People you love should not be far away. It's as simple as that. I'm currently waiting for an overseas call from my sister, who's living in Haifa (Israel) at the moment. I can't think of a way to distract myself while I'm waiting, and looking up information on the war between Israel and Hezbollah just isn't helping at all. I can see detailed pictures of buildings in Haifa that have been hit with a rocket, but I can't actually see or touch my sister. I suppose I've always felt like there's this magic shield protecting the people I love. But people move to far off places that my arms just can't reach. And even though there are a million ways my sister could get hurt if she were here with me, I feel like she would be somehow safe if I could just keep her close. I feel like I'm back in grade 2 a bit, because I keep thinking "why can't people just get along?" but I think I may have been onto something in grade 2...it doesn't make any sense that the push of a button can affect so many people's lives. And war never seems to make sense, even when I attempt intellectualizing it. It's people killing people. And it's always going to be someone's mother or best friend or lover. It's always going to be arbitrary hurt and it's never going to be worth it.