October 12, 2023

Brilliant autumn day. Got flu shot and Covid booster at once. Thought it wouldn’t matter, but at the moment I can scarcely move. Tried to do some gardening. Stood in the sunlight leaning on the spade for a quarter of an hour. Quiet long enough that my autumn groundhog revealed his chunky self. 

Cocktails after rehearsal last night. One of us was infuriated that people expressed sympathy for Israel at this horrible moment, considering that Israel has made it hard for the Palestinians for a long time. I realize I don’t have the courage of my convictions, or I would have walked out of the bar and not spoken in that company again. Yes, blame goes to all sides, but how long should that go on? I strike you because you struck me and then you strike me because I struck you. . . . didn’t Athena address that in The Eumenides? It has to stop. It has to stop this time, not the next time, not when all resentments are somehow laid to rest. This time. This time being, by any account, rife with cruelties and barbarities more calculated and deliberate than at any time before. This time. Fairness is not the issue. The balance will never balance, and we have not the wisdom to know when it has. Twenty years ago fairness ceased to be a viable consideration. End it. Now. If justice cannot win, mercy must. If not mercy, then exhaustion. 

What was Hamas’ end game? Did they hope to win?