Orienteering is defined as an "activity in which participants use a map and compass to navigate between checkpoints along an unfamiliar course (as in the woods)".
Orientation is defined as "familiarization with something".
In the latter it is a case of becoming familiar with something new or something which needs refreshing. Orienteering occurs when one needs to find out exactly where one is, the surrounding area, literal or figurative. Then follows the questions of what to do now, to move onward, find helpful guiding signs or position markings to avoid going astray. The best way to tackle the task of orienteering is to first attend or find an orientation which will aid the orienteering person to find success.
Today we are either avoiding, denied, or misinterpreting orientation. That is a grievous and dangerous error. Orienteering is finding a way along the paths in and of life. It can be fun, exciting or frightening, depending upon one's skills and available aids. Apparently, most of us are quite unskilled in this activity and cannot successfully, safely, navigate the paths to the exit and the positive goals we wish to achieve.
Some of us remain lost forever. Others eventually find the way through. However, there remain those within who know the way out but deny it to others, gaining control over them, indoctrinating them in the whys, wherefores and ways of the new reality once they emerge. One in which they remain forever subservient to greedy, demented, immoral evil people who crave control, wealth and power.
Democracy will fail and fall. Brilliant minds, far better than mine, have reached the same conclusion and have attempted to warn those who would rather not heed the clarion call of warning. Deborah Lipstadt spoke out: " ... I do believe that what we’re facing is not just the threat to the Jews in north London or any other place like Manchester, Leeds … because this is the shutting down of democracy, and with that comes a threat to national stability and security.”
The trend is obvious, yet once again, we deny, deny, deny. We unsee and unhear anything warning us of what awaits us in a very near future should we continue to do so. We do refuse the burdens of the responsibilities of maintaining democracy finding it easier to cede these responsibilities. We lose the skill of asking proper questions and then, lose the necessity for proper answers. Instead, we find massively flawed individuals to carry the burden for us and stand by as democracy is ravaged and then - gone. We then reap what we sow and do not reap what remained unsown. The consequences are upon us. Nobody else. Reality always catches up.
It is now time for Hamlet to enter stage right. We echo his iconic question: "To be or not to be". It is upon us to answer. Do we wish to live in an apocalyptic world, or do we choose option B, a better world demanding much of us to install and maintain? To be or not to be or is it rather a question of the format of the "be"? Do we go low or high? Who are we and who will we be in the future?
Most people in the world are uneasy and confused. As such, they are ripe for the picking by those who encourage anomie, hatred and violence. Scary, certainly, but for Jews I feel it is more, a question of existential survival. Not how we will be, but if we will be - at all. Will we, the Jewish people, continue to exist or will we once again find ourselves in literal peril of extermination? Yet again. Always again. Does it never end? Evidently, the answer is that it does not end. And here is one explanation: "trying to rationally understand the irrationality of the world’s oldest hatred.
If we start way back, they hated us when we challenged paganism and introduced the idea of one God; then they hated us when they accused us of killing their god .... From these two earthquakes, it was off to the races: two thousand years of using Jews as ultimate scapegoats and as symbols for anything a society hated."
We cannot continue in this manner. We cannot continue to say, "Well, what else is new? It has been thus from the beginning of time and so it will remain until the end of time. Let's just move on." That, however, is the absolutely worst approach. To remain passive in the face of a toxic hatred such as we are today, will only serve those who wish to destroy all Jews, exterminate their being and their memory. Forever.
Tune into the words, actions, the posters, the chants, the invasions. Trace the escalation, from annoying chants to deeming the actions of Hamas justified - or accusing Israel of murdering its own people! These self-empowered and society empowered bigots raise the level of toxicity into the red danger zone. They now brazenly deny the right of Jews to speak, to act, to do, to write, to sing - anything and everything. And why? Because they're Jewish. Do not fall into the 'rationality' of hatred, this and any other, for to do so is to legitimize it. Hate is irrational and 'explaining' it, inevitably ends with laying blame on the victim of this or any hatred. Today's JewHatred has engendered a grin on the face of Hitler as he watches the world from his place in Hell.
We, and all right thinking, balanced people are called upon to fight this hatred in all manifestations. As a speaker said yesterday, "We must embrace our Jewishness and use it to empower our inner warrior". She is correct. We must not hide. We must not be ashamed. We must not be afraid. Put on your Jewish emblems. Wear a slogan shirt. Your kippah. Let your mezuzahs hang prominently on your doors. To hide is futile and its only result is to give encouragement to the beasts of humankind.
To everything on earth there is a time. Now is the time to stand tall, straight, proud, and spit in the face of those who would negate you and yours. And indeed, all and any who disagree with them, displease them. Here, again, there is no explaining or understanding, for it resists all rationality.
These people and all of their ilk are inimical to any likelihood of remaining alive, of this planet surviving the external and internal pressures we place upon it. If we do not wake up and fight tooth and nail, with all our energy, with every breath, we are doomed. We will reduce ourselves to a state of constant war, down to sticks and stones, and the hatred will continue to generate acid, though all will have forgotten how and why it all began.
There is so much more to be said but it will have to wait for another day, or two, or three and on. In the meanwhile, what the hell do we do this November for presidential choice. The one is a demented man, a fraud, a traitor, who belongs long ago to have been incarcerated. The other is now collapsing under pressure from vile JewHaters and enemies of democracy. The spoiler is altogether, long ago, gone off the deep end or ridden right off the track. So - where do we 'x' or circle or pull the lever or push the button? The lesser of the three evils, I guess. Shame on this country and shame on its citizens.
Indeed, we reap what we sow and do not reap the unsown. Heads up, folks, heads up and eyes alert. Danger ahead.
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Yitzy, what you must think up there as you gaze down upon these imperfect beings stumbling and falling, refusing lessons which long ago should have been internalized. Alas, they never were.
You be safe and keep our love for you close to your heart, as ours is for you.
Always and forever. Always and forever.
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