Shabbat

Early this morning, I woke from a dream... a figure of myself in a gray sea under a gray twilight sky. That was it, no action. I went back to sleep.

It has been a harrowing four days at work. Eighty percent or more of the kids were very good, but the bad ones were really bad, not merely rambunctious and pushing boundaries, but bad, and a few were downright wicked. Half the parents who come up, egg them on.

I didn't light candles last night. I actually forgot it was Shabbat!

During the night, I woke up and found myself counting down in Hebrew, because I do it all day on the slide in an attempt to keep the kids spaced apart on the slide. To avoid a repeat of that, I counted down using a mantra. I started with Sh'ma and Baruch Shem Kavod, but that felt sacrilegious.

I don't recall when I learned this Buddhist mantra, but I've always liked it. It was my hiking mantra at one time: Gate Gate Pāragate Pārasamgate Bodhi Svāhā

In the mornings, I've caught the worker bus right in front of my building, but none of the worker buses seem to be running between six and seven in the evening. John has given me a ride home every night since the hotel opened. It's out of his way, so I really appreciate it.

Tonight, he was hanging out at the beach with his wife and a couple of friends after his shift ended, so I joined them. I was really tired, but watching the sunset and chatting was a nice way to end the day. Ethan took this picture of us:

And these are the hills in Aqaba:

I will be working tomorrow. I will have Thursday off.

In the news:

• in Minneapolis a policeman strangled a man to death while three other cops simply watched-- for three minutes! I'd only heard about a riot and looting in Minneapolis, but Jessica sent me an article about riots and looting in Portland. Apparently, the same things are happening all over the US.
• in Israel, many more coronavirus cases since the end of lock-down. One high school has been shut down and others may be shut down in the near future.