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| Camel-head study, by Saadya, 2011. |
Yesterday I was able to get to my desert spot in the Negev, the first time since hostilities broke out 7 weeks ago that I've ventured into nature's open, empty spaces. It's the nearest place by public transportation where I can feel free: a half-hour busride on the highway south of Beersheva, then a 12 minute walk into the desert as the traffic sights and sounds disappear. Always I rest my head on the root of this Eshel tree (Tamarix aphylla) knowing it and the desert
will work its charm and in fifteen minutes I'll be calmed from agitation, anxiety -- about employment, about my ailing parents, about Covid, about the government of criminals in Israel since January, now about this war, and the hostages one of whom I know (the actor
Luis Har, born in Argentina, who I shared a stage with once). All these melt away, or can be thought of from the right distance and closeness, from the right spans of time. Then I can walk farther into the glimmering rocks, and note the vestiges of past inhabitants, some from centuries ago, some from tens of thousands of years ago. No doubt they had struggles too, families, tribes, neighbors, survival, but that's all gone now, as I will be too for some future spectator. It is as well.
--S.
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| Look closely, you'll see stone ridges built by residents, some here a VERY long time ago. |
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Cutting-edge technologies: Flint tools and projectiles from around the Negev, some made 40,000 years ago. The one at far right is from this landscape (it cuts steak very nicely, I can attest). At left is a modern counterpart, a fragment of an Iron Dome arrowhead that fell on a street near me.
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| Negev Camels, by Saadya, 2005. |
ּ***Update: On Feb 12, my acquaintance Luis Har and another hostage were miraculously freed, in a heroic IDF commando operation. 134 others are still in captivity, if they are alive. But it makes a difference, when its one who you know.
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