Memories
In the summer of 1973 my wife and I spent a month in Israel. It was a soul-enriching trip that included swimming and relaxing as well as the sightseeing of a truly remarkable country with a truly remarkable history. One of the best memories was a beautiful Saturday- Shabat, Sabbath- in Haifa. We spent a good portion of the day sitting with some newly made friends at an outdoor cafe, which, as I remember it, was owned by Arab-Israelis. Haifa was, as I remember, the poster city for the possibilities of Arabs and Jews living together in Israel.

It was a wonderful day in a beautiful city. It has stuck with me as one of the great days of my life.

I am sure that the Haifa of my memory was never as beautiful as I remember it. I am also sure that 33 years have also done much to change Haifa.

But not as much as what I have been seeing on TV in the past 2 weeks. The destructive power of humanity is truly a horror to behold. Sadly, I am seeing the same thing happening in Beirut, once the jewel of the Middle East. Two more casualties of the violence that we humans are so sadly prone to carry out. When that violence happens in a place where you have been, its consequences become all too clear.

I don't know the rightness or wrongness of either side. Not for sure. I have my opinions. But they are all tinged with the deep sadness and pain of knowing that in war, nobody wins. The losers? Us. A world that loses people, places, and things that are of beauty. Yes, life is temporary and the things of this world are not permanent. But within the short blink-of-an-eye that I call my life experience, it is still painful. We won't get back what we have lost.