Fragments

Grief takes different forms

Reflecting on two quotes that speak to some of what I'm reeling from and haven't been able to get grounded about yet.

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"War crimes and murdered toddlers are not a 'complex political situation' with 'arguments on both sides.' You can support Palestinian statehood—in fact, you can have any opinion you want about the regional politics of the Middle East—and still believe that jihadist terrorists abducting 85-year-old Holocaust survivors should be condemned. Conflating those two things only gives credence to the idea that violence against Jews is political; violence against anyone else is unquestionably evil."

~ Ani Wilcenski and Isaac de Castro, Tablet Magazine

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“I think what surprised me most was the indifference to human suffering. I’m trying to hold on, personally, to my commitments, my values, which now feel in conflict, in a way, with the political community that I lived alongside in the United States for basically my whole adult life. It certainly has begun to feel like a breaking point.”

And:

"...a loud part of the left insists that when it comes to Israelis, there is no such thing as civilians."

~ Joshua Leifer, a contributing editor at the left-wing magazine Jewish Currents and a member of the editorial board at the progressive publication Dissent {NYT}

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I realized last night, after a 12-hour day, that I've been overthinking about not having cried.

Perhaps I write into and through my grief, and this is not necessarily a way of distancing. Maybe it's even my best attempt to come closer to something I cannot seem to locate and touch yet is ever-present.

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Grief takes different forms.

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And the sun rises in the east, illuminating the crowns of trees. I sit in silence, watching the light come up and the leaves come down.

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