So Much To Say

Over the last few days, I helped to build a wall, used a pickaxe (I have pictures to prove it), spent Shabbat in the ancient city of Tzfat, went to the mosh-pit version of services, slept in a cave (albeit furnished), sang hippie Jew Shabbat songs, went to a refurnished Byzantine-era motel, heard from a Palestinian and went to his village, went on a 3 hour hike between Arab villages, saw a British film being filmed in a Druze village, went to a Druze restaurant, almost made my director’s 9 year old son throw up (AWKWARD), met the maker of the most expensive soap in the world (and bought some for cheap!), walked through the Baha’i Gardens in Akko, visited the holiest site in the Baha’i religion (and pissed off some Baha’i making pilgrimage in the process…), took a tour through the ancient city of Akko, and met with one of the most famous sportscasters in Israel. This was over a period of four days. Out of curiosity, what did you do during that time? Watch some college basketball? (Sidebar: I LOVE NORTHERN IOWA. And I hate Bob Huggins’s jumpsuit. Put on a suit next time.) Cheer (or mourn) the passing of health care reform? How do I explain everything that happened over what seems like such a short time?

Welcome to my biggest issue this year.

For the record, I in no way mean to criticize or call you, my loyal reader(s), lazy. I’m simply pointing out how ridiculous some of our days can be and how hard it is to communicate that to everyone back home. We all talk about how easy it is to keep in touch with everyone back home, and it’s true. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, all of it make it easier than ever before and make the world smaller than it ever has been. But really, is it all that easy?

The other day I was talking to one of my good friends on Facebook. I asked him about our fraternity’s recent formal in kansas City, and he asked my about my upcoming vacation in Croatia. Then he had to go to class, I had to go to volunteering, and that was it. As we say here in Israel, zey oh. How can I possibly tell him everything that’s been happening here in such a short time? And that’s just one friend – there are countless others that I’ve barely been able to talk to over the past year, and many more that I haven’t spoken to at all. Are they bad friends? Of course not. Am I a bad friend? I hope not.

The truth is, it’s hard. I generalized before about what you did over the past four days, but I bet that there was a lot more than that. I really wish that I could tell you all everything that’s happened over the past days, weeks, months, and year, but it’s just not possible. But, I try my best. I’m honestly not criticizing anyone for not keeping in touch – truth be told, your lives are much busier than mine on a day-to-day basis. If anything, I’m the one that needs to be doing a better job at keeping up this blog and tweeting more about what’s going on in Israel as opposed to random things that cross my mind.

In any case, I’ve got a little over three months until I’m back in the good ole’ US of A. Chances are, many of you will never hear all of the stories I’ve accumulated this year – there are just too many of them. But I’ll do my best. In the meantime, feel free to leave a comment, send me an email, leave me a message on Facebook or Twitter, or even spend a couple cents and give me a call (through Skype if you want). But until that time, keep reading this space and we’ll be in touch!

(Sidebar: On that note, really do keep watching this space – long series of blogs covering my February weekend with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict starts tomorrow!)