Disaster Experts: For better of worse

We had a wild and completely untamed storm that hit tel aviv the other day. It was hurricane like in scope and damaged most of the boardwalk from the south end ( Jaffa- where we live) to the north end ( leading into herziliya). I was out running the first and second days of the storm and saw bricks in the deck of the old city in Jaffa, being thrown up in the air. I watched as trees fell in front of me and braches flew beside me. I hopped over piles of cigarettes that made their way up onto the roads and somehow found eachother like brothers in kind. Mountains of refuse lay everywhere. It was as if the sea got fed up and threw up all the garbage that was laying ill in it's bowels.

After two days the storm stilled it's voluptous winds and the rain came to a peter. Rays of sunshine peaked out and a rainbow dared to make an appearance. Within 24 hours, Isreal sprung into action and managed to almost completely rehabilitate our damaged waterfront and the beautiful port in old jaffa. It was pretty incredible to see how poor we are at prevention and how skilled we are at disaster response after the fact. Ironic and comical almost.

Break on through ( to the other side)...

Music has always drawn me in. It pulls me tight like an octupus latches onto prey with it's tentacles of force. But instead of sucking me dry it infuses me and keeps my mind and soul moist. When I was overseas with my boyfriend (A), we spent some time visiting at my parents place in Toronto. We try to get home to my parents and brothers for as many of the jewish holidays as possible. Anyway, I have a gorgeous baby grand piano there that I hadn't touched in a good ten years. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and if I can't practice like an obsessive fiend than I tend to avoid playing with technical imperfection. I've started to play again. Just a little bit. Just enough to let the sound saturate me and let my fingers remember the patterns that they would skip through pauseless in their adherance to the sheet music. The rust slows me and my hands tire much quicker than they used to, but the piano remembered me well.

A is a professional musician. He's the consummate professional and takes his craft seriously with constant practice and consideration of all matters musical. I'm not a musician by trade but I'm constantly inspired by his playing and songwriting and expression through art. The sound of his voice is soothing for a rock/pop artist and he has a beautiful falsetto that he uses to great effect like Chris Martin from coldplay.

In Toronto, he took to my piano and began composing lyrics and improvising melody immediately. What's interesting to me is that most of rock and pop music on the piano is based on standard chords and simple patterns that change up a bit with variations in mood and key. My training is only in classical piano and I used to play a bit of jazz style that I had taught myself. Classical piano music is technical and a bit demanding and I think it was easier for me to stop playing than to do injustice to my favourite classical pieces. But, rock and pop pieces feel like fun days in the musical playground. Not intimidating for an unpracticed player at all.

Speaking of fun days in the musical playground... This past summer, during a camping trip, while some close friends of ours were making shakshuka on the beach, A composed a really funny and cute piece that translates as "allah makes shakshuka". It's become a cult favourite at shows in between his real set list. On wednesday during a little show A is having, we're making shakshuka to spice up the night a little bit. It's the funniest concept to build a fan base but we live in Israel and people here love food, so it makes sense to cook our way to success. hahaha...

architects in dispute resolution?

This weekend I'm presenting at what I assume will be a small conference in Boston and the abstract/paper I wrote that was selected is on the use of health diplomacy as an alternative tool in mediating and managing global conflict. One of the professors attending the conference is a Professor of law (Harvard Phd) and he's organized an ongoing project involving architects from Israel, the palestinian territories, and the U.S. The idea is for them to devise creative, architectural ways to portion jerusalem for dual use purposes. The project is based out of UMass.

I took note of it because I'm so heavily involved in the peace through health movement and like to compare the current state of apolitical activity in dispute resolution by other non-traditional career disciplines. I'm not really for a division of Jerusalem, although I am entirely for land exchange or proportioning land to the palestinians from the westbank and protecting pre-existing palestinian land rights. Regardless, it's important to entertain ideas and feed dialogue even if it's akin to a disneyland trip for architects.

jackrabbit

Speed and precision. In life we need agility, speed, and precision. Rarely in medicine do we have the luxury of hours to pour over diagnostic algorithms and differentials. Rarely in life can we spend weeks and months deciding what to do next. Timing can mean everything.

confusion and comprehension squared

Everything changes so quickly that it's hard to even try for predictability. I never would have imagined that I would be where I am now figuratively. I never would have imagined myself so happy with such basic premise. I have my ups and my downs like anyone and I don't flaunt my mood around but instead try to invest myself in life so that I create more reason for life to flower.

I read the news like a ravenous greyhound, sourcing high and low brow forms of my nutritious info-porn. But as dark as the daily news can get, I have a retreat box that I go to emotionally that allows me to target what I personally can change and get over what I can't.

Sometimes I wonder if my 12 year old self would recognize my 30+ year old self because I'm much less tough and far more vulnerable than I was at that age, but at the same time I can feel clarity in vibrant colours much more than I could back then. I was always the kid that tried to do it on her own. I felt that I had no help from anyone and it was tough. Now my life is so intertwined with my loved ones that it makes me wonder if I misread all those childhood years and toiled so hard unnecessarily. perception can be damning.

Right now I just want focused effort from my practical output and effortless focus from my personal insight. I keep throwing up constant checks and balances at myself to make sure I'm on track and that I'm not totally getting swept away by my passion and emotion. In the past my love led me to circumvent my rational voice. As mortals we do that when nose to nose with pure undiluted love. My emotion ate me alive until I found my balance again and yet somehow I came back to life with better perspective and a larger capacity to love and learn. I think that was my reward for suffering so much. I actually matured and grew better prepared for what was later to come and the feelings that run so deep I'm not so quick to suppress.

anyway, welcome to confusion and comprehension squared. my random ramblings for the night.

never ending connections

It's such a small world and I'm constantly surprised by how much fewer a value than 6 degrees separates me and the people in my past, present, and future. I guess that's a good reason to live your life as best as you can, while treating people as well as possible. Everything and everyone is somehow interconnected. Besides the obvious impetus of treating people well for the sake of human dignity, in this tangential map of social networking, rumours and truths can spread like wildfire.

uncharted territory

I've never been in a place like this before. loved and empowered and feeling like together we could conquer the world. making a difference has never been so easy. I'm so proud of him for who he is and he's proud of me and he accepts me with all my faults and embarrassing gaffes. we're traversing mountains literally and figuratively. nights in the sinai utterly exposed led to the most meaningful birthday of my life. We're building together and it makes the hard and sharp parts of life less incisive