IF

 The largest tiniest little word carrying within a mighty power. It is the word that introduces one to an infinite number of other worlds, parallel worlds, limited only by the boundaries of the human mind. Myriad possibilities which in reality have no reality. It evokes images and dreams of a world of hope and a world of despair. It brings about what never was and most probably will never be, but also what might be. It is the most futile useful depressing inspiring invigorating draining word ever. It contains the nadir and the peaks of the history of humankind.

" Faces of October 7th" is a show which contains within it a shouting bloody if.  If he had made a different decision, if she had made another choice. If only he had stayed home. If only she had hidden better. If only we could turn back a clock - but we cannot. All the ifs of the world cannot change what was but will always carom within the echoing chambers of our mind as if it was of the moment. It has become an integral part of the oft repeating history of the Jewish people. If only things were different.

Such is the living if of Benzie Brofman. an artist, who had been at the site of the Nova Dance Festival. but who had left Friday evening rather than staying over into the Saturday morning festivities. "He... finished his artwork on Friday around midday and had a moment when he wondered IF he should stay at the festival, or head home.

“IF my wife or a friend had come, IF I hadn’t just gotten over the coronavirus, I’m sure I would have stayed,” said Brofman.

Instead, he drove home and went to sleep. When he awoke on October 7, his wife was already sitting on the couch, watching the scenes of terror that were unfolding in the south..."

All those ifs culminated in a show containing. black and white portraits and murals of those we lost on that Black Saturday, the kidnapped and those of fate unknown. Those who fell in the year that followed. If and if and if. Was it preordained or was it a jumble of infinite possibilities? Was it an inborn urge? A sense of what needed to be? Was it random? If we only knew, what miracles we could create, the tragedies we could negate.

What must not be lost upon us is the power contained within those ifs. It can lead us to better paths. It can lead us to higher achievements. It can also lead us to further, more intense tragedies. It is up to us. Our energies, our interests, our perseverance, our very natures all contain the possibilities of if. If we concede victory to the negative ifs within, we will reap what we have sown. If we marshal our positive forces, the ifs that could be, that should be, that must be - how far can humanity progress!

Too often, especially of late, we have carelessly rolled and flung the dice and landed on the penalty boxes. We have paid severely on those penalty boxes. We have made payments which can never be repaid or replaced. Then in the 'nacht und nebel' atmosphere we continued to blunder in our choices, constricting the possible ifs of choice, until finally all that was left was a trash heap of negative thinking leading only to madness and hopelessness.

Now the burden has fallen upon those who can discern the increasingly fading lines of the positive ifs, who can muster the drive within, critical to act and to achieve. To have faith and strength to withstand the constant rain of blows dealt to them by the roaring proponents of those blood-stained ifs, as they persist in the horrid ifs of humanity. 

Personally, I wonder. Most people are not driven by a strong inner core, good or bad, to achieve. It is far easier, definitely more comfortable, to indulge our lazy genes and go along with the flow. Buying into the lies and flow of mis and dis information is seemingly easier than trying to climb up that steep slope in defense of truth and the presentation of positive ifs too often so carelessly tossed aside. However, the truth is otherwise. 

As a self-confessed lazy person, I find it far more difficult, ever so much harder work, so much mud to slog through in order to remain current in the latest lies, to constantly check uploads. So much work - and for what end? To sustain nothing which is beneficial to us? Why? It is so much easier to simply remember one truth. Most certainly requires less effort than to retain a rolling roster of constantly shifting conglomerations of falsehood.  Nothing to wonder. Just the truth. Simple. Easy. Less burdensome. I wonder at the stupidity of humanity as we insist on remaining on the rather more difficult energy depleting path of lies which drain us of our energies and lead only to negative outcomes and perversion of possibilities. So much better, so much easier, to choose the lazy way. Remember the truth.

Unfortunately for us, current times favor, encourage the burdensome path of lies. So much so, of such great proportion, that the governor of a state must warn a presidential candidate "to "not share lies or misinformation while he is here."

  Unimaginable, yet there it is in black and white.   

If. If we are to hold onto any hope of a better future, we must begin with a better present. We've got to make up our minds. Which if do we choose? What are the ifs that attract us? And what are the ifs we must shun? I don't know that anyone alive at present times has the ability and/or wisdom to distinguish and know, intensely and intently, how to recognize and differentiate between the good and the bad, the positive and the negative, the hopeful and the despairing.

So many unknowns. so many pitfalls. So many confusing intertwining paths. So difficult to pick one's way through. However, there is no choice. Look around. We're almost at the end of the road. And what end is it? Is there, in fact, an addition to the end of the road? If so, is that addition good or bad, hopeful or not? I have no answers. I do not pretend to have any answers. All I can do is write of my own thoughts. I believe it behooves us all to delve deep within our own thoughts and see if we can't come up with a truth. A real truth. No ifs, ands or buts about it.

If and if and if.

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