Pictures and Words

Frank has captured the mood of the last week well in his column below. On the Memorial Day for Israel Soldiers I spoke about Gregory at the memorial on the kibbutz and I read a poem by Yehuda Amichai, probably the best known of Israel's 20th century poets. This poem is the 3rd in a series of poems entitled "And Who Will Remember the Rememberers?" This is my translation:

And how do we stand at a memorial ceremony?
Straight or bent over,
In tension like a tent or sloppy as in grief,
With head bowed as if guilty or head held high in protest against death,
With eyes gaping and frozen as the eyes of the dead
Or closed, to see the stars within.
And what is the best hour to remember?
At mid-day when the shadow is hidden beneath our feet, or at dusk
When shadows grow long, like yearning
That has no beginning and no end, like God?

In Israel, Independence Day follows immediately Memorial Day to acknowledge the fact that Israel's independence and existence as a country has been at the cost of the lives of over 22,000 soldiers. It is a very difficult time and the whole country is involved. The heaviness of Memorial Day is felt by everyone -- the television is only about stories of sacrifice and loss and the radio plays old beloved songs all day and all night. Restaurants and movies are closed. And then, at 8:00 at night there is a national ceremony televised from the large military ceremony on Mount Hertzel with speeches and fireworks and celebration to begin Independence Day.

Another national custom on Memorial Day is a cook-out. We had a marvelous cookout and the children fanned the coals with paddles usually used to play Beach Bats. So below is a picture of them fanning the fire. Another picture shows what we ate before it was cooked -- skewers with chicken. Delicious food! I've posted several other pictures taken on our trip the next day. We went to a mountain, Har Bental, and there we found a coffee shop. The picture of the sign is very clever -- the word in Hebrew is "Anan" which means cloud. Because it was coffee on the mountain in the cloud...Coffee Anan......

Enjoy!
Pat