I live in a pastoral, peaceful community of 1000 families. Forty years ago, I’m told, there were no birds because there were no trees. Today my partner and I sit outside on our back porch, eat our breakfast of fresh fruit and freshly brewed coffee and tea, and watch dozens of birds eat theirs – the pieces of bread I scatter for them in our backyard every morning – before they drink from their bird bath or take leisurely baths. Sometimes a fox makes a brief visit, too. Idyllic.

• 

• 

The Corona pandemic is over in Israel. Stores and schools have been open for a while now. We haven’t been required to wear masks outside for weeks. In another week we won’t be required to wear them inside, either. During the various times when it was advised that people over 60 remain at home, teenagers in our community brought us the food we ordered from the community grocery store, and were happy to be able to help.

Recently Hamas, with differing excuses, renewed their shelling of our cities. Thousands of rockets were shot off indiscriminately toward residential areas, sending children and their parents rushing for bomb shelters. In some places, they had 15 seconds to get there before the rockets fell. Luckily, or by the hand of God as some people believe, we’ve developed a device to prevent 90% of the rockets from falling to the earth.

Here in our community, we have been an oasis of serenity, even as rockets fell and Arabs burned Jewish cars and synagogues in Lod, Acre, and Yafo. Communities where Jews and Arabs have been trying for over a decade to share neighborhoods in experiments of true co-existence, the veil of illusion was brutally torn away.

As anyone who watches television series or isn’t totally cut off from the news knows, the US is consuming itself like a snake devouring itself from its tail. Black protests, complete with vandalism, theft, and, in some cases, violence; Asians coming out of the closet concerning the decades-old prejudice against them, triggered by the murder of Asian spa workers. Whites feeling marginalized; any action on their part is wrong. Anti-semitism on the rise. Jews feeling it’s unsafe to walk on the streets of America wearing a kippah (Jewish head covering), and being assaulted in places as far-flung as New Mexico.

Books are being censored. History is being rewritten, People are being canceled.

• 

• 

• 

“Politically correct” reigns and woe be unto the person who uses the wrong pronoun.

George Floyd, killed by police officers while resisting arrest, was found to have fentanyl in is system to the point of intoxication. His autopsy also revealed recent methamphetamine use at the time he was arrested for allegedly trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. He had advanced heart disease including an enlarged heart, one artery 90% blocked and two others 75% narrowed. Excessive force was used in restraining him, which, along with the other factors, resulted in his death.

George Floyd was made a martyr for the cause of Black Lives Matter. Of course they matter. No more or less than the lives of all other people. George Floyd may represent the hundreds of Blacks stopped unnecessarily by police officers, treated with suspicion and hostility, who are fearful for their lives during such stops. But does anyone really want to raise their children to think of a repeat criminal, convicted of eight crimes between 1997 and 2005 as a hero? A man who served four years in prison for aggravated robbery during a home invasion?

In what universe is every Black person in prison a victim while Jews running for shelter from falling rockets are aggressors? In what universe is a pandemic a worldwide government conspiracy and the vaccine to prevent further spreading of the virus an extension of that conspiracy? In what universe are children who come home from school with a barely passing grade met with “Good Job!” by the parents? In what universe is the murderer of an elderly woman beaten and thrown out of her window acquitted because he was under the influence of marijuana at the time? In what universe are people arrested for violent crimes released on their own cognizance immediately because it would be discrimination against the poor to require them to post bond? In what universe are crimes against Blacks hate crimes while crimes against Jews are not?

It’s a universe which is addled, afflicted, and astray. Where reality is what the media reflects instead of what we actually experience; where a person’s word is no longer the truth as she knows it but as she wants you to believe it to be. Where anything goes if you can sell it, and you have no responsibility for the consequences. Where nothing is expected to last – not jobs, appliances or relationships. Instant food, instant gratification, instant success, or move on.

Lots of people are saying what a tough year it’s been. I’m reminded of the two arrows – the first one is the inevitable pain in life such as a pandemic. The second arrow is self-inflicted suffering like societies consuming themselves like a snake eating itself from its tail.

How bad will things get before we wake up to the absurdities? I hope I live to see it. I also hope the damage done in the meantime won’t be too horrendous.