Yes. Yours is one of the only substack I can stomach right now.
My 3 year old daughter, her friends, and her teachers were terrorized this week by a man shooting outside (at? Is there a difference??) her preschool. You have probably seen it on the news. Her teacher had to hide 6 children in a bathroom stall for an hour after hearing gunshots. They waited for the police to arrive and she told them they were playing a game of surprise and kept them as quiet as possible. Her own daughter was across the building with another teacher literally preparing to use her body to protect our babies.
Her teachers are so broken. More than I am if that’s even possible. And the thing they keep repeating is that they feel alone. They worry that people think it wasn’t a big deal or that they (we- Jews.) deserved this somehow. I think it was you who said the world is looking on saying fuck around and find out. That’s how they feel right now.
How can I do anything normal? When my baby is being shot at and we’re witnessing violent death of almost 10,000 other babies. And those two horrors are some how connected. How do we make sense of that?
I’m sorry to unload on your comment section but I want you to know you’re a place that feels normal and right to me right now. Thank you.
It is so insane. Half of the conversations in my marriage is fretting about the war, all the victims and the growing anti-semitism that seems so baked in culturally that people don’t seem to notice how horrifying it is.
I appreciate the nuance you encourage. Honestly, all I want for Channukah is for everyone to see a little nuance in the situation instead of absolutes
Dec 12, 2023·edited Dec 12, 2023Liked by Bess Kalb
Last night, the chorus I conduct at a retirement community gave it's holiday concert. Blending Voices comprises about 28-30 (depending if anyone is ill) souls, most in their 80s and a few stalwarts well into their 90s. As we have for the past few years, we closed out the concert with Light One Candle by Peter Yarrow. Their voices - with echoes of their long lives of joys and tribulations - rang with hope and love. I cried. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1cRXgDFiSs (Peter, Paul & Mary - 25th Anniversary rendition)
I hope you don't mind that I made this post a part of my Twitter page (@bob38305676). More people should be exposed to your unique blend of emotion and eloquence, especially your emphasis on hope.
My own feeling of helplessness re Gaza during holidays starts with the reality that fortunes, or lack of, of all participants, on all sides, are totally in the wrong hands! The only peripheral player I even semi-trust is my own country's government, except on those occasions when it infuriates me by furnishing weapons.
Let's try this: ask elders how they maintained morale during wars they lived through. I wish I'd thought to ask my mother's parents how they kept the faith during the Battle of the Bulge, which my grandfather was sent to at age 36, a world away from his wife and three children. What heroes and heroines they were! I'm going to have to find a new hero and ask for guidance.
Yes. Yours is one of the only substack I can stomach right now.
My 3 year old daughter, her friends, and her teachers were terrorized this week by a man shooting outside (at? Is there a difference??) her preschool. You have probably seen it on the news. Her teacher had to hide 6 children in a bathroom stall for an hour after hearing gunshots. They waited for the police to arrive and she told them they were playing a game of surprise and kept them as quiet as possible. Her own daughter was across the building with another teacher literally preparing to use her body to protect our babies.
Her teachers are so broken. More than I am if that’s even possible. And the thing they keep repeating is that they feel alone. They worry that people think it wasn’t a big deal or that they (we- Jews.) deserved this somehow. I think it was you who said the world is looking on saying fuck around and find out. That’s how they feel right now.
How can I do anything normal? When my baby is being shot at and we’re witnessing violent death of almost 10,000 other babies. And those two horrors are some how connected. How do we make sense of that?
I’m sorry to unload on your comment section but I want you to know you’re a place that feels normal and right to me right now. Thank you.
It is so insane. Half of the conversations in my marriage is fretting about the war, all the victims and the growing anti-semitism that seems so baked in culturally that people don’t seem to notice how horrifying it is.
I appreciate the nuance you encourage. Honestly, all I want for Channukah is for everyone to see a little nuance in the situation instead of absolutes
Ty so much. This old bubbe will prioritize sniffing my toddler grandsons' sweet heads after donating, engaging and protesting.
Last night, the chorus I conduct at a retirement community gave it's holiday concert. Blending Voices comprises about 28-30 (depending if anyone is ill) souls, most in their 80s and a few stalwarts well into their 90s. As we have for the past few years, we closed out the concert with Light One Candle by Peter Yarrow. Their voices - with echoes of their long lives of joys and tribulations - rang with hope and love. I cried. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1cRXgDFiSs (Peter, Paul & Mary - 25th Anniversary rendition)
Your posts really help me manage all that is going on. From reading the other comments, I am not alone. Thank you for that.
100% on point. Thank you!
I hope you don't mind that I made this post a part of my Twitter page (@bob38305676). More people should be exposed to your unique blend of emotion and eloquence, especially your emphasis on hope.
My own feeling of helplessness re Gaza during holidays starts with the reality that fortunes, or lack of, of all participants, on all sides, are totally in the wrong hands! The only peripheral player I even semi-trust is my own country's government, except on those occasions when it infuriates me by furnishing weapons.
Let's try this: ask elders how they maintained morale during wars they lived through. I wish I'd thought to ask my mother's parents how they kept the faith during the Battle of the Bulge, which my grandfather was sent to at age 36, a world away from his wife and three children. What heroes and heroines they were! I'm going to have to find a new hero and ask for guidance.