Monday, November 23, 2009
Holit Final Week
I'm in the last week of Holit. I really can't believe it. In some ways time went by so quickly, but when I think of things like my relationships with other people and how much I've learned and experienced here, its incredible how much time has passed. Its so sad to know I'll leave here, and more than anything it is so sad to know the South Americans will be going home. I want each of them so badly to know how much they mean to me, what beautiful, amazing people they are and how they've changed my life so much for the better. Its ridiculous to spend this kind of time and have these kinds of experiences with people you'll most likely never encounter again. Thats life, I know, but that doesn't make it any less difficult to deal with. For the South Americans, I can't imagine what its like to come to the end of a year like this and know you're going back home, however great home might be, it is so difficult to know that people you love so much are experiencing an end to a year like this. Everything we do now is for the last time together. I appreciate so intensely, and its definitely the kind of thing to be happy about that it happened, but something that is definitely worth being sad about.
In other news, for the last two weeks the Australian Shnat group is joining us on Holit, also as the last two weeks of their Shnat. There are eight of them, and they came from Kibbutz Samar, which is further south in the desert, closer to Eilat, and is an anarchist and entirely socialist kibbutz. Everything there is free, they're pretty rich. Its pretty fantastic having the Austalians here, and I really wish we got to have more time with them. Its great having other native English speakers, people we can joke with and use slang the way we would normally, plus they're a really fun and amusing bunch of people.
This past weekend we had a seminar about self-actualization, realizing one's values in the way they live. The seminar was held up North, by the Kinneret, where the first pioneers came to settle. We learned about the pioneers, people who had a dream for a new society, a new human being, living an equal, communal lifestyle. They were young, they left everything they knew and the futures ahead of them, of a bourgeois life, working as professionals, in an office, making money, and went to an unknown place, to an unsettled Israeli wilderness, to start farms, work in agriculture, build a new world based on their beliefs for the way people should live their lives. Many of them died in accidents, the kind of things you would expect from a bunch of idealistic, driven youths who really don't know 100% how to make things work. They went, they made mistakes, but they worked and developed themselves, their abilities, their communities. Some of the places we went to, like the Kineret cemetery, where all the early pioneers are buried, I've been to before and heard the same things, but it was different this time, feeling the spirit of these people who really wanted to change things and who risked so much to venture out and create.
After that, we went on to learn about the kibbutz movement, ideas in why it has failed and is failing, and ideas in how the concepts and values that were relevant in the beginning can be actualized in a currently relevant and meaningful way. Kibbutzim grew large and ideology faded, because you can't stay so personally connected to hundreds of people that you feel personal responsibility for them as a member of your group, and when the policies of responsibility and cooperation are forced upon people, they work to create distrust and alienation rather than solidarity. We learned about ideas now to have intertwined groups within the kibbutz, meaning that each person is a member of many groups, like kvutzot, family, work and committees, and the groups mix and combine so much that everyone is working together with the other people of the kibbutz and cooperation then comes naturally. I'm not so sure what I think of that working, how much sense it really makes, but it was interesting. We visited a new kibbutz of Hashomer Hatzair where kvutzot from the movement live together, as an idea for a new way for kibbutzim to work, made up entirely of kvutzot. Also interesting, but they don't really seem so solidary. Who knows.
The seminar was a really special experience. I love the Kineret, it was a very special place for me when I went to Israel with my kvutza two years ago, when we learned about the first kvutza and their process of becoming close to one another, and again being there was a very beautiful, epic experience. It was really nice to spend the time all together, in such a beautiful place, where we all slept in the same room, ate all together, had bus rides and discussions and everything together. We don't usually get to have time like that together because all our classes are separate, some days we don't even see each other most of the day. It meant a lot to have that time now so close to the end.
There are more birthdays and weekends and other random fun things to recount here, but again, not in this moment. Laters.
# posted by Anna Schuman @ 4:43 AM 
Comments:
<< Home
Self-actualization -- having a purpose and realizing that purpose -- is a wonderful thing. The question is not "What is the meaning of life," the question is "What is the meaning of *your* life." Having that meaning gives direction to all of your decisions, all of your choices in life. Sharing that purpose, that meaning, with others, enables you to make decisions together, and as you make those decisions you further define that meaning. So your purpose and your decisions are inter-dependent. Not only do they depend on each other, but very importantly they depend on the people around you. They inform your decisions and provide both a context and a source for meaning.
Meaning is what we want.
Choices are what we make.
Relationships are what we have.
Meaning is what we want.
Choices are what we make.
Relationships are what we have.
When I think of the Kineret cemetery I think of this goofy fat American guide who told stories about the early settlers' sex lives and said, "Don't you see why this is interesting!?!? It's not just history, it's sex!" I also think of all the soldiers going, "Ezeh yehudi amerikai," and whispering to each other about the big guy.
I read all of the other stuff too. Saying goodbye... Yup that's all true. I hope you're keeping in touch with the South Americans. Someday you'll probably get a chance to visit them in their countries. I think self-actualization is good but it's a dangerous thing to look for, too. I think that it's easy to live life saying, "This is OK because it fits my values," and "I don't want to do this because it doesn't seem like it's really me," and then not be happy in the end. I think that a lot of people live their young life doing only what feels right and then don't end up happy and so they totally give up on "meaningful work" when they get older. I guess I feel like the connection between self-actualization and what you do in the present is very vague. I think that the nature of what you do often has a bigger effect than the meaning of it. Doing an important job can be ruined by working with bad partners and doing a job that doesn't feel important can be inflated by good partners.
"Self-actualization" is a tough issue and I've got way too much to say about it. I'm trying to find the answer myself. Dad will say that there is no answer, and then I'll say that there is. Then dad will say, "but you have to find the answer for yourself." Then I'll probably agree with him.
I read all of the other stuff too. Saying goodbye... Yup that's all true. I hope you're keeping in touch with the South Americans. Someday you'll probably get a chance to visit them in their countries. I think self-actualization is good but it's a dangerous thing to look for, too. I think that it's easy to live life saying, "This is OK because it fits my values," and "I don't want to do this because it doesn't seem like it's really me," and then not be happy in the end. I think that a lot of people live their young life doing only what feels right and then don't end up happy and so they totally give up on "meaningful work" when they get older. I guess I feel like the connection between self-actualization and what you do in the present is very vague. I think that the nature of what you do often has a bigger effect than the meaning of it. Doing an important job can be ruined by working with bad partners and doing a job that doesn't feel important can be inflated by good partners.
"Self-actualization" is a tough issue and I've got way too much to say about it. I'm trying to find the answer myself. Dad will say that there is no answer, and then I'll say that there is. Then dad will say, "but you have to find the answer for yourself." Then I'll probably agree with him.
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
Post a Comment