[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: Israel's mechanistic storm of the soul

[Email subscription to blog articles]

Posted by Mary Madigan:
Israel's mechanistic storm of the soul
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1179148515.shtml


   [1]khamsin 
   Dust storm (Hamsin) approaching, Ein Gedi, Israel [Click for larger
   image]

   Judith at [2]Kesher Talk describes our stormy hike:

     The previous week when Mary Steve and I were in Ein Gedi, we saw a
     sand storm pour through a crevasse. As it was an overcast day, I
     added some saturation and contrast to these photos so you can see
     it more clearly. (They are thumbnails of larger photos.) These
     views are looking back toward the Dead Sea from about halfway up
     Nahal David...

   The storm was part of the [3]hamsin, a "generally southerly hot wind
   from the Sahara that blows across Egypt from late March to early May".

   These sand storms are compared to California's Santa Ana winds, which,
   according to natives, are responsible for all sorts of bad moods and
   grouchy behavior.

   Native Californian [4]Joan Didion writes:

     ...tonight a Santa Ana will begin to blow, a hot wind from the
     northeast whining down through the Cajon and San Gorgonio Passes,
     blowing up sand storms out along Route 66, drying the hills and the
     nerves to flash point. For a few days now we will see smoke back in
     the canyons, and hear sirens in the night. I have neither heard nor
     read that a Santa Ana is due, but I know it, and almost everyone I
     have seen today knows it too. We know it because we feel it. The
     baby frets. The maid sulks. I rekindle a waning argument with the
     telephone company, then cut my losses and lie down, given over to
     whatever it is in the air. To live with the Santa Ana is to accept,
     consciously or unconsciously, a deeply mechanistic view of human
     behavior.

   [5]Richard Landes posts some wonderful photos of the dust storm
   approaching and asks what these storms symbolize.

   After hiking in the California/Israeli versions of these hot winds,
   I'd say that the storms are symbolic of Israel's need to start
   manufacturing Gatorade. In California, Gatorade's
   electrolyte-postassium combination always helped me endure Didion's
   hot, weary storm of the soul.

References

   1. http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=497828293&size=l
   2. http://www.keshertalk.com/archives/2007/05/hamsin.php
   3. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hamsin
   4. http://falcon.tamucc.edu/~tmurphy/writers/Ellis/ANA.HTML
   5. http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2007/05/13/sand-storm-symbolic-of/