The End of the Iran War?

 'We slept through,' FD mumbles. It is 515am. We're up. 

At first I think he means we slept through an alarm to shelter downstairs in our miklat (mick-laht) then realized that is impossible. There is no sleeping through an azakah (ah-zah-kah). We slept through only because there was no alarm last night. 

'And the Cubs won,' I mumble back. 

I checked the score after thanking the Old Mighty for returning me to life, the first thing a Jew does each day, Modeh ani (moe-deh-ah-ni). Other cultures might do this, too, but it has extra meaning for Jews, is my guess.  

Last night we watched some of the ballgame on television. What a feeling! Not that the Cubs are crushing it this year, although that feels good, too, but that we mastered the technology of streaming from an iPad to a television. Two doctors figuring out what had previously evaded them. 

This is like getting the Wordle in two. You rise from feeling incompetent and a loser (Wordle in four to six) to brilliant. 

So why don't I feel great. Cubs won. It looked dicey when we called it a night in the sixth inning, and we slept through.

Too much news about the war being far from over, too many soundbites about Iran's nuclear capability. 

Last November when patients in the US panicked after Donald Trump's election I prescribed a moratorium on the news. If it upsets you don't listen, don't engage. Don't read. I've followed my own advice for the greater part of this year and I live in Israel! News about fighting a war on multiple fronts has been highly disturbing, gut wrenching, sad. It is existential and surreal that our soldiers, children, are in danger. The Israel Defense Forces are us. They are our relatives, the children of nieces and nephews, grandchildren of cousins, children of friends. 

Now, as civilians we are in danger, too. (Or are we? I just heard the US bombed FURDOW!) No longer is this a war between men and women in uniforms. Iran, far from powerless, is working on an objective: Kill as many Israeli civilians as possible. After all, Israel did make the first strike. If Israel had not, by the way, the entire region could be rife with nuclear capability within months, years. Israel does the dirty work for the rest of the world. This war is for you, people.

Wait, is the war over? 

My G-d I hope so! But let me continue my narcissistic thought. War is obscene.  

And because it is best to avoid obscene if it isn't work related, I don't read the news in depth, only the headlines. Reading headlines is like reading the title of a graphic comic book, the gravity doesn't sink in. 

Enough. I have to read about Furdow in depth. THAT'S important.

I know nobody cares but we whacked a 6-legged enemy last night, crushed him with a shoe as he scurried from behind a cabinet seeking shelter, a safe place, a cockroach miklat. A two-person job, you should know: one to spot and tease, the other weapon-ready. 

זאב עם כלב ירבץ ונמר עם עגל ירבץ The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the calf

To an end to the war, may there be no lives lost today or tomorrow or evermore from war

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