3 Years Away

It's been 3 years since my father passed away and I still miss him and think about him. While I do prefer to commemorate his life rather than his death, it's a date I unfortunately remember as well. A lot has changed since. My mother started traveling a lot more since my father's death. She joined me in India and later in Thailand and Cambodia and is now with my cool young brother in China. So this year we won't hold a memorial service next to my father's grave. Doesn't mean we don't remember as we do remember, every single day.

Down the 101 from Oregon to California

The US is packed with so-called scenic routes. They almost all feature stunning views which make a US road trip such a beautiful amazing experience. Often pictures cannot really encapsulate the feeling of open air views but here are a few anyway.

Our cool Ford Focus is named Billy and we got him in Texas. He has been serving us well for thousands of miles already.

As we now have a car we got some camping gear and do camp outdoors when we don't stay at people's houses in towns and cities.

Waves splashing and it looks like a gazer, but it's not.

Some of the giant red woods drifted far away.

A few hours later we started seeing some huge living trees.

While I'm opposed to riding horses, the picture still looks good.

Our rideshare people enjoying one of the scenic views

Modern Nomads and Cinnamon - Featured on TV

We're now deep into our US roadtrip, having spent over 5 months here and more than 2 months with our lovely car named Billy. I haven't updated the blog in a while and consider this a good opportunity to start catching up.
A few days ago Dana and I appeared on TV in a piece about modern nomads. It was on the Israeli channel 2 news at prime time so I guess some people have actually watched it. You can watch it on this link but it's in Hebrew. Our part starts at 4:00 with a cinnamon roll hug. So after you watch the national TV piece, you're welcome to see the hug here below.

Perhaps more blog updates soon.

Annoying Vegans

Vegans can really be annoying and preachy. Self righteous jerks who think they're morally superior because they've chosen not to eat animals. It's hard to enjoy a good steak when some vegan next to you tells you it's a dead cow that's been abused before it was slaughtered to become this juicy tender meat you now savor. You may feel it's okay for others to make odd personal choices such as shunning dairy products and eggs but they should definitely let you enjoy your ice-cream in peace without talking about dairy factory farming. "Live and let live", right?
Well, not exactly. If you consume animal products (meat, fish, dairy, eggs and so many more...), please read on to understand why it's hard for many vegans not to share their perspective and try to change your "personal choice".
Everything we choose can easily be labeled and protected as a "personal choice". However, not all personal choices are accepted and allowed nowadays. Clearly, acts of harming other humans (robbery/slavery/rape/murder) are illegal today in most places in the world. A drug-addict's personal choice to steal property to get money for the drugs he really needs, isn't an acceptable personal choice. A slave-owner's "personal choice" to own a slave as it makes the owner more wealthy and happy isn't acceptable anymore. Killing another person is, in most cases, strictly forbidden and shunned upon. However, non-human animals are not truly protected by our social or written laws. Vegans don't think that knowingly harming, torturing and abusing non-human animals or supporting such acts should be an acceptable personal choice or social norm. The fact that it is still the norm in most of the world doesn't mean it should continue this way. I think each person should be able to make any "personal choice" that doesn't harm others directly. I personally include non-human animals in my definition of "others".
So why be pushy about it? Well, you'll be surprised how many vegans are not pushy about it. They often wouldn't even mention they're vegan so as not to start a useless debate with people who are not open to accept change. When offered foods made of animals, they'll simply refuse without mentioning it. Some vegans I know would even eat meat to avoid a conflict with people they love.
But not all vegans are like that. Many times the process of understanding the horrors committed by humans to other animals is not an easy process. The realization is accompanied by strong emotions. Empathy to the suffering means that the person feels that pain. Have you ever seen a dog kicked and heard it whimper? If you did and empathize with dogs, you had probably felt a physical pain caused by your feeling of the situation. In such a case, how would you feel towards another person laughing at the situation or kicking the dog again? Would you feel that person should be taught differently? Might you feel enraged? Or perhaps you could label it as the other person's "personal choice" and go on about your day ignoring it? These are questions vegans are faced with each and every day as most people support the leather, meat, dairy and egg industries without thinking twice about it. These industries are INHERENTLY full of animal abuse and torture that makes the dog-kicking situation I've described seem like the dog got a loving hug.
So all non vegans are disgusting people with appalling moral values? Of course not. There are many good reasons why most people are not willing to change their habits, especially when these habits are the acceptable social norm. Changing habits is hard and justifying our current ones is easy. Talk to a person who has been smoking for more than 10 years if you're not sure what I mean. Many people are exposed to partial facts and wrong information which makes them think that animal products are healthy and a necessity for them and that animal torture isn't related to what they have on their plate or the leather jacket they're wearing. There's often a cognitive dissociation between the what you consume and the way it was produced. When eating KFC, you often don't think of chickens that are born into small cages and killed when they are a few weeks old, you think about it being tasty. When eating a cake with eggs, you don't think about how all the day old male chicks are all thrown into a garbage bag and choke to death or being tossed into a machine that grinds them to become pet food.
Choosing not to support non-human animal killing and torture will not really harm you, it'll likely even be healthier for you. However, in a meat-eating society, it's not an easy choice to make so most people refrain from even considering it. Personally, I've been denying my direct contribution to the suffering of animals and ignoring this suffering even when I was aware of it. It seemed like a fine thing to do as most people do it. However, when I tried to look at the choice from the outside, I couldn't really justify myself anymore. I couldn't again understand how my joy of animal-based foods justifies all the horrible things that are done to provide it. If having a plant based diet would have rendered my life miserable and my health and taste buds would have suffered, I would have found the justification. But it isn't so. There is so much to eat and enjoy eating that does not involve killing or torturing innocent sentient beings. Later I've found this choice would also help my health and reduce the harm to environment and this just helped supporting it.
I'll conclude on a personal note. On one hand, I feel I'm not doing enough to prevent the currently ongoing animal holocaust. On the other hand, most of the people in the world support it and most of my efforts would simply hurt me. So for now I'm left with expressing my opinions at times and trying not to feel too badly at the dissonance of people telling me how they love animals while eating milk chocolate and buying new leather shoes. My wish is that some day animal abuse would be illegal everywhere and that violations of such laws would be prosecuted. It might take many more generations, but I hope it'll eventually happen.

Literally The Longest Day in My Life - Beijing to New York

The 24th of April, 2013 was been the longest day of my life. It wasn't 24 hours as most of the days I've been here but rather 36 hours. My 14 hour flight from Beijing moved the clock forward in just two hours. Jet lagged? Naahhh... Enjoy the pictures below

At Beijing airport - I'm guessing it's an ad to Chinese opera but it's totally freaky.

At JFK airport, New York, an ad for Chengdu, China.

JFK airport

JFK airport, in case you're not sure which country you've landed in. I personally don't remember visiting any other country which had such a big flag in the airport.

Sunrises over the horizon as seen from the plane.

Either our pilot was drunk or it's because JFK airport is a busy one. The good side is we got a nice aerial view all around NYC.

Following an amazing reunion, we're glad to see fresh veggies. Go vegan! :)

Mabuhay Philippines - No Immigration Today

First time this happens to me. We're all out of the airplane that just took us from Bangkok to Clark airport in the Philippines. People are rushing, people are walking, let's get past immigration already. We all reach the big hall. 5 immigration booths are there to welcome us, but something's missing. Immigration officer. Kinda funny to see hundreds of people waiting in two organized lines (foreigners and Filipinos) without anyone to serve them.

So if there's no one around, can't we just pass the counter and enter the country?

After nearly ten minutes one officer came in and it seemed she had to serve ALL the people waiting in line. Luckily, we were of the first in line so it didn't take us that long. Actually, much shorter than the lines I've passed in many other countries.

So yes, now I'm in the Philippines with my younger brother for a short time before heading to Beijing for a day and then NYC, starting our US adventure.

Avi Wald is 64 - My Dad's Birthday

Better than focusing on the memorial day for his death, I'd rather be happy at my father's birthday which is today. As the story goes, my father's father was notified of my father's birth and said something along the lines of "Don't fool me, it's not April fools anymore". Well, it wasn't, it was April 2nd, 1949. My father was born into a completely different world than I was, no doubt about it.

I still miss my father and frequently think about him. His death has been a great loss to me and our family. But life goes on and as our death is imminent, we might as well use the little time we do have to celebrate what we've got.

Here in Bangkok now, I've been very happy to meet two of my brothers and half of my nephews. The youngest is called Aviv and when saying Aviv Wald (the W sounds like a V), it sounds the same as Avi Wald, my late father. Aviv means spring in Hebrew while Avi is the shortened version of Abraham (Avraham in Hebrew).

Here are some picture fragments from the past

My father with his parents. All now buried in the same cemetery.

My mom organized a trip for my father's last living birthday, hiring a whole bus and a guide.

So yes, my father could still smile beautifully while knowing his death his near

 

Purim family picture with my parents and brothers.

My birthday at the kindergarten. Center out: me, my parents, my older brothers, my grandmothers and then my father's father. The rightmost woman is.... hmmm.... have no idea...

Avi Wald with all of children in the swimming pool. The last days here in Thailand, Ofer spent a lot of pool time with his kids. Another generation getting soaked and happy :)

My parents at my brother's wedding, or some briss, or somewhere where you gotta wear a suit.

So happy 64th birthday dad! You're in my heart and mind :)

You may wanna see previous blog posts about my father's death and his tombstone. His Colnect collector profile is still publicly accessible though he hasn't used it in a while.