The compass points to what you desire most...

Oh My G-d!

Lost! Rudderless! Drifting... Ship of State listing...

Captain abdicated, though still present.

Woke on my couch, young son asleep on the second couch in the salon.

What would his life hope to become, now that mine allowed itself to diminish?

Living in Israel! Wonderful! Wanted to do that all my life.

Prayed every year that next year Pesach would be observed in Jerusalem.

I'm close! I live in Modi'in. I never dreamed I would be the righteous old man with his children begging for bread.

Well, I'm not begging yet – a least not right now... It's 12:38 AM, and I just realized I am an emotional shambles. I won't be begging until sometime after the sunrise of my life.

I have my pride. That's just the problem. Pride.

I thought I could come to Israel and Israel would stretch out its arms and say to me and my family – Welcome!

In a sense that did happen. My sons are in schools, and the social infrastructure of the country is assisting us economically. My wife is employed as a fund-raiser for an out-sourcing company. They love her so much that they allow her to work 10-hour days for minimum wage. I performed the same work for a different company for a smaller salary and less hours. They acted like they loved me, but they didn't offer to work me nearly as hard, so how can one really know?

This I can presume to know – it seems certain that my son is tossing and turning on the couch as if the keystrokes of this computer are like the noise of train tracks when you live in a shack built too close to the passing 4:05 AM freight to Pittsburgh. Maybe it isn't the keystrokes, but my declination that disturbs his rest.

We moved from Overland Park Kansas. I had no problem with declination, and had worked as a Telecom Engineer for 8 years. {N Latitude 38.958954, W Longitude 94.68414, Declination = 2° 38' E changing by 0° 7' W/year}. I used to be a writer of Poetry for Publication expressing both joy & pain. Lately, I have only written for business, but not for the joy or pain in my soul since 1987. Only business. Sad.

Now we live in Modi'in Israel. {N Latitude: 31° 46' 1.2", E Longitude: 35° 13' 58.8", Magnetic declination: 3° 53' EAST}. My personal compass is still not adjusted for that 1° 15' change. That may be why I walk leaning to the left a little, bump into walls on my left side, and can't seem to stay focused with good direction. Or, maybe I am just a little tipsy. Maybe I should cut off an ear – no – that's been done... Anyway, it might be more difficult to hear the pain I cause my family.

My wife should be able to stay home. She is the homemaker. She is a brilliant homemaker while I am rather dull around the home. She is also a businesswoman. If she wants to work, I certainly won't stop her, but now she works 10 hours a night in Jerusalem and has only time for sleep and Shabbat.

I need to be working. In my field. Using my skills. Earning a reasonable wage for an experienced Telecom Design Engineer.

Or – maybe I just need to go to sleep now... Sure – that's it! I'll talk to you more later.

Glenn Beck - FOXNews.com

Glenn Beck - FOXNews.com

I listened to this assessment of the "economic stimulus bill" with a bit of consternation. I don't want to foment a conspiracy theory. It does seem that we have pushed a lot of cash at an economic black hole. Glenn Beck gives the impression that we have not repositioned current currency amounts, but have printed new bills from the Treasury Department.

That might explain why the Dollar/Shekel exchange rate is now 1/4 when it was 1/3.35 before the economic downturn became obvious.

If Glenn Beck's assessment is correct, the US Dollar may be seriously devalued by an influx of new additional bills that are backed by the same amount of "collateral". We have limited capital assets as a country because American corporations have outsourced so much of the manufacturing processes. We have become a more service oriented consumer society.

Service and Consumerism is not a strong support for an economy with an excess of Treasury Notes in comparison with the solid value supporting each note.

This is just my simple opinion. What is yours?

New Israelis

We made aliyah July 22, 2008 - 8 packed weeks ago.

We came to Israel from Overland Park Kansas in the United States. I have never felt more at home in any country other than the United States. I love Israel.

We have managed to wade through the murky waters of getting the boys registered for school, getting utilities in our name, and getting internet service functioning. We have watched planned streets come into existence, and existing two-way streets become one-way street [during certain hours]. We have bought furniture from people who were leaving the country to go back "home" to make a living. We have shared meals with Doctors who work 10 days a month in the United States to finance their family life in Israel. We have sat at table with a Politician who speaks only Hebrew while the answers to our questions were translated by 4 people at the same time.

We buy vegetables at the Country Shuk - an open-air market at Country Center in Modiin. If you get there early, you can watch the days vegetables being unloaded. We have fed 10 hungry people with a single pizza from Giant Pizza, and had leftovers for the next day. That pizza is at least 3 feet [one meter] in diameter.

Our older son Isaac has more friends in school than he ever had at school in Overland Park, and he is known in the offices of the Municipality as the "cool kid" every other new kid is talking about. Our younger son Ari is finally taking notes in school, and some of the notes are in Hebrew.

My wife Rivka & I are studying to learn Hebrew. We have found that most people will talk with us in English when they find out we are Olim Chadashim [new immigrant citizens] of only 8 weeks. They practice their English on us, and we practice our Hebrew on them. It is a win-win situation.

There is almost no single thing about Israel that reminds me of Overland Park Kansas, but I feel more at home here than I ever could have expected.