Page 9 - Issue 19

friends and partners who wake up every day trying
to make this country better and even in them I
often struggle to find something I identify with.
And then I look back to where I came from...

I never thought I would miss Australia as much as
I do now. Not in the way that makes me want to
pack up, hop on a plane and move back; but I
miss my first home, I miss feeling that although
there are lots of really bad things happening
around me that the society I’m living in functions
more or less. In a lot of ways I think I miss living in
the illusion that things around me are fine, or at
least being able to wrap myself in that illusion
when I need a break. That’s not to say that people
in Israel don’t wrap themselves in all sorts of
illusions to make life liveable but I think it's
uncontroversial to say that it's a lot harder to do
here.

Like most of the world Covid has severely altered
my plans, delaying my much needed trip back to
Australia. Needed to see my friends and family
who I love and miss but almost as much needed
to get perspective about my life here and the life
that exists for the wide array of people I know
over there, the ability to step back for a moment
and take stock of my life from more of a distance.
In the midst of the first lockdown, after a number
of conversations we (My Kvutsah at the time)
decided that in the very near future our collective
experiment living as just us (a group of Olim from
Habonim Dror) would end. This stemming from a
desire to socially broaden our lives and hopefully
combat the monotony that had become a part of