Month: March 2021

The sweetness of Freedom

When I think about freedom I think of an abstract concept that humans have evolved to perceive as the most important thing for their survival and evolution. We fight for other abstract concepts in the name of freedom and feel satisfied when we get a little bit spare time to have a little bit control over our lives. As I think about it more and more I have more questions about the mysterious evolution of the entire human race.

In the army, I have very little freedom; I can no longer choose my clothes, I share a room with four other girls, share the shower and sometimes I even get my dresser checked by the officers. I can’t even leave for a vacation without informing my commanders about it. This leaves very little freedom to me. Then it hit me: humans, the masters and rulers over both the animal and the plant kingdoms, evolved to have very little freedom!

Yuval Noah Harari put this concept beautifully in his book “Sapiens- a Brief History of Humankind” my all-time favourite book) and as I kept reading this made more sense to me.

We tend to overthink and build bigger platforms that eventually take every little bit of freedom (both consciously and unconsciously) from our lives. Even when we think we reached freedom, do we actually?

Here is an example: Let’s say I am the richest woman in the world and can afford anything I want. There are several platforms that might take over here; law that restricts me from buying illegal things, my conscience that will eventually force me to give money to charity; the fear of running out of money and even the concept of money itself and the social need to use money as a trade tool (and trade in general).

Animals and plants, on the other hand, don’t think about these kind of things at all (from my understanding at least); they care very little about freedom or trade. This makes life so much simpler. Even if humans wanted to give up on all the different social agreements that build our society, it would be so hard for one simple reason: we THINK. Our thoughts is what builds and can easily destroy our society and eventually the entire human race. Much like the different science fiction movies with the robots that eventually kill all the humans.

Our lives are full of abstract concepts like that. Understanding that these are just all imaginary agreements we have as humans can make it easier (or harder) for us to live, now that we fully understand this fact. Would we ever reach freedom? I don’t think so. Why? It is very simple: when we leave one platform, a social agreement, we tend to think of it as freedom, yet we still struggle with hundreds and even thousands of other platforms and social agreements in our lives.

The only thing we can actually do is to enjoy these little victories, the little moments of freedom and be happy!

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Women’s Day- Is it necessary?

On women’s day we celebrate the of the existence and the hard work of different women in our lives. I spent the majority of this day with the most powerful woman in my life- my mom.

When I think about it on a deeper level, I am surrounded by strong women- my mom and sister, friends and colleagues. My job in the military is all about strong women working together, protecting the Israel’s borders and citizens. I am glad women’s day exists but I don’t need such a day to acknowledge the hard work of all these strong women in my life.

What does it say about us as a global community, who needs the existence of such a day to understand that women can achieve whatever they want and be whoever they want? Why don’t we have international men’s day? In the 21st century we would probably expect men and women to be equal, yet in fact the existence of women’s day only tells us that as a community we still have a very long journey until we finally reach equality.

I hope that in the near future the number of female doctors (surgeons in particular), politician, business owners, CEOs, military officers and so on, will equal their male companions. I hope that our future society will normalize the discussion about periods, body hair and sexuality. That we will teach men not to rape instead of teaching women self defense.

Until that happens, YES. We do need women’s day. I hope that our future generation would learn about such a day only in History class and would never understand the need of such a day.

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Rosy almonds

For years I wanted to witness the the almond blossom, just like other Israelis on social media. For many reasons, this never happened until a few days ago. It was worth the long journey. Since most of my friends live in breathtaking places, I love going on small journeys with them.

Looking at the almond blossom I wondered how could I miss out on this view for so many years? I promised to explore the country a little bit more during my time off from the army. I love Israel. It has so much to offer and in so many aspects. The nature has many stories hidden in it, looking for those who are willing to listen. The Almonds have a story too. They aren’t necessarily telling the story of some ancient heroes living in Cna’an but rather the story of one’s dreams and aspirations.

For me, this experience meant finding meaning in the things I chose to do in life. Gathering all the thoughts into somethings that eventually makes sense to me. Honestly I am not there yet and probably will not have clear understanding until I am a bit older. With that being said, the almond blossom was in a way, a sign for me that some major changes are needed to be done- and for now, it is enough for me.

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