Remembering 1991.

Just someone siging the simple phrase "I know how it is" meant a hell of a lot sometimes.

Still does sometimes.

Sometimes takes amazingly little to mean something. 

May not have much to say for a while.

Just realized I've been playing around on here for so long mainly to articulate the post above, leading up to it, all without realizing it.

 There are times when something is rattling around, irritating your brain, and you don't know what it is until it comes out.

One thing to add, though...You don't feel you could love me but I feel you could...

Gumboot Dancing originated in the Gold mines in South Africa during the oppressive Apartheid Pass Laws. Black labourers worked in total darkness for three months at a time in appalling conditions. They were chained to their work stations and were forbidden to talk to each other. They stood up to their knees in infected water causing skin diseases and ulcers resulting in lost time from work. The bosses discovered that it was cheaper to provide them with Gumboots (Wellington Boots) than to drain the mines. The miners used the Gumboots as a method of communication by slapping their boots and stamping their feet and rattling their ankle chains. Thus the miners uniform was created of Gumboots, jeans, bare-chest and bandanas to absorb eye-stinging sweat.

During their free time, the miners would sing and dance and drink together and remember their familes a thousand miles away. The tradition of Gumboot dancing was born.

gumboots, i didn't remember we both had 'talked' about the possible meaning of "the scan" last year. i feel i know what you mean about writing a lot only to arrive at the point when something vital gets out and is put in words. "i know how it is". empathy, not sympathy, is sorely needed nowadays.

you don't just amuse, you raise interesting questions. so don't stay away too long, ok? and thank you for explaining the origins of gumboot dancing. i took 'gumboots' literally. now i know better.

hope to talk to you soon. love, fátima

Many thanks for the kind words.

I still hear "skin"!  Old habits die hard.  (Also "big day" instead of "bidet" on Frank)

Still here, just feeling less frenetic...hard to articluate about that small post about the small phrase, but if SV stumbles across any of mine, I'd like her to see that one. 

Curiously, the other pop song that gave me a similar feeling of compassion or empathy or whatever (neither of those terms exactly gets it), was the concluding passage of Guns 'n Roses "Rocket Queen," the bit about I see you standing out in the rain...don't chastise me or think I mean you harm....etc.  I like contrast, that it is a very cynical song and then, all of a sudden, hey there is some humanity here in all this. 

the term i often use to describe the feeling you mention is recognition, because when you recognize you know, you identify with, you remember, you avow, you concede, you grant, you respect, you see, you understand.

Perfect, Fatima!  Exactly the word - thank you!

you're welcome, gumboots. and thanks for continuing to post engaging stuff especially the one concerning the talk miller and byrne (one of my 'heroes') gave in boston.

Women in a war, also....about an upcoming documentary.   I think the last line is extremely insightful. 

"...One girl who had wanted to save lives as a paramedic said she ended up scrubbing corpses to hide signs of abuse by Israeli soldiers. Visibly distressed, she looks for the first time in years at a photo of her and a dead Palestinian man.

"How in hell did I think I'd ever be able to forget?" she says, brushing away tears.

Although female soldiers are kept out of the front line, Israel is one of the only countries to enforce military service for women. Yarom aims to highlight the fragility of some girl soldiers -- many still in their teens when they start their two year army stint -- and the violence into which they are thrust.

"You expect women to be more sensitive to suffering and more empathetic to the other side. But the strength of the film is how it shows what happens to human beings in such a warped situation, and how women are not immune," Yarom said.

Yarom hopes the documentary will prompt soul-searching in the Jewish state, where military service is a core part of national identity, and encourage other traumatized ex-soldiers to talk about violence they may have inflicted or witnessed.

"This country is in a coma. With all the bombs and attacks, we are numb," she said.

"People feel we are in a war of survival and it's better not to criticize soldiers, because they are the ones protecting us."

Israel's army said in a statement that soldiers adhere to a strict ethical code and that in exceptional cases, where the code is violated, an investigation is launched. It said the number of ethical violations involving Palestinians had "consistently dropped" since the events described in the film.

Yarom expects the film, which is due to be televised this weekend, to provoke criticism both from the Israeli left -- because of her sympathetic portrayal of the soldiers -- and from the right -- which often balks at criticizing the army.

Yarom said personal experience prompted her to make the film. As a support soldier during the earlier intifada of the 1980s, she was shown a Palestinian torture victim but failed to speak out.

Almost two decades later, she still cannot shake the image of the man, slumped over a generator, his neck bent to the side and his face covered in blood.

"It's the kind of picture that stays with you forever," she said. "During my service I detached myself. When you try to re-attach yourself afterwards it's painful."