Post 49: The Finish Line: the end to love and peace

This post has been written as a submission to Scribbit's January (2009) "Write-Away contest".

My three year love came to an end just as the most recent Hamas vs. Israel war began.

The words "The Finish Line" bring to mind a race or a marathon, something that requires a lot of training and energy but then ends, one way or another. The participants in a race clearly know where the finish line is marked, but they don't know who is going to be first in line or what time it will take to get the winner there.

But the Finish Line in love and war is less clear. I supposed I knew that my last relationship would end, but I didn't know when, and I didn't know how. The Finish Line in my case was a plane ticket. My boyfriend of 3 years decided to take a break from Israel and travel abroad. I knew that the date he was set to play would mark a separation in our relationship. What I didn't know was that it would be finished completely when I discovered, the day that he flew, that he had started a different relationship with someone else. Well, that was the Finish Line for that relationship. I confronted the woman, who did not know about me, and she actually thanked me for disclosing his disloyalty, that she didn't know about it. Now Mr. formerly wonderful has no one to return to - neither of us want a dishonest person in our lives....

So I moved on, past the Finish Line of this relationship.

And then the "ceasefire" between Hamas and Israel ended. Sad thing was it wasn't a ceasefire to begin with due to all the missiles falling on southern Israel for the past few years, but when it officially ended, its "Finish Line" became in fact the beginning of a war. More missiles, longer range, more extensive damage. Israel's Defense Army (IDF), being just that, a defense army felt that they could not sit still and leave its citizens undefended any longer against the missiles and therefore fought back with air and ground forces.

I really hope that the deadline for this contest is also the Finish Line for the suffering on both ends and that the Start Line will begin: beginnings for peace; beginnings for love and new, honest relationships....

But who am I kidding. I'm a single (divorced) mom living in Israel. New love for me? Maybe. End to the Hamas-Israel conflict? I doubt it. My 14 year old teenager Finishing His Homework.? Impossible.

This writer thinks that world peace is a more realistic Finish Line than a new boyfriend or a gifted teenager learning to finish his homework.

Post 48: Let the Sun Shine Despite the Missiles in the South

time: the present, January, 2009

I wanted to cover the last 3 years, but have been overwhelmed by the present. I go to work. My son goes to school. I meet new people and savor the sunshine in a forest after a week of very much needed rain.

But in the south of Israel, missiles fall - not just in the south, but in the center. I can't write political commentary any better than professional political commentators, so I'm not going to comment, just observe that

Life goes on in the center of Israel. It's sad. We all want the violence to end on both sides. But after six eight years of rockets in the south while the world stayed silent......I really don't know what to say.

So let me tell you that the winter nights are cold, (for Israel). I feel for my friend whose son is a soldier. My son will also be one in a few years, but right now I am more worried that he didn't study for his biology test tomorrow.


I was on a hike today with such warm people. I wished that the international media could zoom on in these people, hiking, respecting nature, relishing the winter pools which are so rarely full of water, and forgetting about the terror, the bloodshed and the tears.

I hope that I will not have to write more about terrorists, missiles and sorrow.

This writer would rather write about NO SEX and hope that soon she will be writing about NO MISSILEs.