how you are with me

Under bright and unbecoming lights, we sing and dance and stomp for peace. Why this venue, we do not know. But this is where the movement has a home, and so this is where Amen and Sheva come to talk about the Sulha, about the fundamental need for forgiveness, and about steps, significant even in their insignificance, towards lasting reconciliation.

It is here in this cold exhibition hall, with Arabs and Jews sharing pillows, that their words and their music ignite in all of us the fire of hope, the positive energy of idealistic aspiration, and the mind-forming belief in the power of human spirit.

I danced. I clapped. I stomped.

And I sung. Even though, most of the words I did not understand. They were in Hebrew. Your language. (Which became my language too, the language of my love. But also, in a strange way, the language of my heart beyond you or me or my heritage or any of my dreams. It is the language that flows most naturally through my body, that I seem to understand without understanding. A language that comes to me not as a language, but as a deep spiritual echo with a message much deeper than words.)

Yes, we danced. And we talked about idealistic, maybe even impossible things. (But maybe they are not impossible, and that maybe is good enough for me.)

But still, even here, how you are with me.

I know how you would have hated this gathering. I know how I would have hated having you there. How I would have struggled with you, but really struggled with myself. I know how we would have argued afterwards, irreconcilable (although in the end, leaving you less bitter and more accepting of our differences than me).

I know we could not share these things. (I will never forget the Iraq protest and the woman and the mud puddle. The intolerance of it.)

But still, in the presence of these lyrics, in the presence of my vision for your country, in the presence of all things beautiful and hopeful and sincere and pure, it is you who are with me.

Of all the people I could share it with who would understand. Still, it is you.