Israel's Augean Stable

Reporting from Tel Aviv:

On Thursday night Ibni and I dined outdoors at a Korean place and then walked the two miles or more to the protest site in central Tel Aviv. Shortly after we arrived, we joined in marching with the huge group of protesters as they began to make their way across the city. It was an extremely peaceful assemblage; the protestors (including babies and the elderly) seemed more determined and focused than angry. This morning the Times of Israel reported that last week there were not only more and larger protests across the country (and of course in Tel Aviv), but the police had retaliated in many cases (particularly in places where major road closures resulted). According to the Times, Thursday is to be not just a day of rage but also a day of paralysis. From where I sit, things should be ripe for a major explosion just about the time I leave on April 3 if not a day or two before, depending on the outcome of the final legislative vote on the current judicial reform proposal. I am aware of being here at a pivotal moment in Israel’s history, one that may be a tipping point regarding the country’s very existence never mind its unfolding political story. Ibni, his girlfriend, and their friends are disturbed to the bone by what’s going on and quite frankly admit as much. Each of them strikes me as feeling especially vulnerable because of their status as olim, although I’m not sure I understand why that is. As I write this, it occurs to me that my during my sojourn here last summer as well as on Friday morning (the day after I joined in the protest) I had dreams that, respectively, evinced the image/metaphor of the Augean stable. While I took the image to have personal meaning, it strikes me now that it might in a larger sense refer to Israel at this moment in time. I very much think so, in fact.

The Seven Fundamental Thoughts

 

The wonderful Irish poet John O’Donohue, who died in 2008, asked this question: “What are the seven thoughts that orient you, ground your foundation of meaning, and that you come back to over and over again?” He advises taking the time (over days, weeks) to list these seven thoughts and then to leave it alone for a few weeks after that. When you finally revisit the list, he recommends thinking now about seven thoughts that you've never even flirted with, that you don’t visit regularly, or are otherwise not married to. According to O’Donohue, once you've written both lists you can really see how, through such thoughts and non-thoughts, the world is actually constructed. He goes on to say that the mystery of thought is that it’s where otherness, strangeness, dislocation, intimacy, and belonging come home. It’s the biggest mirror we have.

I decided to take a preliminary stab at limning "my" seven fundamental thoughts. I intend to give myself plenty of time to finalize the list. Here’s a start:

Seven fundamental thoughts that structure and ground my foundation of meaning:

1.  “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” [Koan attributed to St. Thomas, writing in the Gnostic Gospels.]

2.  I am a strong person. I tap into this belief, one I've held since I was a very young child, often. It is key to my survival.

3.  A woman needs time, money, and a room of her own.

4.  A small good thing. This comes from the beautiful, poignant short story of the same name by Raymond Carver. I’ve known for a long time now that for every “small good thing” in my life that I pause to acknowledge and express gratitude for, I am adding another building block to the edifice of my happiness. Naming such moments is, for me, a form of prayer. 

5.  Sickness and death are inevitable.

6.  Vocatus atque non vocatus Deus aderit. (Bidden or unbidden, God is present.) [I speak metaphorically of God here; not of whitemalegod.]

7.  Women have had a terrible time of it throughout history. I bear the wounds of this reality in my flesh and carry its injustice deep in my bones and DNA.

I think I’m going to let these sit for a time before I commit to them as the top “seven.” For the moment, however, they feel right (or are they merely self-serving?). Time will, hopefully, tell.