The artist Anselm Kiefer is new to me but has been around for a long time. I like this quote of his.
Ruins, for me, are the beginning. With the debris, you can construct new ideas.
Anselm Kiefer
This quote is fitting since he was born in Germany at the end of World War 2. This guy is literally the personification of rebirth from ruins.
His art looks amazing. I’ll have to check it out in person next time I’m in New York.
I keep trying to explain this Israel-Hamas war to my kids, and it’s really so caught up in the past, both near and distant. Repeatedly, one side’s autonomy, safety, and identity is violated by the other. And it’s piled up over time to the current conflict.
The Daily tackles this history in their 1948 episode, describing an “arsenal of memory” that gets “chiseled in stone” to define each side’s grievances.
When you go to the Middle East, you see immediately how people are imprisoned by history, the especially in Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Daily
It’s understandable but tragically and obviously unhelpful.
Yes, the past is full or pain and terror. Don’t get stuck in it – move past it like any wise person would do.
Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past.
Tryon Edwards, theologian
And yes, it can be done.
Ireland put a similar conflict behind it: a centuries-old conflict of two intertwined groups of people involving religion, culture, territorial disputes, terror, violence, and injustice.
They ended up with a two-state solution: Ireland and the UK. There is peace and prosperity. People move freely between the countries. There are no checkpoints, walls, vengeance deaths, or bombings.
There are pubs and museums, a peaceful countryside, and a booming film industry.
The past is recognized and understood but no longer used to justify self-destructive, violent behavior. The “Troubles” are gone, but not forgotten.
The world needs to step up and make this happen in the Middle East. Doing so will require setting aside some fear, which is just a mind killer, but a peaceful solution can happen because it has happened elsewhere.
I talk about the news sometimes with my daughter, who is in middle school.
Today I told her that Israel was attacked, and hundreds are dead. I played the The Daily for her in the car. It described unarmed people being indiscriminately mowed down by gunmen, people being abducted, families being intentionally ripped apart.
And that’s just day one.
It was a hard thing to have to play for my daughter, but I want her to know what people are capable of at their worst.
She listened silently for about 20 minutes. When we stopped the car, you could tell she was moved and deeply saddened. She pretty well boiled it down in a few words.
That’s a sad story. I don’t understand the purpose of war.
Well said, my friend.
She asked why this happened, and I tried to explain it: all the history and terrible conditions and politics and religion and blah blah blah blah blah. Here eyes glazed over.
Because it didn’t make sense to her.
Because, it really just doesn’t make any fucking sense. Nobody wins this thing.
Intentionally killing scores of unarmed people at a music festival is not a military operation and can never be justified no matter how twisted your logic is, Hamas, you idiots. By now most of the people who did killing are dead too, certainly burning in hell if there is such a thing.
Sometimes a war is necessary, but this one seems to have gotten off to a really shitty start even with that framing.
Good luck, everyone in Israel and Gaza.
I really hope there is a Good Friday Agreement somewhere in your future so you can one day make some sweet tunes with your family instead of cutting off the water supply and burying bodies.
I love the idea that playing it safe is a risk. It’s as counterintuitive as it is true. If you don’t believe me, ask Oprah.
I believe that one of life’s greatest risks is never daring to risk … Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time.
Oprah Winfrey
It takes risk to build your confidence, to come back from hearing “no”, to surf a 100-foot wave, to land a rover on Mars, and scariest of all, to let your kids grow up.
I love this quote from Mitski’s profile on Spotify.
The best thing I ever did in my life was to love people.
I wish I could leave behind all the love I have after I die, so I can shine all this goodness, all this love that I’ve created onto other people.
Mitski
Hey, she may love people, but she’s a bit of a heartbreaker herself. 😆
I feel the same way, but it’s not easy. Once you get to a certain point in life, you realize loving is scary – it takes courage and an acceptance of risk. But it’s still the best thing we can do in this world.
Mental Break Town 