Here in Berkeley, it’s been a quiet couple of weeks. Perfect warm fall weather with just enough fog to cool us off if it got too hot. I’ve enjoyed three concerts: one at the Botanical Garden in the idyllic Redwood Grove (it was so terrible we left after half an hour); a San Francisco Symphony morning rehearsal and a piano concert at a local church. I’ve enjoyed going out to lunch with friends. Now all my walking friends have stopped walking so Bob is my one walking partner. There was a violent murder on one of my walking routes, just a few blocks from our house and so I find myself hesitant to go out alone. Tuesday and Thursday are our gym days and I’m enjoying our classes a lot. Arne and Liam have come over a couple of times and it’s always great to see them. Arne picked 4 shopping bags full of apples from his tree. I’ve been making applesauce like mad with apples I picked. The Asian pear trees have produced a bountiful crop of delicious pears which I’ve been taking everywhere I can think of to share the bounty. When I asked our new neighbor if he wanted some apples, he said he’d take some only if he could make a pie for us. What a nice neighbor we have! Life is moving along gently and uneventfully here.
But in Israel, wow, it’s not. I’m enormously saddened from the terrible attack and killings that happened 10 days ago. I’m still taking in the horror in stories that keep coming. For my Jewish friends, this is terrifying, so reminiscent of the Holocaust horrors. Jews have suffered under discrimination and violence for 6000 years. As President Biden said, all people, especially the Jews deserve to be treated with respect and fairness. I love Israel and had a very happy time living there so long ago in 1977. It was a peaceful time then. I remember with our French friends, we drove through Gaza going to a beach (I think it was called El Arish) in the south of the Gaza Strip. Even then, it felt scary to be there, I remember, like I was where I shouldn’t be. As we ate our picnic lunch and swam in the Mediterranean, children came by selling trinkets. It is such a complex situation. Old Testament ways of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” but that only leads to blind toothless people. The humanitarian disaster happening in Gaza now also breaks my heart. Half the population of Gaza is under 15 years old and now suffer from being displaced. I wish there were another way, a way of negotiation and peace. I have been wrestling with this question. I say, I want to be kind, but kindness can be taken for weakness. After such a horror, who could be kind and forgiving? Sweet words with a dream of peace sound hollow such violent killing. War is truly hell.
We leave tomorrow for nearly a month in E. Lansing. There’s been a lot happening there in recent weeks. Erika is a Senior now and working diligently on her college essays. She’s been on the Honor Court at Homecoming and marching in the Marching Band at all the football games. And Sonja has been running fast like the wind at the cross country meets. In her last one, she was first and beat her best time by 30 seconds! The football will be over, but we’ll get to go to a couple of cross country meets. There’s lots planned there while we’re with them. Mostly though, I just want to be with them. It is a bittersweet time, the last year Erika will be around as she’ll be in college. Next year the family will be in Innsbruck Austria as Paula has a sabbatical year. So it’s a special time to be with them for these weeks.
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