There are times, I suppose, when our weekend reflections might seem out of place in a busy, bruising, secular world. And that might have seemed all the more true these past two summer days, thick as they have been with the hubris of Putin, the nihilism of Hamas, and the collateral massacre of the innocent that is happening in Gaza, as I write these words.
But I would offer a mild disagreement. When there is nothing you or I can actually do about the disgusting criminality of the Russian separatists and goons in Eastern Ukraine, or the cynical, smug Hamas theocrats lobbing useless rockets, or the persistence of the Israeli military past the corpses of dozens of children, we can nonetheless find ways to live among it. It says so much more about the civilizing skepticism of Montaigne, for example, that he was making the case for doubt as the religious wars of absolute certainty were getting underway in his own country and beyond. It speaks to me, at least, that a Muslim cleric could also make the case, during Ramadan, that
oppression attempts to strip the oppressed of their rights and dignity; whereas oppressing strips the oppressor of their very own humanity.
He wasn’t referring to Israel’s endless mowing of the human lawn, but he surely might have. It helps too, I’d argue, to counter the more high-minded counterpoints to the horror to remember that war-makers are seeking peace as well, in their own way:
People who choose to participate in military action are more likely to be altruists than egotists: they are prepared to sacrifice their own lives for the sake of something that transcends them, such as their country or their religion, or socialism, secularism or democracy, or a world where peace and tolerance will reign in perpetuity.
What is Zionism if not a utopian desire for a peaceful, promised land – a desire now etched for ever in the blood and bitterness of so many – and that you see today in the bloodied tears of the Israeli soldier above?
This weekend, we further explored what makes life worth living – in the acerbically honest poems of Deborah “working girl” Garrison; in sex after sixty (I think); of sex between races – perhaps the best rebuke one can make to war between Jews and Muslims; in an escape from reality like Burning Man, seen here from a drone above – or in a post-acocalyptic Eden in Vanuatu. It was fitting too as children were blown apart by bombs, that I spent hours today reading a terrific book about Montaigne (the book club discussion is imminent – buy the book here), whose sanity and spirit reaches us across the centuries, and helps keep me sane, and even happy, although I am simultaneously distracted and distraught.
The most popular post of the weekend was A Game-Changer For Ukraine; followed by The Oldest Depiction Of Sex On Record.
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And see you in the morning.
(Photo: An Israeli soldier weeps at the grave of Israeli Sergeant Adar Barsano during his funeral on July 20, 2014 in Nahariya, Israel. Sergeant Barsano was killed along with another IDF soldier on the twelfth day of operation “Protective Edge,” when Hamas militants infiltrated Israel from a tunnel dug from Gaza and engaged Israeli soldiers. By Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
The Dish 