word from a friend

[Averbuch]

Arture, Julie, Dan, Doris,Jeff,Joelle,Koos,Toni, Ken, Michael and Michael and all my friends of the list,

    I want to thank all of you for holding a safe and precious space  for the "word from a friend" thread .It has been an exhausting effort, at times, to try to make sense about craziness, but you have made it meaningful for me. Knowing that so many of you are on the same "frontier" of peace-making, even if calling it different names, give me a deep sense of belonging to "a common good" and always give me food for thought and nourishment for the heart&soul.

    Michael H wrote (about who is fighting who)
    >    am wondering if this could not also be said to be about those who love something
        bigger and those who love something smaller, rather than love and hate?  not
        about 'how much' the caring is, but about its scope, about the size of the
        object of the love.   not meaning to twist words or redefine anything here, but
        wanting to say that this is how i'm understanding it now   <
    
    It definitely can be said in this way and I am trying to word and think this way most of the time but at times I need to clarify and differentiate - this was the case for me. 
    I would like to illustare it by telling ya little story that happened 2 days ago : 
    Avner Haramati and myself are part of an NGO of volunteer professionals  who work to promote dialogue between social-extreme groups in Israel. This group exists for almost 10 years now and has done a great job in developing tools and promoting dialogue between extremes. Two days ago we had an emergency meeting ( for various reasons we are running out of funding).     The current chairman of the NGO in a 45 years of age man , an observing Jew who leaves in a settlement, is now doing his reserves duty in the army. He is a wise and passionate man (and facilitated his first Open space 3 weeks agar for the first time...) so I called him to see if he has any message to share with us since he will not be able to attend in person. He said: "Tova, I don't know how to describe it but I/ we here are doing only survival .We have to be focused if we are to stay alive and to trace suicide bombers before they blow up in a heavily populated area. We stoped 2 women with  explosive beltsin the last 24 houres. What can i say. One thing you can tell them : that it warms my hear to know I am part of a people and a society that when I am here watching the frontier of safety I can count on you there doing the frontier of dialogue".

love and respect
Tova

Holon, Israel
averbuch at post.tau.ac.il





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