Thursday evening of last week I went up to Midgal Ha'Emek. It's a small town in the north of Israel, very quiet, fresh air and very green. I took the bus from Jerusalem's Takhana Merkazit (Central Station) to Hof Ha'Carmel, a station in Haifa. Unfortunately, the only train in Israel is the north-south one that runs along the coast, so inter-city buses are still the only options for the car-less. I like hyphens. The buses in Israel are quite Israeli. That means that getting information on which bus to take to what destination and what gate it leaves from involves getting a dirty look from the information booth employee. Getting the ticket means waiting in a disorganized line. Getting on the bus means jockeying for position in what cannot be in good faith called a line. But my patience levels have increased to some new highs in the two months I've been here, so I hardly notice these inconveniences. There was traffic out of Jerusalem, as expected on Yom Hamishi (Fifth Day=Thursday), and the bus driver was playing Galatz, one of the two IDF radio stations. They throw in American songs once in a while, but three quarters of the time it's Israeli music, which is simply the bomb. Speaking of bombs, there are metal detectors in the entrance to the bus station, and all bags get searched. This requires some patience, but I've already switched my mentality over from the one I had in NY. In fact, the switch happened way before I got to Israel. It happened almost a year ago. I was still employed at Jewish-last-name-A, Jewish-last-name-B & Jewish-last-name-C LLP. They paid well, but it wasn't my cup of tea to say the least. A tangent off a tangent, as I write this I am listening to Subliminal. If you ever learn Hebrew, and you know who you are, you'll appreciate his lyrics on a higher level than that attained from those weak translations I attempted.

Law firms are a great place to work for many pseudo-intelligent types with liberal arts degrees. But by February 2005 I already knew where I was headed and more or less when. And I started to switch to a calmer, more Biblical view of life. That has only continued since I've actually gotten here. Not that there's no room for emotional swings or for specific, aggressive action when necessary. There most definitely is. But most of the time, the approach to life is more laid back. "Laid back" is an expression misused on dating sites and by people trying to sound like they're somehow more relaxed than the next guy. Well, in Israel, being "laid back" is quite a pure concept, in all its Mediterranean-ness. It doesn't mean you're a chilled out stoner hanging out on a beach in Cali, although it may for some people. Laid back means you take most of life at a moderate pace and try not to worry about, well, anything. You make your little niche and you do what you need to without getting stressed. If you decide to spend energy on worrying about the bigger picture, there are more important things to worry about than work, school, careers, bureacracy, money. Those things exist here as everywhere, people just don't have involved conversations about those topics, they're just more of a background to what is actually going on. What is, in fact going on in people lives here? What do they talk about, think about, worry about, dream about? What occupies their thoughts if not what most 'normal' people would consider the stuff of life?

Family, friends, enjoying doing things like going out, walking around, taking trips, going to the beach, eating. All these things are really enjoyable here for some inexplicable reason. Well, there are reasons, but it sounds post-modern to say something is inexplicable and incomprehensible. And since I was raised and educated in an empty, post-modern society, I still write accordingly. Then there's the conflict, which is happening just a few miles from where I am currently located. Despite what the public hears from the media, there's actually a lot going on. Not a random incident once a week or once every few days. Not even close. Every night there are fun activities going on. Living so close to those areas doesn't mean that I see or hear anything. A mile in Israel is like 500 miles in the US. But there are regular people who lead what is basically a double life. These are the active duty soldiers of the IDF and the reservists. Despite the fact that recruitment levels are currently at 82% of males and 62% females, that still means that virtually all Israeli guys you would get to know and most women have or are currently serving. Guys also have to do reserve duty for up to a month per year every year until age 42. It's a small country so when people serve they go back into the civilian world on weekends. Two thirds of guys serve in combat or combat support positions. These people are leading double lives. One moment they are crawling in sand and crouching behind rocks and getting shot at. The next, we're watching a movie or eating hummus in some restaurant. Moment after that, they are hiding in a hole, covered with dirt, for 48 hours eating canned cr@p, waiting to spring an ambush. Next scene - they're eating with family for Shabbat. And it goes on like this... I think it's a lot to ask people, even young motivated ones, to put up with that kind of life. But, like Israelis say "ein brirah" - there's no choice.

Back to me on the bus to Haifa. I eventually get to the Grand Kanyon, a mall, in Haifa where I visit with a family friend, G, who owns a store there. We discuss importing leather products from Turkey and Italy and my presence attracts some Russian-speaking female clientele. They don't buy anything, but one of them attempts to explain to me something about her friend ... blah ... blah... usual female bs when they don't know what to say to get you to ask for their number. People just don't stop. On the other hand, if it wasn't for the Russian girls, I don't know how the Israeli guys would keep their sanity. Israeli girls aren't exactly lining up for casual sex. Anyways, I am shomer negia, so these things bear little relevance to me.

We wait for G's kids to show up. One of them is in the army, and is not the same since I saw him three years ago. Still looks the same, just moves differently and smiles less often. We drive to Migdal Ha'Emek. There are two days of quality family time, amazing food, Olympic figure skating and some discussions about the topics above. They are all voting for the Ihud Leumi/Mafdal block, that's a serious right wing party. Arabs are the enemy, not the neighbor. The land is ours and the international community with their whining and Arab-pandering can shove it. Let them play their liberal tolerance games with their internal Arabs for now, in 10 years they'll reap a harvest of blood and will probably just ask themselves "what did we do to deserve this?" But we, here in Israel, can't cuddle the enemy. Squeeze them until they kneel and beg for mercy. Then mete out justice to all who deserve it and deal with the rest in the manner most suitable to our needs and no one else's. They're basically right. The basic human goodness assumed by bleeding heart liberals is simply not applicable in this part of the world.

I take the bus back to Jerusalem on motzei Shabbat, Saturday night. Some homework, a bit of Spanish conversation with South Americans in an altered state of mind, and sleep.