TENSION FELT

Tuesday, November 7th, 2023

Forest Hill, Toronto

AT THE MEDICAL CLINIC WHERE I RECEIVED A HOLTER HEART MONITOR THAT I WILL CARRY FOR 2 WEEKS.

My medical checkup was for 7 a.m., and to get to the clinic on St. Clair Avenue I allowed myself one hour to reach the place. I could have taken a clear and direct L-shaped route, but in an effort to avoid some traffic rage, I tried for the inner streets and cut some corners. That proved wrong. Those inner streets wind around in some places. It is a fact that Toronto is not clearly laid out on a grid. I lost some time.

In any event, after four kilometres on foot, I reached my destination.

Now, I know I traversed through many Jewish neighbourhoods, and apart from the wind stirring up dry autumn leaves, I also felt more tension in the atmosphere fuelled by the current global situation. I am very inclined to feel for all communities who have had to face the intrusion of terrorism in history. My father carried this sentiment having struggled through a Nazi occupied Europe, although he was not Jewish. The atmosphere then was of so much hate.

I, personally, have never experienced such a polarization of people in my life. And the tension is not a result of religious fervour. Religion is just a veil that man's insatiable passions and wrath hide behind. Do some far right faith groups rationalize inappropriate behaviours based on fundamental hype? I believe so. That same energy of fanaticism explodes in our faces from a far leftist hedonistic approach to life with no strings attached to any religion.

The result of all of this, what we call rajas and tamas, is a deterioration of good ethical values. I fear major troubles ahead. We are all shamed.

MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU!

8 km