Clarity

Often there are things we have been thinking about for days, weeks, months, and even years but we can not quite grasp how its connected. Or the importance.

Recently, I found clarity to something I have been thinking about for what I want to say is years. I'm not sure when it started, maybe it was at a point in my life when I was looking for meaning, trying to understand my purpose. Perhaps it was when I was trying to understand what having meaning in life actually meant. Or when trying to understand the purpose of my daily actions.

Every day, we as humans, go through our daily actions, but we don't always think about the purpose. We get lost in the repetitiveness of our daily lives, and we forget the meaning of our actions. We forget the deeper meaning of what we woke up for and we don't think about the purpose of sticking our foot in our shoe or why we tied our laces. We rush through the day, we rush through an alley to get to work. As we rush through the alley we don't see whats in front of us, or next to us, or above us or even what we are stepping on. What many people don't realize, what they aren't seeing, is that in that alley there is beauty. There are flowers growing on trees, theres a hidden garden beneath a gate and in the beautiful flower we missed as we rushed through the alley, there is a small ant crawling.

The reality is that the world is huge, there are so many things happening around us that its impossible for our brains to take it all in. To avoid sensory overload it doesn't really look at everything. We look but we don't always see. We rush through crowds but we don't look at anyones face. Everyday, I rush past the man sitting outside his apartment to leave my building, but not once have I spoken a word to him. In graduate school, I walked through Forrest Park every single day, but I often missed that flowers bloomed, or trees turned yellow. Next thing I knew the leaves were gone, but I not once had I stopped to take a look.

This has been something I have thought about for a long time. The fact that I go through days at end and forget to remember why I am doing it. I forget to look at my surroundings, as I rush through the day, in order to get to another day. As I rushed through the days, the days swept by and months past me by. Now I am at this point where I realize that I allowed time to pass me by, without stopping to take it in. To understand all my actions and make sense of all my motives. Or to just stop sometimes and see my surroundings. I question how much I've missed in life, just because of the fact that even just in the last two years, I forgot to stop and appreciate the present day and the people who surrounded me.

I moved here to Jerusalem over two months ago. At least a few times a week I walk down my street through an ally to Beit Lechem. Recently I discovered that in that ally there are beautiful homes. The most extravagant homes I've seen in Jerusalem. Beyond a gate I realized there was what seemed like an enchanting garden, with a pond and flowers, that seemed to never end. As I stopped and stared at the garden, what I couldn't really grasp was the idea that I've walked by this gate so many times and had no idea what I was walking past. I was looking, but I was not seeing.

It is more than not seeing though. You would think that putting on your shoes each day has no meaning to it. When you think about it there is more to a shoe than most stop to realize. First of all, why did we choose the shoe. For what purpose did we put that shoe on when we woke up that morning. It is the idea that we don't often think about the actions of simply putting our foot into a sock, that then goes into our shoe, that then leads to accomplish a goal and takes us through a day.

Perhaps though, its too much to always have to think about these things. We don't really want to allow ourselves to experience sensory overload, or think about every single action we take. It would take too long to get out the door and I guess it would also take too long to get to work if we stopped to see what we walked past everyday. But there is something to be said, about every now and then stopping to think of the meaning of your actions and stopping to not just look but to see your surroundings.

The fresh perspective on life. This is the clarity.

"I sold my tent, to pay the Rent...."

"The Rent is Too Damn High!" I first heard this stated from a newly formed political party in New York. The rent is too high was not just the name of the political party, but it was the basis for its agenda. What happens when a government does not regulate prices, when price ceilings are not enforced and it allows for cost of living to sky rocket? I ask this question
but I realize the question is relevant outside the perimeters of Manhattan.

This past year has sparked something that I believe has been sitting and waiting to erupt. Protests, revolutions, passion, fighting for ones rights to afford the cost of living, a social media phenomenon, and in Israel..

..Tent Cities.

What happens when prices rise, but peoples salary's stay stagnant? What happens when the cost of food continues to skyrocket with no controls, no ceilings? What happens when the youth of this generation decide that they are fed up with neglect of the government on its own people? Protests.

"Economic Gaps Widen in Israel" - YNET

This summer in Israel I think I have the luxury of experiencing something different, something unique. I first heard of a student protest in Jerusalem about the cost of rent a few weeks ago. What I didn't realize was the extent of these protests. I was told that students were going to be protesting in Jerusalem because prices of

rent have continued to increase and students can't afford to live anymore. These protests became a country-wide protest that sprung up throughout the country in the form of what they are calling: Tent Cities. Throughout Israel you can see these tent cities, where students and now even non-students are camping out in tents to protest the government. Organizing marches throughout Tel Aviv, in front of the Prime Ministers Home in Jerusalem, down the streets of Jerusalem and in front of the Knesset. Today, I even read an article that protests have even occurred in front of the Israeli Embassy in Berlin. Young Adults who couldn't afford the cost of living in Tel Aviv that moved to Berlin because of the lower cost of rent.

What they are fed up with is the rising cost of living. Landlords who are raising the cost of rent in the middle of the year, food prices that have skyrocketed,

low salaries that don't compare with the rising price indexes. These are all key issues that are finally being shoved in the faces of governmental officials. Security has been a main topic of interest in Israel for several years, but as things have died down, people have begun to fight for the issues that have been pushed aside. What I read about the other day in a YNet article, is that Israeli's have understood for years the importance of security and have dealt with the economic struggle. Except now, this summer they no longer want to be ignored.

The key similarity here to the uprisings we saw in Egypt, Syria and other middle eastern countries is the use of Facebook to spark interest, to rally people together. I don't see this being a revolutionary protest like we saw in Egypt. But I do see these tent cities, protests against the government to have a major impact on policy. The Prime Minister and other members of Knesset finally need to take a look at the people, and the needs of the people.

At this point in history, at a time when social media such as Facebook are wide-spread, the people can no longer be ignored. What I have seen in the last year, tells a story of what happens when you allow too many people to suffer, to allow too many people to not afford to live a decent life. If you don't put policies in place to keep people happy, you see revolutions, riots, uprisings.

I find it interesting how a social media site like Facebook can have such a important impact on global history.

The New York Times - "Israeli's Feel Tug of Protest, Reviving the Left's spirit"

***Pictures taken by Miriam Wasser in Tel Aviv, Israel***