Crosstalk

Since I had to head over to the other end of Rehovot to talk to a travel agent -- just one step in the suprisingly active process of not leaving the country in two weeks -- I made my weekly shopping run this morning. Which means I've been nibbling freshly-made baklava all day and have a freezer full of pitas. It hit me the other day that I'm actually getting settled in here, since I've stopped grumbling about the lack of tortillas so much. Pitas get the job done well enough, and I don't know that hummous would be all that great on a taco, anyway.

Yvette over at Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast said nice things about my blog and even threw me a link, so it only seemed reciprocal to hop on over and browse her posts. Right now she's in the midst of a series of 31 daily posts on Black History Month (February, at least in the US). Obviously she has far more blogging discipline than myself.

From what I've read so far, I'd like to highlight this post, which deftly pinpoints an intersection of three strands having some present currency: Black History Month, the fact that 2005 is the Einstein-honoring World Year of Physics, and the media's tendency to ignore significant but inconvenient stories. But of course, that's exactly why we have a calendar full of days and months and years earmarked for commemoration. Without a reason, a good hook, people can't be bothered to remember much beyond the personally relevant.

On the other hand, give a person a clear interest in the past and memory can be very long indeed. I need only pick up a paper, or glance at the heavily armed guards outside, to remind myself that this isn't always a force for good. One of the lead stories in today's Ha'aretz documents a recent decision in the Israeli Army to stop demolishing Palestinian homes in some cases. It would seem that the supposed benefit of a population scared of having their house knocked down without warning didn't quite outweigh the downside of thousands of suddenly displaced people stoking old grudges.

Just at what point does remembering the past doom us to repeat it?