The stand I will take
by tamarjacobson
Story of the day:
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The complex chaos of politics … and yet it affects our lives in the most fundamental ways. It really does not matter what my opinion is or is not. It matters the actual stand I take or do not. The agony and rage of the human condition is overwhelming.
Two years ago I left Israel after visiting my family. I was terribly sad to leave them and travel across the thousands of miles back to America once again. My mother was aged, and I missed her just as soon as we bade farewell. My hand fell to my side as I stood on the shuttle bus carrying me and many others to the waiting plane, tears of sorrowful parting flowing down my cheeks. Suddenly I felt little fingers grasping hold of my hand and I looked down. A small toddler in a stroller had reached out her hand to mine and she was looking up at me anxiously. I smiled through my tears and then noticed her mother smiling back at me. She was dressed in traditional clothing with a hijab covering her head. We were flying together on the same plane to America, me, an Israeli-American atheist and she a Christian or Muslim Arab woman. We continued our short journey on the bus, Arab child and I hand in hand, her mother smiling at us both all the way.
I refuse to enter into raging, agonizing arguments on the Internet or through my blog. I would rather listen to the stories that all people tell me, all the while looking into their eyes with empathy and compassion.
This is the stand I will take.
I will work tirelessly through my actions, writings, dreams, awareness-raising, and aspirations to rid, at the very least, my mini-universe from the disease of patriarchy. For all children, nay, all of humanity are punished – all suffer – from the violence and dominance that is patriarchy.
And if along the way, as I tell my own story, my experience of my life, you feel hurt by that, I will try and understand that your survival affects how you hear me.
And I will remind myself of these things over and over again, especially when darkness rages all around.
This is the stand I will take.
tamarjacobson 
is “Jew” the same as “Israeli”?
‘ve been wanting to write something about this issue, but, being neither one or the other or both, I felt I shouldn’t. However, an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, written by a practicing Jew, put it out there in…
Hello Gemma. Smiles.
I stand with you.
ainelivia,
Yes, pockets of light surely can be our selves, but I hope too it could mean communities of us all. Compassion, I believe, is key.
Hello Tamar,
Thanks so much for stopping by. It seems we have much in common. I shall be visiting you. Am pleased my words had meaning for you too. Yes indeed, l’hitraot!
hi! i found your blog today via lisa (ontheface) via nooster via savta dotty! not only do we share a name but i am/was an ece (early childhood ed) person! i spent a dozen of the best years of my life in the world of head start (in boston and the northeast and south), a life-affirming experience for all participants. i LOVED your descriptions here, especially your statement: “I refuse to enter into raging, agonizing arguments on the Internet or through my blog. I would rather listen to the stories that all people tell me, all the while looking into their eyes with empathy and compassion.” Kol hakavod and i’ll be back again soon. L’hitraot!
I feel very moved reading this Tamarika, surely this is the best any of us can do, to be true to our own feelings and hang on to the “pockets of light”. Reading this I believe that I understand better now when you said this to me recently, then I thought of it in terms of finding pockets of light; now I see we need to be our own pockets of light.
And thank you for the links to Neil’s post, which is beautifully written and expressed and Paris Parfait.
Thanks, MaryB. I appreciate your standing with me.
And thanks, too, to you, Danny. I see you don’t tire of hearing me retell my stories, eh?
Beautiful post. I so love the story of that little girl holding your hand. I wish you had a photo of it that we could all look at when we get wrapped up in the frustrating politics of the region.
Beautifully written, beautifully stated, Tamar. Whatever the reasons and justifications (of both sides) for what’s happening right now, my thoughts are always with the children (of both sides) and their mamas and daddies who really have no power in all of this. What an awful mess a handful of people make of this world! I stand with you.