Women of the Israeli Army

I just stumbled across a fasciating website: Rachel Papo: Serial Number 3817131

Rachel Papo is an Israeli who was born in 1970 in Columbus, Ohio but was raised in Israel. She began photographing as a teenager and attended a renowned fine-arts high-school in Haifa, Israel. At age eighteen she served in the Israeli Air Force as a photographer. These two intensive years of service inspired her current photographic project titled after her own number during service -- Serial No. 3817131.

I know women have been soldiers for centuries, but I don't often see images of young women carrying fully-functional weapons around as part of their daily routine. I find many of these images both stunning and disturbing.

Like so many soldiers in this world, they seem far too young to be doing what they do.

Avoiding My Sword

No, I haven't been around very much the last few days. . . or more. It's not that I don't love you all, but I've been riding out a pendulum swing that's carried me way over into a part of my psyche that had gotten a bit rusty, and which I've been expressing (at length) in a blog I keep hermetically sealed away from this one.

Blame it on my P-con class. I've been doing. . . fieldwork. . . and doing a lot of excavation of past experiences and revelations. . . And allowing the rational parts of myself to let go for awhile and stop trying to prepare to teach this class the same way I prepared for the defenses of my theses.

If I can't stand in Wands/Fire and Cups/Water at least as strongly a I do Mind/Air, if I can't teach from body-wisdom as well as intellect, this is not going to work. That's felt backward, even as I've believed it to be true, and I've been going through some mental contortions trying to adjust my processes.

Besides, there hasn't been much to report on in my daily life. Work is the same, Wolfling is fine, I'm going to move in a couple of weeks, I'm enjoying Season Two of Bones via Netflix.

Please leave a comment here if there's a post you really want me to read. I haven't even been reading my Friends page on my gadget during the day because my attention has been diverted to a different site.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go slip back into the Water. . .