Struggle and Light

So last week I was in a hell of a funk. Too much free time does not suit me well... I was getting completely unmotivated to do anything, yet going stir-crazy at the same time. I did such valuable things with my time as watch 3 episodes of Gossip Girl. I was mad at my current situation- lack of job (or enough of a job to live off of), the economy, and my trip- for making everything in my life seem upside down and out of wack. It made (and is making) me doubt everything, causing me to re-examine every aspect of my life. What kind of work I want to do, where I want to live, my relationship to Judaism. This struggle is ultimately good I think, but in the midst of it, well, it sucks.

So I was in a major funk. And what did I decide to do? Go to DC for the weekend! I hopped on a sketchy chinatown bus (full of odd smells, rickety seats and one particular passenger who was constantly burping) and went to visit my dear friend Lucy. What a refreshing, lovely day and a half.

Saturday night I went to the campus of George Mason University to attend an event/benefit/concert/film-screening for The Sulha Peace Project: www.sulha.com. There was a Sulha gathering in Israel that I desperately wanted to attend in August but because I was with my Livnot trip, I couldn't. It seems to me this organization is doing really amazing work. And the musical part of the evening was so uplifting!

Maybe the most beautiful moment of the night for me may have been one only I was privy to see. In front of me during the program sat a young muslim couple. Next to them were a row of older Jewish couples. In the last part of the evening, during music by a group called Amen, there was a song in both hebrew and arabic. And the musicians encouraged us to sing along. After it finished, this 50-something Jewish man in front of me turns to the muslim couple and ask for clarification on the arabic words. They say them and he repeats them. Then, the muslim woman asks him for the hebrew words (a bit more complicated) and he launches into explaining/teaching them.

Tears came to my eyes and I thought there is truly hope for understanding and peace. But we have a long way to go.