Good Morning, from Calm and Peaceful East Texas
Good morning, from East Texas.I sit here in relative calm, peace, and quiet. Days are a bit stressful work-wise, with some home challenges and family drama, but I repeat that it is calm and quiet.
My niece in Israel sends my sister and me a blog about her experience living in Jerusalem during a war. Not necessarily of her choice, but one she sees as necessary to eliminate the threat from Iran, the evil leadership, and their contribution to terror, not just in the Middle East, not just to Israel, but around the world.
I am again sitting in a calm, peaceful, and comfortable place. I figure Longview is safe because, even if g-d forbid there were some calamity here from Iran, how would they find Longview? Most people in Dallas don’t know where we are.
"Wishing you a peaceful and calm Shabbat."
It doesn’t take much to think back to 9/11, where we all presumed safety and peace here in North America. We weren’t worried about an attack from Canada or Mexico, but we weren’t totally safe from the horrors of terrorists. It led to at least two wars in Iraq, and who knows how many other hostilities around the globe, but once again, between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, we felt safe.
My niece writes of challenges that I cannot imagine. There is a pre-alert… and once an actual warning is sounded, they have 90 seconds to reach a nearby shelter. They hear planes overhead, some noises, and sounds of bombs around them, but thankfully, they are safe in a shelter.
There, they see people that they may not know, maybe a neighbor or so, but people that share a common anxiety, as it is not like there is a schedule of when an attack may be coming, and apparently, Iran is very keen on attacking in the dark of night.
She tells of the different responses of children depending on the time of day. The four-year-old boy that was obviously being difficult because he was bored. Before the next siren, my niece packed a bag of toys and such to keep him occupied. I was in awe of her compassion and care at a time when many, myself included, might have just complained.
They went through this after the October 7th attack, but reading her blog and talking to her, it is obvious there is no way to get used to this or call it routine.
What is worse, maybe, the other Gulf states are being attacked by Iran. Israel has experienced attacks and terror for most of its existence since 1948, but many of the Gulf states don’t have shelters everywhere, and they do not have sirens to warn that attacks are coming. I have a friend in Dubai who found safety in Oman, but this world of attacks and horror, again, is unimaginable to me
There are some advantages to being 61. There is the ability of experience and reaction, but I don’t have any experience to compare. 9/11 was horrible, the aftermath and horror lasted a while, but still it was not days, weeks, months, and more of worry and anxiety over unpredictable attacks from sovereign countries.
Going back to being 61, I have recently realized I need to stop comparing one person’s experience to my own.
Your partner or husband died? Share empathy and compassion, but we all experience grief in our own way.
Don’t compare illnesses. Don’t compare work stress. We all experience and react to life differently.
The idea that I have had some experience that compares to what my niece, family, and friends are going through in Israel, or the horror my friend experienced in Dubai, is not possible.
I listen, we may compare recipes, we may discuss Judaism and the parsha for Shabbos. Or I listen to the lack of open pubs in Oman during Ramadan. Empathy does not require that we have had comparable experiences to share. It means that we care, we listen, and show love and compassion for those experiencing their own horrors of a moment, grief, and other life moments.
9/11 did teach me one thing, as someone who was living just west of the Hudson River. The farther you are from a horror, the less aware you can be of the tragedy at hand.
I have compared it to dropping a rock in the middle of the pond. The further away the ripple, the less effect from the rock, and so it is true that the further away we are from others' experiences, the less impact they have on us as well.
What I can share, from a personal side, is that I wake up most mornings with a quick check on WhatsApp. Did my niece, friends, or other family members send a message? She is good at letting me know they are all safe, but with so many sirens, I hear less. I then check the Jerusalem Post for news of her day, before starting my day and the luck of experiencing my daily routine.
Again, I wake up in a calm and peaceful place, hoping for peace and love for everyone!
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