Entering Week Eight

8.20.06

Entering Week Eight

I have rebelliously (against myself) activated a different blog format. I hopes you likes it.

Just returned to the kibbutz after spending Shabbat with my (new) cousin Debbie & fam. She and her husband Baruch were kind enough to host / feed / hang out with me despite having to mind their five kids (ages 4-16), all of whom were home all the time thanks to summer break. Here we are, 7 of us… the oldest son was MIA for the photos, unfortunately.

From L to R, spelling errors aside: Me, Iban, Shevi, Debbie, Noa, Baruch, Sivan. It was a blessing to be able to spend time with a real family again, especially one as beautiful & enjoyable as this.

Debbie, incidentally, forwarded me what may be my favorite editorial on the “34-Day War,” written by a Christian Lebanese academic… check out http://www.menapress.com/article.php?sid=1479 if you’re interested. My favorite parts are where he outlines the damage wrought on his country and, specifically, on Beirut, in precise terms that I have not seen in other (admittedly, few) articles I've read. That said, I think he's a bit selective in choosing what he describes. Decide for yourself.

The good news is that there’s not much else to report, except that my Hebrew teacher is covering past and future tenses simultaneously, which is like trying to teach your toddler to pirouette the day after she takes her first steps. I hope she doesn’t expect us to actually speak in those tenses, at least for now… or maybe I just belong in Special Ed for Amerrrican Monoglots.

We’re all enjoying the calm that began last Tuesday, hoping hard -- against the grain of the news -- that it lasts as long.

Incidentally, for all you tennis fans, David Foster Wallace wrote a beautiful (yes, beautiful) 5-pager on R. Federer, just published in the NYTimes Magazine… http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20federer.html?ref=playmagazine

Peace.