The lonely wolf

Alone, it was the only way of being he was used to. And fully wished for.

As a child, in a house always full of people, with new faces coming and going, old friends turned into enemies and new customs installed from a day to another, it was easy to find his own corner and catch there for the rest of the hours. All of them were so busy with themselves that it was almost impossible to notice him. In fact, they were not even connected with themselves, as "the something else" they were pretending they are busy too it was nothing but a shadow of something they will never be able to be. Never ever.

He observed all these faces for years. Every single hour and day he was there, in the middle of the familiar crowd. A huge family the other kids from school envied him for, as for him it was sometimes complicate to remember the names or the family connections with all of them. Many of them were proudly bearing the same name. So what? In his world, each of them were called according to the names he gave them. One word describing what he saw in each: the liar, the red carrot, the muffin...They never knew this. He, from his secret place, continued to observe them and to make them alive in his stories. Finally, all of them were able to express themselves, to talk and share emotions. They were, finally, less alone. But he, he continued to enjoy the power of understanding them all.

For Jerusalem - Elie Wiesel

It was inevitable: Jerusalem once again is at the center of political debates and international storms. New and old tensions surface at a disturbing pace. Seventeen times destroyed and seventeen times rebuilt, it is still in the middle of diplomatic confrontations that could lead to armed conflict. Neither Athens nor Rome has aroused that many passions.

For me, the Jew that I am, Jerusalem is above politics. It is mentioned more than six hundred times in Scripture-and not a single time in the Koran. Its presence in Jewish history is overwhelming. There is no more moving prayer in Jewish history than the one expressing our yearning to return to Jerusalem. To many theologians, it IS Jewish history, to many poets, a source of inspiration. It belongs to the Jewish people and is much more than a city, it is what binds one Jew to another in a way that remains hard to explain. When a Jew visits Jerusalem for the first time, it is not the first time; it is a homecoming. The first song I heard was my mother's lullaby about and for Jerusalem. Its sadness and its joy are part of our collective memory.

Since King David took Jerusalem as his capital, Jews have dwelled inside its walls with only two interruptions; when Roman invaders forbade them access to the city and again, when under Jordanian occupation. Jews, regardless of nationality, were refused entry into the old Jewish quarter to meditate and pray at the Wall, the last vestige of Solomon's temple. It is important to remember: had Jordan not joined Egypt and Syria in the 1967 war against Israel, the old city of Jerusalem would still be Arab. Clearly, while Jews were ready to die for Jerusalem they would not kill for Jerusalem.

Today, for the first time in history, Jews, Christians and Muslims all may freely worship at their shrines. And, contrary to certain media reports, Jews, Christians and Muslims ARE allowed to build their homes anywhere in the city. The anguish over Jerusalem is not about real estate but about memory.

What is the solution? Pressure will not produce a solution. Is there a solution? There must be, there will be. Why tackle the most complex and sensitive problem prematurely? Why not first take steps which will allow the Israeli and Palestinian communities to find ways to live together in an atmosphere of security. Why not leave the most difficult, the most sensitive issue, for such a time?

Jerusalem must remain the world's Jewish spiritual capital, not a symbol of anguish and bitterness, but a symbol of trust and hope. As the Hasidic master Rebbe Nahman of Bratslav said, "Everything in this world has a heart; the heart itself has its own heart."

Jerusalem is the heart of our heart, the soul of our soul.

For Jerusalem was published April 16, as a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, in the form an open letter to President Obama.

Israel, Starbucks and the new irrationalism

In fact, it is not new irrationalism, just the old toxic way of non-thinking.

It is any "right" attitude to life?

What is the basis of our life/partnership choices? Should be let moral/ethical - mostly the social considerations - to take over our (whatever vague) temptation of trying-tasting-curiosity towards a new and next step?

Age, gender, social limits are importantly enough - and powerful enough - to stop us make the choices we and only we - in the loneliness of the meeting between our thoughts and desires ? We want to fill our lives, to have a certain feeling of accomplishment. But, are we resourceful enough to do it with nothing more nothing less than accessing our inner resources?

Feelings are irrational and hard to explain. Our thoughts might be feed by the desires of irrationality.

In what respects philosophy and ethics are helpful in the genesis of our choices ? But not in the post-hoc analysis of the choices we already made.

Do we need to apologize for our personal decisions, even these decisions do confront the usual social stereotypes?

Does it means that by fully assuming our decisions we are fully aware of the importance of being the part and the solution of our decisions? The ethnical relief included.

The moral discussions do not need answers, but an endless row of questions. Just a couple of them inspired by Alexander McCall Smith's book.

Literature and science

An article about how to interpret what we are reading and what, why and how we are understanding what we are reading. One of my observation is that, the altruistic reader is hard to find, as in many situations what we are looking to and through books is to find answers to our questions, more or less personal. The interest we share in books could be our interest in looking for solutions. Mostly when it is about pure literature. As in the case of understanding and open ourselves to our - non-Western cultures - the temptation is rather to use our patterns of thinking than to open to new ideas and thoughts.

Another observation I have after reading this article is that even we have books for centuries and centuries and the quantity of writing - in the online contemporary era - is increasing in an accelerate rhythm, our knowledge about the rationality and mechanisms of our brain faced with the written page is minimal.

Who are our readers and why we are reading ?