Almost Black and White

Old Things in Jerusalem



Sentries over the Western wall

Jerusalem

When Aidan was in first grade, he asked the librarian at school for books on the Holocaust. She told him they didn't have any. When he found some on the shelf and tried to check them out, she took them away and told him they were for older kids.

The Holocaust Museum and Memorial

His heart has always been torn by the helpless and the hurting. I remember when he was just a wee little guy playing with his cars. He lined them all up for a car sale, and then first began choosing the broken ones; the lopsided ones missing wheels with chipped paint and broken plastic. "I'm choosing these ones first, Mom, because no one else will want them."

The Righteous Among the Nations Walk of Remembrance

One of my heroes, Corrie Ten Boom.

Chloe is a fighter. She cannot stand injustice, or bullies. We had to walk quickly through the latter part of the museum because after a while her heart could not take any more. She kept asking me "Why?" because she couldn't grasp how such an enormous evil could have been allowed to happen.


First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.
-Martin Niemoller

Wash over Bethesda

In Jerusalem

Jaffa Port



Singing Stairway to Heaven

Israel, Jerusalem especially, was a mixture of throat catching beauty and the stark contrast of conflict. It held peace and turmoil in both hands. Walls can't share the stories they've heard, but instead stand as silent witnesses to both beauty and pain. The reality of a world whose humans have played their parts with bravery and cruelty, peace, suffering and hope.

Jerusalem