Sunny Saturday Morning

The streets that you were brought up in are empty. Mid February Israeli heat. The air smells rich. It is quiet. If during weekdays there are few cars that pass by these streets, on Shabbat it’s a blooming ghost-town. Now, it’s not a small town where I live. No sir, it’s a vital suburb 20 minutes north of Tel Aviv. Most of the population is secular, which means people go out and kick ass. Yet the streets are empty and the wind is easy and the skies are light-colored and calm.

The main traffic lines are alive; each family takes their own journey for some weekend quality time. You walk the streets and pass by a few content folks wearing yarmulkes, walking home from shul or taking a stroll with the kids in the park. No TV or cellphones for those who keep the Shabbos. I don’t worry myself with modern life today either. Just letting things be. Six more days to deal and to work. Now, let rest your soul and see what gives when doing nothing.

Only one day a week the world feels so relaxed here. One day a week a door is opened for some space. Take it or leave it. Try it or don’t. Whatever you choose, don’t judge those who choose differ. Every person possesses a take on the world that’s a bit different. Resistance erodes; forgiveness revives. Or in Lennon McCartney’s words: “Happiness is a warm gun”. Got a quarrel, it’s yours to keep. I’ll keep walking on sunny side, “always on the sunny side”.

In a reality where almost every soul is forced to face death at 18, and where once in 7 years a neighbor steps to destroy you, whatever his reason may be, in a country like that you’re raised to be strong. Too strong to explain. Psychologically: if I won’t make your territory mine, you’ll make what’s mine yours. That’s the way it’s been since this country was born 67 years ago. In a reality so harsh, that the definition of happiness and free choice becomes very unique.

But where is it not unique? Every nation has their own mental and social diseases. And every person judges his own nation, and all the other nations, based on emotions maneuvered by twisted information. For generations we’re fed by media which is run by a small amount of the population. When the people focus on the positive they do not judge what’s strange to their eyes, and more positive things arise. There is a possibility to live without suffering and without pain: where challenges are taken as blessing and as a chance to grow, rather than as another hit. Imagine.