THE BRAVE NEW LAND

We met many along our travels, but found it necessary to adjust our story out of concern for our safety, yet surprisingly the height of fear and discomfort we experienced occurred on the birthday of Man. Along the way we were often greeted with statements like, “Israel and Greece are good friends,” and, “Israel is strong; Greece shares, not only the same goals of peace and prosperity for the region, but a mutual distrust of the Turks ongoing aggression and expansionism.” On the birthday of Man, however, we attended New Year's services in a little town called… um, it was something like Chelm. The rabbi (I guess he was a rabbi), high upon an ancient pulpit, muttered his way through his sermon, speaking very loudly of inclusion, yet under his breath maligning observant Jews to the cronies at his feet. And, no prayer or even a community acknowledgment was given about the ongoing suffering of the remaining hostages, who had been taken over 700 days before by Hamas and Palestinians in Ga...

With the breath of life blown into dust-filled lungs, there was so much hope in the heavens above. On the day Man was formed, even the assembly of angels, a variety amongst ten, became confused as to which direction to turn. The glow of Man eclipsed the heavens around them all, and hope for a brand new day blossomed upon the event horizon of dawn’s awakening. A new being was born, a covenant had been made, and the world sung out in harmony with hope and joy spreading out before all that had come before; happy birthday, World, and have a shana tova, everyone! 

Standing on a tiny beach, situated on a tiny island off the coast of Oz, I saw a two meter shark suddenly appear in 30 centimeters of water only a meter away from me. A handful of children had been playing in the crystal blue water only moments before. Thankfully, the children had all departed just before the gaping jaws broke the surface and thrashed around, hunting for something unseen in the shallow waters. I jumped a little and hesitated before yelling “shark!” to the other bathers on the beach. The shark left as fast as it had appeared off around the edge of the little sandy cove we had chosen to spend our afternoon in. It was the first shark we had seen, and on our last day adventuring through the wilds of Queensland, Australia. While driving a campervan up the coast from Brisbane to Daintree, we wondered why nobody was ever in the water. We assumed it was because of sharks, right up until we saw signs warning of dangerous, life-threatening jelly fish . Then it made total sens...