An Instant In An Eternity

The big news of course is two pronged. On the one hand the " nuclear option " was exercised by Senator Mitch McConnell in the US Senate to abolish the 60 vote threshold for the confirmation of a nominee to the Supreme Court. On the other hand we have the attacks carried out first by Assad on his own people in Syria - bringing the world painful images of his cruelty. The attack sparked a response from Republican President Trump to respond with air strikes. This back and forth may well bring the civil war in Syria to other countries and begin to engulf the world in greater and greater conflict. Time will tell and in the meantime stress levels will rise. I was listening to the NPR One player that cued up the NPR Weekly Roundup from Thursday, April 6th. Mara Liasson was on the podcast and spoke at length about the issues surrounding McConnell's choice to eliminate the 60 vote threshold for Supreme Court nominees. I find myself driven to do whatever I can to call out th...

You have to be courageous in life. But you have to be careful not to cross the line from courageous to stupid. The line between courage and stupidity is thin, sometimes transparent. Don't trip. I think about this a lot here in Israel and in life as a woman. I think that for women being courageous comes across differently than it does for men - girls are described as bossy and boys are leaders, for displaying the same behaviors. And in Israel you can be rude and offensive or firm and decisive about what you want - and the gender lines seem to be less black and white here, too. Being far away from the US has afforded me a certain level of perspective on the Democratic process of governance in the United States. At the same time, my level of awareness is lower because I am not 100% tuned in to the 24 hour news cycle there. And I would say I am getting about the same level of engagement and awareness here in Israel with my limited reading skills (and time) for the news. What I am s...