I wasn't sure if I should put an episode out this week. I feel like at any given moment nearly 100% of my mind and attention and definitely my emotional energy has been on processing the events over this last weekend in Israel.
Climate Papa is not a news podcast and certainly not a geopolitical podcast. But this is a personal podcast--it's been a space over the last few months where I've shared a lot about what I'm thinking about and processing. It's a bit of a window into my lens on the world. And this week I’ve been feeling a lot of pain. In this short message I share what I’m feeling and share a poem that struck me.
The Diameter Of The Bomb by Yehuda Amichai (1976):
The diameter of the bomb was 30 centimeters
and the diameter of its effective range about 7 meters,
with four dead and 11 wounded.
And around these, in a larger circle
of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered
and one graveyard. But the young woman
who was buried in the city she came from,
at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers,
enlarges the circle considerably,
and the solitary man mourning her death
at the distant shores of a country far across the sea
includes the entire world in the circle.
And I won’t even mention the crying of orphans
that reaches up to the throne of God and
beyond, making a circle with no end and no God.
I will return to talking about climate change and technology shortly.
Love,
Ben
A personal message on Israel