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Dancing tonight was an interesting mix of interactions- saw a few folks from out of town (one from near home, the other from Oregon), got a compliment on my outfit, talked about religion, and talked about the situation in Israel and the rally tomorrow.
The religious conversation was sort of funny: they're having a couples' dance night a week from Thursday, and a friend of mine is sans partner because it's during the 9 days. Now, as far as I know, his partner is not exactly religious normally, not that I know her well. But well, I know she works 7 days a week some parts of the year- around the holiday season, I think she works in some sort of retail. And here I am, and I don't change too much of what I do for that period of time.
The politics were well, a bit uncomfortable. There was a lot of talk that was understandable, but just sounded scarily reminiscent of talk that lead to horrible atrocities against us- a lot of "those people just don't care about human life" and something that sounded frighteningly like "there needs to be a final solution". Yes, they were talking about terrorists, but the line from terrorists to Muslims gets smudged over too easily. I've had conversation after conversation about that. The thing is- I can't think of any better solution, practically. It's just that the way people talk about things, it's disturbing.
On the other hand, at least I know that my assorted friends' relatives are safe for now. (And someone was terribly surprised that I don't have any family in Israel. It was rather odd- I don't know why someone would assume that we would have family there. But there's no reason to assume not, either.)
As for the rally- I don't know that I'd feel comfortable going. And I don't know what good it would do. I don't know what I'd be rallying for, honestly- and I'd be afraid that my presence would be coopted to an extremist position that I wouldn't agree with. Somehow I feel like I might be doing something more productive by going to the shul's movie-night and pleasing the nice old folks there. And most likely I'll come home from work, collapse briefly (this is a late night) and then go grocery shopping. It's not the virtuous path, but at least it's unambiguous.
The religious conversation was sort of funny: they're having a couples' dance night a week from Thursday, and a friend of mine is sans partner because it's during the 9 days. Now, as far as I know, his partner is not exactly religious normally, not that I know her well. But well, I know she works 7 days a week some parts of the year- around the holiday season, I think she works in some sort of retail. And here I am, and I don't change too much of what I do for that period of time.
The politics were well, a bit uncomfortable. There was a lot of talk that was understandable, but just sounded scarily reminiscent of talk that lead to horrible atrocities against us- a lot of "those people just don't care about human life" and something that sounded frighteningly like "there needs to be a final solution". Yes, they were talking about terrorists, but the line from terrorists to Muslims gets smudged over too easily. I've had conversation after conversation about that. The thing is- I can't think of any better solution, practically. It's just that the way people talk about things, it's disturbing.
On the other hand, at least I know that my assorted friends' relatives are safe for now. (And someone was terribly surprised that I don't have any family in Israel. It was rather odd- I don't know why someone would assume that we would have family there. But there's no reason to assume not, either.)
As for the rally- I don't know that I'd feel comfortable going. And I don't know what good it would do. I don't know what I'd be rallying for, honestly- and I'd be afraid that my presence would be coopted to an extremist position that I wouldn't agree with. Somehow I feel like I might be doing something more productive by going to the shul's movie-night and pleasing the nice old folks there. And most likely I'll come home from work, collapse briefly (this is a late night) and then go grocery shopping. It's not the virtuous path, but at least it's unambiguous.