Time according to Facebook
Last week I discovered that I got married in 2007. Which sort of turned my world upside down. How do you suddenly explain to your kids that they were born out of wedlock? And how do I explain the discrepancy between the young man that appears in my wedding photos and the aging soul that […]
Taking the “new” out of New Years
We are already into the third week of the new year and I am waiting for something wondrous to happen. You see, I have this fascination for new years. Somewhat of a childlike expectation. As if something different is supposed to happen simply because of the way we artificially separate time. I can’t help myself. […]
If airplanes were meant to fly
When our first child was three, we took him with us on a trip to Canada.“We are going on an airplane!” we told him, much to his delight.At that time, a bus took us from the old terminal building at Ben Gurion airport and drove us to the foot of the plane, where we climbed […]
Discussions with a Muse
“She never married, you know.”The room was quiet, darker than usual, the only light coming from the glow of the screen. I stopped writing and squinted into the darkness.“Who?” I asked.“S… You remember S. Your first love?”I remembered. Some things you can’t forget.“Are we using initials now?”“You never know who’s listening,” she answered.“And I thought […]
Are Canadian writers Canadian enough?
“Are you Canadian enough to understand?” she asked.“That depends,” I responded. “What do you mean by enough?”“That’s a relief,” she said. “I thought you were going to ask me what I meant by Canadian.”John Barber, in an article entitled “Are Canadian writers Canadian enough?” (The Globe and Mail – Oct. 29, 2011), bemoans the fact […]
The Nothingness of Being
Ronald Green, in his book Nothing Matters, makes a distinction between nothing and nothingness. Nothing, he claims, is the absence of everything, whereas nothingness is the absence of something. An important distinction. But how do we distinguish, then, between something and nothingness? How much room is there in the human consciousness? For everything added, must […]
How to write Canadian
Hello everybody. This is Tom Chambers, from Expats Anonymous. Today we are interviewing David Lloyd, a Canadian Expat, whose first novel – As I Died Laughing – has been published as an e-book. We thank David for allowing us to reprint this interview on his blog.Tom: From looking at your personal history, I see that […]
I’m sorry … I’m Canadian
It is said that Canadians apologize all of the time, even when there is no reason for apology. Why is it then that I don’t feel the urge to do the same? Could it be that I have lived so long in Israel that this essential part of my Canadian identity has been erased? Israelis […]
Why Guinness always tastes better in Tel Aviv
How far would you go for a good pint of Guinness? A 5 minute drive? 20 minutes? How about two and a half hours? There is a quaint little pub in the heart of Tel Aviv, neatly tucked away opposite the Dan Hotel, close to the American Embassy, and just a stone’s throw away from […]
Where tooth fairies fear to tread
Yesterday I sat in the dentist’s chair, with the sound of a drill boring into the bone in my mouth. I felt like I was in a road construction crew, with me as the road. The drilling finally stopped, and then for some reason the dentist had to start hammering. All in the process of raising […]