You Can Get Used to Anything... Even War

You Can Get Used to Anything… Even War

These days, I’m reading the basically biographical novel, Life of Pi.

You likely saw the hit movie a few years back.

A boy and a tiger, plus at first a hyena and zebra, all castaways on a boat in the Pacific Ocean after a massive shipwreck.

Apparently, this is based on a true story.

Through his quick thinking, ingenuity and yes, boldness, the teenager manages to survive at sea for an astounding 200+ days (basically 7 months!!??) before seeing land.

He not only manages to construct a raft to accompany the lifeboat at a small distance, but also finds a way to slowly and methodically use all the water, canned foods and supplies stocked away in the lifeboat, but also learns to collect rainwater, catch and quickly skin fish, turtles, crabs and much anything else that he can feed the tiger - and himself.

This is nothing short of heroic, not just for the survival and the ingenuity of the boy, but an analogy for something much bigger.

The story is told artfully, even beautifully at some points.

That’s not why I mention it.

Getting used to a war is tough at first.

The initial shock, the horrendous, Holocaust-level rape, mutilation, beheading, entire families wiped out by cruel murderers, the kidnappings, the daily deaths, the flood of anti-Semitism unleashed, the rockets and missiles from the south and the north, the trauma of an entire nation, starting with nearly every family.

None of us are spared, as much as we scamper to shield our children from the news and what they hear from friends in school.

What we’re dealing with personally is a tiny fraction compared to the hostage families, the widows and orphans of October 7th.

There is a reason why one would never wish war on anyone, except of course Hamas, Hizballah, Iranian mullahs (NOT people) and the rest of the bloodthirsty terrorists who want us dead, Western civilization removed and some sort of ISIS-style caliphate, G-d forbid.

Not on ANYONE, except those that started this war and the same ones, who will be eliminated before its end.

On the surface, things look mostly normal.

Kids are in school, we do our work.

We do our errands, hike, cook, hang out with family.

To anyone not looking too closely, it’s almost like things are normal.

Of course, they’re anything BUT.

And yet, slowly, grudgingly, but just as surely, there is a certain normalization of war.

My eldest told me last week, “there was a [rocket] siren, but I didn’t even run to the shelter.”

I was quite disturbed. Not just for her safety, but the creeping way this war and its aftermath has made all of us complacent, dangerously so.

The murderous, islamo-nazi bastards shooting rockets and drones and anti-tank missiles at us from the both are still there, aiming to kill as many of us as possible, G-d forbid.

Things can heat up literally at any moment.

Our toddler has started declaring his fear of boys breaking into our car, of being beaten, strange things.

Maybe they’re normal things for toddlers, on some level.

Maybe it’s the overall atmosphere slowly filtering down into daily life.

The sun is shining. It’s slowly getting warmer.

The wild boar from behind our house and the jackals are still roaming around (and howling, in the jackals’ case) at night and in the early morning.

We still don’t have a new mayor (the run-off is coming up).

We’re seemingly stuck.

The month of Adar (two this year, the first ending this week) has been muted in its usual joy, so far.

We will win, to be sure.

Ramadan or not, the last bastion of Hamas (Rafah) needs to be cleaned out, our hostages rescued alive, G-d willing.

Our war footing remains, even as we go about life.

It’s horrible to be caught by the enemy without being ready pre-emptively.

It’s also horrible to become slowly complacent about existential dangers, as if they’re just flies to be swatted away by the Iron Dome or other rocket or drone interceptor.

Everyone I know would choose the second over the first, and even better, the option of being always ready.

If only it was possible.

Humans are creatures of habit, on the one hand, and yet incredibly adaptable, at the same time.

The vast majority are made neither for months-long journeys as castaways on the sea, or for weathering a war of modern magnitudes (rockets, drones, well-equipped terrorist armies in real life and online).

Thanks to Putin, Khamenei, Kim Jong Un, the Qataris and other evil actors, may they all be cursed and eliminated soon.

We’ve been had.

But we’re also winning, most importantly, in practice, on the ground.

It takes much time, force, ingenuity, and sadly, sacrifice of our dear, heroic soldiers, and to fight in the most difficult urban conditions above and below ground, perhaps EVER.

We have lost SO much already.

But we know perfectly well what we’re fighting and sacrificing for.

And above all, that is what distinguishes us from the self-defeating West whose institutions have bee hijacked by the money and voices of terror supporters and their enablers.

Perhaps we will have our sleep and proper rest at some point.

We can wait.

We pray that we won’t need to wait too much longer.

We pray that our supposed “allies” don’t hijack and sabotage our success to date with their selfish needs.

It’s about damn time that Israel allow itself to win and complete the job.

We will emerge stronger and more resilient from this, and former enemies will come to us with respect to collaborate, rather than try to defeat us (they never could, and never will).

We will win.

Stay tuned and hold our proverbial beer.

And while you do that, examine carefully what you’ve become used to, in the process.

What war are you fighting for too long, and which war have you forgotten is important to continue waging?

Choose your hard. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Have a blessed rest of the week, friend.