I just returned home to Israel after an urgent trip to Canada. Unfortunately, my father died soon after I arrived there. It was completely unexpected for me and I spent the next 12 days in a surreal blur. However, after almost two weeks I had no choice but to force my way out of the fog, get on a plane and come home. Someone has to drag the kids out of bed every morning, do the laundry and field complaints about everything for menu choices to curfews.
Yes, my husband could have done it. He is more than capable. But let's face it... my kids need their hyperactive, irrational, inconsistent mother to keep their lives moving forward. Where would we all be if I didn't ruin their every day?
It wasn't easy to leave my mother and siblings but one of the things I have noticed about being an adult is that your responsibilities lie with the people who scream the loudest for your attention.
So here I am back in Israel, sad about my father and not feeling much better about the dangerous situation in Gaza. On the plane, on the way home, I read in the newspapers about the world's view of Israel's evil soldiers. I couldn't help but roll my eyes because sometime I wish we really did have evil soldiers. We could use them. In fact, many of those soldiers are my friends' sons -- some of whom were called up for active duty in the middle of the Sabbath. They may seem like evil soldiers to the world media (no surprise there) but to me, they are the big kids who live around the corner and babysit my kids. The soldiers I know are polite, smart, and eager to get on with their lives. They have girlfriends, wives, jobs and children of their own.
The one thing I have learned after living in Israel for the past seven years is that to be an Israeli requires on to have incredibly broad shoulders. Being unpopular on an international, worldwide basis is a way of life. And you thought it was hard when your supposed best friend dropped you in high school for a new model best friend. Ha.
you go girl !!!
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