So what did I end up doing here? I feel that I’ve managed to grasp a lot of Israel but a lot of it also, like you’ve read, slipped through Aaron’s fingers. And maybe that’s the thing, you can’t describe a country losing its mind without describing a person losing their mind also. Thailand really made things better, in case you were wondering. 

And what, still, is the experiment’s conclusion? The people I wrote, their responses, were far less reliable than things I write or read in fiction. When we read something and feel like it’s realistic, does it even say anything about whether or not it could exist in the real world? I think that we should be suspicious of our instincts, particularly when they tell us something is or isn’t real. Particularly when they tell us whom to believe. Did you ever stare at the same point for so long that your entire field of vision became a meaningless gray? I think that’s what happens when you stick to the same mental perspective for too long. In order to see, we need to keep moving. Between Israel and the rest of the world, between nihilism and full-on faith, left and right, and at each stage describe as sincerely as we can, no matter how crazy it might seem, what it is that we are seeing. Even just to ourselves. That’s my conclusion. 

And I’m sorry for lying, by the way. I said I won’t write to you, and here I found a way to write to you every day. I hope you’re happy and alert, wherever you are, that you receive the new day with open eyes and ears, and that you’re not too cold. 

With longing, but also with joy that there’s something to feel longing for, 

Aaron