More Than a Rock

Meditations on Art, Work, and Solace68

This essay was originally written in response toIsrael’s war in Gaza in the summer of 2014.

There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we instead choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? I appeal as a human being to human beings; remember your humanity, and forget the rest.

—Bertrand Russell

A ponderous shadow darkened my thoughts these past few weeks and I headed into the desert for respite. The news did it—news from another place, taking me back to another life. Another outburst of senseless, indiscriminate violence and grief, likely soon to be reduced to yet another footnote in the saga of a conflict that will not, perhaps cannot, end. ...