As the days of peacetime blur into forgetfulness, I begrudgingly sink into this new normal of alerts, sirens and check-ins. The irony is that with all the arrow missiles and ballistic warheads moving at the speed of sound, I’ve been forced to slow the fuck down.

You see, the small amount of work I had ‘till now has dwindled to a virtual halt. Our school set up a ‘zoom lite’ schedule for the kids—a minimalistic schedule, in confidence that ‘bagrut lite’ matriculation exams would replace the regular ones. Now I’m not even sure if the exams will happen at all.

So my usual 6 hours of teaching got rescheduled to almost zero; my subject isn’t a top-tier one in any case. I feel little need to spend time creating online lesgreensons, when AI can simply revamp the ones sitting in my drive from COVID-19. God help me. I’ve created some great review materials, but my 12th graders show little interest/motivation in looking at them. You can lead a horse to water. But I’m not judging anyone these days.

Yes, the timing could have been better. I’m supposedly on sabbatical and all the courses I enjoyed got moved online. What a joy. And now, Israel is supposedly on Passover vacation. Two weeks where there is officially no school and less work. But let’s make something clear for those who didn’t get the memo: nobody is getting a break from anything. This war doesn’t do breaks. Only deceiving lulls for a few hours, which is hardly the same thing.

Passover is usually family time—an occasion for trips and hikes. My friends talk about getting in their cars and heading to the Negev or somewhere that isn’t home, but who are they kidding. The highway is a scary place right now. During a siren some drivers carry on driving oblivious, while others stop by the side of the road. That alone is a recipe for disaster. The North, usually the go-to for Israeli families during spring break, is being pounded relentlessly. In our tiny country, the map of “safe” places is shrinking, and we’re running low on ideas.

So I wake up in the morning, thankfully with no little ones........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)