Emotional moments

An Emotional Moment

                Emotional moments can arise at any time in any place, out of the blue. In the most pedestrian of places a thought, an overheard word, a glimpse of the unexpected can cause emotions to come bubbling to the surface. A renewal of one's baptism in the Jordan river, repeating one's marriage vows in the Cana chapel, the celebration of a Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall these are occasions  which can bring on a rush of emotion. I'm sure that each person who has gone on a pilgrimage tour of the Holy Land can point to a site or an experience which has left an unforgettable emotional  impact.

Emotional waters.

I want to place one of my emotional moments at the Yad Vashem Memorial. It was not, however, the memorial itself, but rather an experience that happened within the memorial.  It was related to, but distant from, the main thrust of the memorial's purpose.

I had wound my way through the various displays, the oral testimonies, the graphic photographs, a depiction of the final downfall and defeat of the Nazi's monstrosities and was sitting alone in one of the final rooms. Projected on the walls were relevant statements written by a whole variety of people. I was reading and absorbing each of these statements. They were insightful, thought-provoking, delivered from the heart. How I envy these people who can express so clearly, so succinctly, what many of us feel but lack the ability to verbalise. I was completely absorbed.

                Bare hard seats, bare walls, reading one and then waiting for the next.  Do these words give comfort? For the person of religion it is faith that gives comfort. For all that, faith in one's fellow can also be a great source of comfort. Here in this bare room, in some unexplained way, comfort could be found in the words projected on a silent surface. Awaiting the next quotation I was awakened from my mind wandering. I was suddenly aware of our Israeli tour guide, Gail, sitting beside me. I sensed, I felt her extreme emotion which was reaching out for recognition and understanding.

                I sat and did nothing. Whether by osmosis or simply the power of the moment, that emotion vibrated powerfully within me as well. But I was emotionally immobilised to respond. Nor did I, or could I speak. The moment tangled my tongue.

                I sat and did nothing. Here was a fellow person steeped in emotion, crying out for a sympathetic touch, a reassuring arm, and I proved inadequate for the task. Finally I reassembled myself, put down the camera case I was holding in my right hand and determined to reach out, put my arm around her shoulder and show some solidarity. But the moment had passed. She had stood up and was moving forward with her life. The next site awaited her tour group and they couldn't find their way there without her.

The sun will always shine. God is near.

                Maybe my wife is correct. " Why," she had often said," do you sit and analyse everything before you do anything? It's not uncool to show some emotion."

                 "Uncool", did she say that?

P.S. These thoughts were written initially on an Emirates' dinner serviette somewhere high over the Indian Ocean on my long journey back to Australia. The serviette also bears marks of the Mongolian chicken which I had selected in preference to the backed perch fillet.