Realism and Sacredness

Like pretty much every decent person I know, I was outraged to find out--via tweet, no less--that our president has decided to ban transgender people from military service. This is one more example of the casual afterthought with which this administration erases civil rights and is an absolute outrage. I also agree with those who commented this morning that simultaneous occurrence of bad things (efforts to deny healthcare to millions of Americans and efforts to marginalize trans people) does not imply that one is a "distraction" from the other. It is pouring bad news, and these are just two of those. And yet, I always find myself uneasy when our civil rights struggle revolves around military service. My discomfort stems, I imagine, from having grown up in an extremely militarized country, in which two massive fictions govern the idea of service: that everyone must serve (i.e., that the army is moral and ethical and is busy defending a small democracy in a sea of hostile c...

My visit to Israel went well. I got to see my cousin Shahaf as one of the witches in the Scottish play and enjoyed spending time with my parents. I had never appreciated their beautiful garden when I lived at home with them. But now, when I sat in it, its rich lushness, and the gentle symphony of noises and voices whistling through its ground and trees cheered my soul to no end. We have become softer and more sentimental, more outwardly loving, then we were in my youth. We parted in tears and hugs at the airport. I boarded the flight at midnight, took a small square of CBD chocolate, and fell asleep immediately. "They're deplaning us!" a call rang near my ear. I sprang upright in my seat and looked on the airplane screen. The time was 2am. The flight attendants announced a problem with the PA system. The plane could not take off. We were all to deplane and retrieve our luggage. It took people a few moments to adjust to the new reality--especially the many of them wi...