Hours after a suicide bomber blew up the Dolphinarium in June of 2001 in Tel Aviv killing 20 teenages out having fun on a friday night, a small sign was taped to the front door of the mangled building. It simply said "Lo nafsik lirkod". We will not stop dancing. In Israel they havent stopped dancing amd in Boston they will not stop running. Because that's what we have to do. Keep on going. What choice do we have? It took hours to track down friends and congregants who were in Boston yesterday. Luckily everyone was accounted for. I'm so proud of Larry, Megan, and Sarah for who they are and for what they accomplished. The 26.2 miles they ran yesterday is just the beginning, actually it's now the easy part, of the distance they will cover as they forever feel the pain of this race. Even those of us who didn't run, will forever feel the impact.
Israeli poet Yehuda Amechai said it best.....
The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters
and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters,
with four dead and eleven wounded.
And around these, in a larger circle
of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered
and one graveyard. But the young woman
who was buried in the city she came from,
at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers,
enlarges the circle considerably,
and the solitary man mourning her death
at the distant shores of a country far across the sea
includes the entire world in the circle.
And I won’t even mention the crying of orphans
that reaches up to the throne of God and
beyond, making a circle with no end and no God.
beyond, making a circle with no end and no God.
Earlier today, I remembered you telling that story at Sholom after the Dolphinarium bombing. It's an inspiring story, and one I hope you don't have a pertinent occasion to tell again. You're right, life is the only response to death.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, "The Diameter of the Bomb" is one of my favorite poems.
Take care,
Aggie