“What if Christmas, he thought…..”

A couple days ago I sat sprawled across the living room floor, reunited with my 9-year-old sister.

Since I left she progressed from sounding-out-words to reading chapter books.

‘I want to hear you read!’ I demanded of her.

‘OK….which book?’

A pile of holiday books lay on the floor.

No competition. I picked an eternal favorite, How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss.

It was even better than I remembered (love those rhymes!), and so wise.

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

Happy Holidays!

What came before that smirk

Update 4/25/11- FYI I am removing the contents of this post due to the highly personal nature of the content.

Why do we think how we do? What shapes our lives?  What can we learn? The following is a series of anecdotes, which in part, explain how I have reached certain opinions. I have received a lot of personal criticism over the last few days. This is my response.

Thanks for reading!

Of new computers, compensation and miraculous Apple hard-drives

Home in New York, new laptop in hand:

Though Israel has yet to compensate me for their bullets through my laptop, my life and work must go on. Not having a computer for two weeks has been interesting–in Israel I had little distraction from human interactions. Back in Egypt I couldn’t keep up with the explosion of laptop-shooting-hype.

Now I’m back. Ready to take you along for my laptop debacle, approve your comments, and keep on blogging–like I did for the last eight months for my friends and family.

———————

At the Apple Store on Bolyston street in Boston, I purchase a new Macbook. The options have changed for the better since my last purchase. Sweet!

The Apple’s techies say they can only transfer the data from my hard drive if I can bring in the computer. Yeah…Not happening.

I call a couple friends with love for Macs. There are a lot of those people in college…..My friend hooks me up with his external casing, and shouts the good news–your hard-drive survived! Everything’s here!

In the following hours my friends have to remind me I’ve been across the world for eight months and deserve to spend time with them, not my new computer with beloved old data and lots of emails.

Not censoring, just traveling

If you have commented it should show up within the next day. I’m not censoring, just busy traveling.

My goal on this trip was to explore and learn. To see things for myself.

I’m using this incident as a chance to discuss, learn and question. I hope you’ll join me….

I loved my experience, learned a lot and hope to share more positive anecdotes, as well as laptop updates, in the coming days.

Also, thanks for the invitations, however I am no longer in Israel or the Palestinian areas.

Beyond the laptop

Thanks for all the interest, humor and advice regarding my laptop craziness.

First, I completely agree with Freitas’s comment. “These guys shoot every day at unarmed people, even children. Why so much surprise about a simple laptop?”

Though a visual and poignant incident that captures a lot of sentiment and fault with Israeli policies and practices, unfortunately there are many more issues to get riled over. Let’s redirect the outrage over the laptop and focus on more serious grievances?

I’m busy at work, but this just caught my eye: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/dec/09/gaza-children-palestinian-babies

That said, obviously there is interest in this incident. The Israeli security’s decision to shoot my laptop was nonsensical on multiple levels–unprovoked, unduly aggressive, a waste of government funds, etc

So to answer a FAQ:

Compensation? The manager on duty at the Israeli border gave me a form with phone numbers and an addresses of Israeli government offices in cities throughout Israel.

He promised I could go to any office the next day and they would help me get another laptop.

I was under the impression they would directly purchase from a local Apple store.

Pshh…silly me.

After spending most of a day calling the number with no response, and trying to locate a building Israelis I encountered didn’t know the location of, I was lucky enough to connect with a social worker at the tourism ministry.  With his guidance,  I was able to meet with an Israeli government employee the next day.

She passed me on to another man who took pictures of my laptop and said the process I was to go through was the same as any Israeli who had property damaged by military or “terrorist” acts.

They told me I can expect compensation (deliverable to an Israeli bank account only) in about a month. Though I asked to see the report– i.e. how much they’re planning to compensate me, so far, no news.

Let the countdown begin….??