O, the best friend recently turned boyfriend (that's for another post), managed to get me out of the house this Saturday for a short easy hike, after we spent last weekend feeling like we slept it away. We live in a small city (pop. 33,000) in the middle of the desert. It's a fifteen minute drive through desert to the closest town (pop 10,000) and a half an hour drive (through desert) to the nearest developed city (pop 194,000). So the perks of such an isolated landscape is that taking a hike requires a three minute drive to the edge of the city and walking up to one of the trails that follows a (dry) riverbed. It was nice to get out into nature, even if all I wanted to do was to curl up in some soft grass (where?) under a tree with my new book. We saw a young Bedouin man herding his sheep and goats...the babies only a month old. He held one for me so I could pet him. And as we were climbing our way out of the riverbed we saw a group of young peeps hiking with guitars on their backs, we waved (from afar) and they yelled out to join them for coffee (black coffee over a tiny fire) and hookah, I agreed under the condition they play us some music. So they climbed up, and we climbed down, and there we sat with four young strangers, singing songs and drinking coffee. And I thought to myself... only in Israel. *On the left side of the photo: a little nook in the mountain and in it our new friends where we left them singing, drinking, and smoking.

color and perception

Numerous are the conversations (and the thoughts) I have had in which I've pondered color (yes, as in the rainbow). It usually goes something like: "What a beautiful tree (for example)!" "You know, we're both looking at this stunning tree, and we'd both say that the tree is brown with pink and white blossoms. But what if what I call pink and white is what you call purple and green? I may be looking at a tree with a yellow trunk, and purple and green blossoms! We might be seeing totally different colors, even if we've learned to call them the same thing!" Anyways, I came across this BBC article and felt like I was reading a script of one of my conversations...I couldn't help but share. Enjoy!

"Israel passes law banning use of underweight models"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17450275
Working with teenage girls and dealing with body image issues and borderline eating disorders, I think this is a blessing. But I can also understand models who are naturally slimmer (not anorexic) who can no longer model.
What do you think?

Sex in the media

Web-surfing, I finished reading an article about a 15 year old girl gang-raped by five young men.
Five minutes later I stumbled upon an article on Madonna's "Girl Gone Wild" video with a youtube link at the end, and I watched it. Aside from admiring the editing, some of the effects, and the very limited choreography...I kept wondering how the 15 year old from the previous article would feel watching a woman chained at her hands and feet being groped, kissed, licked...by five men.
I'm by no means conservative, but I couldn't shake the thought that the media (as a whole) just doesn't take responsibility for the messages they relay to their biggest audience (teenagers). Like in the previous post (about the impact of underweight and airbrushed models on body image), I wonder what message Madonna's video sends out to young girls watching her sing about being a bad girl as she "willingly" lets five different men simultaneously paw at her. I question the term willingly, because how willing is it when she's completely chained up?
What do you think?

After finding a 6 year old and a two year old within a week of each other, wandering the streets alone in the middle of winter, Im starting to wonder whar the universe is trying to tell me.