thereâs not a morning i begin without a thousand questions running through my mind, that i donât try to find the reason and the logic in the world that G-d designed. the reason why a bird was given wings? if not to fly, and praise the sky with every song it sings. whatâs right or wrong, where i belong within the scheme of thingsâŚif not to hunger for the meaning of it all, then tell me what a soul is for?
i can walk through the forest of the trees of knowledge and listen to the lesson of the leavesâŚthere are certain things that once you have, no man can take away, no wave can wash away, no wind can blow awayâŚ
the more i live, the more i learn, the more i learn, the more i realize the less i knowâŚ
i wasnât supposed to be a person i should be a well-loved mug or a worn paperback book or a favorite hoodie or a keychain plushie or something
Hello friend!
Ahoy! You are now anonymous (because you asked so nicely and it's a valid question.)
G-d I wish I had a real answer for this. I think it depends on the person, but is this someone you feel like will be receptive to you approaching her with some vulnerability about how unsafe that makes you feel? Do you think she will listen to reason if you give her fact-based explanations for why that rhetoric is more antisemitic than it is helpful to the Palestinian cause? + your perspective and feelings on it? If so, it's worth a try if you are intent on maintaining a trust-based friendship.
If you don't think you'll be safe/you aren't really in a place to take the risk of vulnerability, I'd say you have a few choices:
Avoid her or at least talking about that with her for now, and talk to her later when some of the heat has died down on this issue. Admittedly, this is not optimal because it's way easier to apologize and backtrack when the stakes are low(er), but if you really work on it with her maybe you could rebuild some of that trust.
Stay friends but don't trust her with your safety (emotional or physical). Up to you about how you answer her if she notices and asks about this.
Cut ties at whatever speed you are comfortable with and don't tell her why. You can drift or just start avoiding her. That happens sometimes for non-political reasons.
Cut ties with her and tell her why you aren't interested in maintaining the relationship. That's obviously the most direct, confrontational version; if you go this route but don't want to have a fight about it, you could just say "hey - this really showed me that you do not value the lives and human rights of my people and therefore me, and so I no longer feel safe around you. I wish that was different, but it can't be fixed at this point because I can't trust you anymore." That's a tough lesson, but it's one some people need to learn.
Obviously none of that is ideal, but we're not working with ideal circumstances here unfortunately. Idk if other people have suggestions, but those are mine. I'm sorry you're in this position and hope that you have other supportive community no matter what you decide and how she responds.
âShe herself is a haunted house. She does not possess herself; her ancestors sometimes come and peer out of the windows of her eyesâŚâ
- Angela Carter, The Lady of the House of Love (1979), featured in her The Bloody Chamber.
...and it's exceedingly short, his galloping life. Dogs die so soon. I have my stories about that grief, no doubt many of you do also. It is almost a failure of will, a failure of love, to let them grow old - or so it feels. We would do anything to keep them with us, and keep them young. The one gift we cannot give.
from Dog Songs by Mary Oliver
the brutality is incomparable. i donât want to even acknowledge the details just released. this was done not by hamas, but by palestinian civilians. they strangled BABIES to death and threw rocks at them to stimulate an air strike. no trigger warnings. you donât get that privilege. you all must read this and absorb this barbarity, for yarden bibas â for shiri, who is still missing. read it and understand the evil israel and the jewish people are up against.
if I cannot fly, let me sing. âĄif I wasn't tough, I wouldn't be here.if I wasn't gentle, I wouldn't deserve to be here.âĄif not to hunger for the meaning of it all, then tell me what a soul is for?âĄif my immortal soul is lost to me, something yet remains. I remain. ⥠a passionate, fragmentary girl; she stood in desperate music wound; voice of a bird, heart like a house; the ghost at the end of the song.⥠Jessica Lynn đâ paypal â
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