A Grateful Nation

(Oddly, as I typed that I had a strange image of bears dancing across a map of Israel.)

I feel asleep at the kitchen table last night.  No, I was not so exhausted from the Hagim that I collapsed onto my dinner plate.  Instead, it was after 1:00 AM, and I was listening to Gilgalei Tzhal for news that Gilad Shalit had come home.  When I woke with my head on the table I decided it was time to pick myself up and get to my bed.

Sean, ever the early riser, woke up before me, but his motion woke me.  My first thoughts and my first words- "Is he home?"  These were my second words also.

"Is he home?"  There's no need to ask who "he" is.  We all know.  We've been waiting five years for him to come home.  Thoughts of the last prisoner exchange could not help but swim in my head.  Coffins being carried instead of men walking.  Signs of cruelty and torture.

I worry for Gilad Shalit.  He was taken as just a boy, 20 years old.  He returns a national symbol.  The world has changed tremendously.  Things move faster.  He returns to a different Israel and a different world.  Gilad, with his parents, Aviva and Noam, and his brother, Yoel are part of all our families.  As Sean & I listened to news coverage from Israel no last names were mentioned.  They are our family.  We are intimate, on a first name basis.  Gilad is son, brother, friend to all of us.  We feel for his family, and cry with them.  We have written letters and visited the tent when possible.

I cried this morning as Sean told me he was at Kerem Shalom I found myself crying.  I cried for the joy that he was on his way back to his family.  I cried for the last five years of pessimism, anger, hatred, and pity.  And I cried for the loss of the life Gilad should have had, the fun, the friends, and the goofiness of those early twenties.  They were sacrificed for a grateful nation.

God bless you Gilad, you and your family.  I wish you luck, love, and most of all peace.