What is happening in this world?
As a kid you couldn’t imagine saying the year that didn’t start with 19 let alone say 2016 and live to write the year 20-something, for that would ensure you had made it to the 21 Century! And according to some of our Baby Boomer comic books, sci-fi movies and books like 1984, life was surely predicted to be very different.
Oh yes, life is absolutely different in 2016 but is this the different we expected? Not even screenwriters could have created some of what real-life is all about today.
As I sit at my computer and write, I am watching the TV with tanks and armored vehicles take over Turkey (the new Tiananmen Square?). Last night it was a mass killing in Nice, France, last week it was five police officers gunned down in Dallas, then, earlier in the week there were shootings on city streets and more police killed in Baton Rouge….Turkey, Paris, San Bernardino…
IS THIS THE NEW NORMAL?
IS THIS WHAT WE WILL WAKE UP TO EVERYDAY?
AND WILL WE GET IMMUNE TO EACH NEW EVENT and accept that this is the new normal?
How do we explain this to our grandchildren?
Where can we tell them is safe?
How do we keep them from being frightened? How do we keep ourselves from being frightened?
How do we give reasons for what seems like a different kind of Holocaust? The kids are smart enough to know that it may not be Jews being directly attacked but it’s people who disagree with radical views and values, Gays, people working to protect our cities, and beyond comprehension, INNOCENT people who are just living their lives who are killed and injured for no reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time!
Explain that to a young person? Explain it to me.
AND, where does G-d enter into the discussion? How do we send our kids for religious education to learn about a G-d that traditional Judaism sees as the source of morality and has power to intervene in the world? How do we reconcile that we are taught that G-d is the Almighty with infinite power and authority? How do we answer the question, “Why would G-d let any of this happen?”
HOW DO WE ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS NOT ONLY FOR OUR GRANDKIDS BUT FOR OURSELVES?
Do we give up the answers we know to be right and forget about what was and just accept that the 21 Century is what it is? Do we forget about accepting our differences and embracing our similarities as human beings? (part of my Master’s Degree thesis in Cross Cultural Studies) and accept that there are differences in a moral code as a universal conduct for all peoples of the earth and that violence and suicide is the answer for some?
Forget/Accept. Forget/Accept
IS THIS THE NEW NORMAL?
Please send any answers you may have.
As a Baby Boomer Bubbe who still feels 18 but has four grand kids to prove this is the 21 Century, Sandra writes to leave a legacy for the next generations. Her belief that these precious kids need to know their cultural and family’s past in order for them to live their future is all the muse she needs!
She has a Master’s Degree in Psychology and Cross Cultural studies, has written a family history, personal memoir and is completing her first novel.
Her grandmother’s journey to America and life is her source for her deep belief and love for Judaism.
These are important questions leading up to Tisha B’av, and in my shul, a discussion about Jewish responses to crisis and disaster, although if I had the answers, you’d be reading my blog 🙂
I’ll offer a thought I was given by my rabbi in response to Katrina and the Tsunami… “If G-d had created a perfect world, there would be no need for humanity.”