Dear Friends,
From the outset I feel obliged to state the underlying moral premise for my trip to Palestine for two reasons: because some of you (but likely not many) may still be mystified as to my reasons for coming here, because said moral premise is one of two guiding principles for this foray into blogging (the other being to keep you all up to date with me). So let me say as best as I can that I believe if every human being knew intimately the lives of every other human being in the world we would dedicate our lives to the compassionate betterment of those less off than ourselves. And when I say ‘betterment’ I simply mean offering everyone a chance at living in peace, prosperity, and basic human rights, be they medical, political, legal, or otherwise.
It’s a nice idea—I know. Unfortunately it’s also impossible by myriad causes. So my journey here, I hope, is tantamount to the next best thing. Neither I nor anyone other human being will ever know the all intimate details of each life of the billions around the world, and in a foreign culture with a foreign language, which I speak haltingly at best, I’ll probably get to know a handful of people in the next four months and perhaps genuinely befriend fewer. Nonetheless it is my sincerest hope that this simple trip will suffice to prove to me for myself that I ought to dedicate my life to the compassionate betterment of those whose lot has been less than mine. In all honesty, this is sort of a chance to see if the ethical framework I’ve built up over years of closeted intellectual fermentation suits me, fits me as a person in the real world doing real things. Certainly I know I’m no saint. I am prey to everyday lassitude and indifference just like most people. But the people I really admire (and a few of you are among them) are the ones who work tirelessly, often in little and modest ways, for higher beliefs. So, the point is I’ve come to better know one little stratum of the people the world over, on whom I have based my fledgling yet fervent beliefs—it’s one thing to read and know of other people, another to meet, see, and speak with them.
Alright, having indulged in as much abstruse philosophizing as you can stomach, here then is a fairly amusing account of my trip to Israel. For your future reference, each blog entry will generally follow a particular tone until its completion. So later on when you all get bored of reading this blog, if one entry or another strikes you from the beginning as not your cup of tea, then feel free to skip it. I am naturally long-winded and I don’t want my verbage to be an unnecessary burden for those of you who are looking to read specific things from me.