Sea Change

So we're getting ready to celebrate our 17th Passover together and our 10th Passover in Israel. Did I just write that? Can it really be true? I am as shocked as you are.

I often wonder if we will ever feel like we live here, but some of the stuff going on right now makes me feel like we do. Not big stuff, just day to day stuff. The level of involvement we have in our local community, which feels very high after 3 years. The number of people we know and the connections we have. Small things.

I went by myself to a shloshim commemoration for a colleague and friend's father. She had gone to the states for the funeral and shiva so this was a chance for her community here to greet her. There were lots of people there I did not know, but lots of people I did know. And there were some people there I know who I had not seen in years. That means I've been here for years and years could go by with my not seeing them. I sat and easily listened to talks in Hebrew and English. I thought about what it means to lose a parent far away and about what it means to live in two civilizations. Then I came home.

There's a lot going on here - there's a bad conversion bill before the Knesset (see www.irac.org for what you can do). There's the new housing being built in a place I for the life of me can't figure out why they are calling East Jerusalem - it's in Ramat Shlomo. I guess it's at the top of East Jerusalem somehow. I'm much more worried about what's going on in Sheikh Jarrah, which is in the heart of East Jerusalem. There are problems right here in our area, which I hope to write about soon.

Sasha has a book about chocolate and it talks about how Cortes conquered the Aztecs. Gabi wants to know who was good and who was bad. When I can't answer that, she wants to know which side I am on. Help me out here if you can - should I say Cortes was bad? Is it important that I take a side here? The book says the Aztecs were very fierce and the Mayans were afraid of them. Who were the good guys anyway?

The neighbors borrowed two suitcases for their kids who are going on a school trip. I spent two hours at a birthday party where I knew the clown from Gabi's birthday last year and he greeted me like a friend. We hosted 4 kids at our house on Sunday for a host home for Gabi's school. These small things are making me feel like as we're heading into our 10th Pesach in Israel, we actually live here.

The coming year is right about when I expected congress to pass something letting us back in the US (and helping the thousands of binational couples like us who don't have the right to live together in the US). March in Washington on Sunday to make it happen (www.immigrationequality.org). I figured right around the time we felt really at home here, the laws would change. I'm feeling more at home, we're still waiting, but I'm not packing any suitcases.

P.S. One person who read this thought it meant we're moving back to the states - no, really we are not, we don't have that option and don't know what we would do if we did have the option. And P.P.S. Right after I wrote this I took Alen's car for inspection and was in and out in less than 30 minutes. I'm still waiting for where I have to pay the price for that miracle!