Day 15: Like the sand in a storm, time blows away.

Shabbat chicken dinner being cooked!

Here we are, another Friday. We always have a big Shabbat dinner, with chicken! We don't have meat throughout the week, so I really like Friday nights. We sit outside on mats and eat--check out a few blogs ago for images of this.

Crap where is the time going. I've got so much to do here, but it seems that I have no time; I don't understand it. "The second hand on my watch would twitch once, and a year would pass, and then it would twitch again." So says Billy Pilgrim. Of course, he was sadder than sad and bluer than blue. I remember reading a book by Victor Frankl that said something similar. He was in a Nazi Concentration Camp, where he, a psychiatrist, developed his existential therapy. The book I read was "Mans Search for Meaning," and he said something like a year can be a minute and a second a lifetime. Do you remember "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"? This is the first time I read that time could be bent, and I experienced it many times in my short 42 year existence. What about "One Shot One Kill"? Another book where time is bent to an experience.

Maybe I cannot shake the warrior in me because I surround myself with war? The three books I referenced are bound by war. Do you think my parents named me after the god of war on purpose? Or did I grow into it? Maybe they meant that I was going to be warlike--all the men in my family were or are. As much as I struggle for peace, I'm always willing to punch another in the face in the name of justice. I once asked a therapist (Not Frankl because he was dead, but another humanist, anyway.) why I am willing to fight for justice. He asked why would you stand by for injustice. Touché (Which I think is an expression born out of fencing.).

There were a few more people because
the pool was opened for swimming.

Yesterday we cut fruit, went back to the pool, and then rested, and finished cutting fruit. Then we finished the day with "Little Miss Sunshine." How have I not seen that yet? What a horrible and fantastic movie. It is a contemporary look at "National Lampoon's Vacation" in so many ways, but it was a much different and so within our zeitgeist. And, as Shelby said, grandpa had to be dead for the movie to work.

Walking to tree fort.

Some woods there.

The tree fort is at the bottom.

Today we went for a walk. We intended to go back to an Arab graveyard that we saw on our first day. But we were sidetracked by our guide to their tree fort. Well the 14 year old boy in my was certainly excited for that. We had to walk towards a road to get there. There was a humvee coming down the road, we saw it about a click out--that is a kilometer to you plebeians. And about a half a click from him on the road we saw a hyena cross. You read that right, a hyena. Where the hell am I? The driver even got out and scouted along the road to see if he could see him, but the hyena was off in the woods--they have those here in the desert if you can believe it. It is an amazing and wonderful place.

Me in the tree fort.

Shelby and Lulu in the tree fort.

I will openly admit that I was really homesick yesterday. I'm not sure what brought it on, but it passed pretty quickly, as my time here will.