and I wonder what we’ll do if there will be more missiles falling in the area. I imagine that we will uproot as well, and head to the relations living south of Tel Aviv. I cannot see a situation where we will stay if things get bad here – just thinking about it makes me nervous. On the other hand, I worry about us leaving, and about something happening to our home. I know it’s just property, just things, but it is our property and our things, all inextricably linked to the memories that make up our life here.

And her stress levels are skyrocketing:

Thoughts are screaming petulantly in my head – I just want it all to be over already! I don’t know how, and I have no solutions, but pretty much anything has to be better than the paralysis that has gripped northern Israel, a region whose borders seem to be moving farther and farther south with each passing day, and all of this death and destruction that just grows worse and worse, closer and closer. I am sick to death of watching our region burn, and I don’t care whose fault it is. Citizens on both sides have suffered far too much, and if I hear one more war mongering talking head I’m going to scream.

Her commute this morning didn’t help matters . . . . some things are the same the world over, whether you live in a war zone or not:

“Okay, I thought. Forget the express train. Sure, you’ll get there faster, but do you really want to spend 40 minutes in sheer, hot and smelly misery, unable to lean on or hold on to anything? Is this the way you want to start the week?” My inner self responded with a resounding “NO”, and knowing that there would be a regular train leaving three minutes later, where I could easily grab a seat, I shuffled down the stairs and headed for the other platform. No sooner had I staked out what I had assessed to be the best spot for waiting (based on a most complicated combination of mathematical formulas, coin tossing and 4.5 rubs on my lucky rabbit’s foot, all in that order), when an announcement was made, relaying the news that the train would be fifteen minutes late.

::snip::

And so, a mere hour and forty minutes after leaving my son at home with a kiss on the forehead, I got off the train and pushed my way through the throngs of soldiers and civilians on the platform, all completely oblivious of the existence of anyone but themselves. By the time I reached the stairs, I’d kicked my share of duffle bags, thrown enough elbows to get several minutes in the penalty box, and received a painful yet colorful bruise on my back, just below my shoulder, from the weapon of a random soldier. Fifteen minutes and one aggravated get-it-all-out-of-my-system rant to my husband later, I slithered into the office building, wilted from the heat and humidity, and essentially feeling like a lettuce leaf that was well past its sell-by date.

I always worry when the week starts off on the wrong foot, and wonder how such an auspicious beginning bodes for the rest of the week (especially after the “alarming” weekend I’ve had). Only two requests, please. Let us be safe, and let there be coffee.

Tags: • Category: A New Reality, Life 

Comments

One Comment on It’s just another panic Monday?

  1. Mike Dallas Texas on Sun, Aug 6th 2006 6:08 PM

    2. I just saw Allison Kaplan Sommer’s interview on CNN an was very much in agreement with her statements on world opinion usually favoring the military underdog. Surely I can’t be the first to recognize the evolution of Arab strategy. During the ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s the Arab government banded together militarily and launched attacks against Israel. Outnumbered in men and material, Israel was the military “underdog” and world opinion for the most part was on the Israeli-except of course in Arab nations. Israel, although outnumbered, always pervailed and the various Arab armies were left in shambles. Then someone on he Arab since had an inspiration! Become the underdog, make Israeli the “bully”! The way that this was accomploished was to begin funneling money and training to terrorists groups and militias. Over the last 25 years we see the images of “freedom fighters”, refugees and the like trying to liberate themselves from the Israei war machine. This present military situation is no different, be the mouse that keeps jabbing the cat with a pin and eventually the cat turns and tries to squash the mouse–and of course world opinion roots for the mouse. The strategy of the Arab world remains the same as it has been for 60 years – the annilliation of the Jewish state. The tactics today are different, and arguably more effective.

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