A reader emails:
Phoned my mother in Jerusalem late Wednesday night here / early Thursday morning there, just to say hi. I hadn’t yet heard about the attack on the bus a few minutes earlier. My mother answered the phone and, before she even knew who was calling, said, “Hi. I’m okay, don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry about what?” I asked. Then, in the background, I heard the sirens of ambulances that were on their way to the scene of the explosion – just a ten minute walk from where my mother is.
I worry less than I would if my mom took buses or spent lots of time in crowded places. She does neither. There is this surreal aspect to thoughts about risk: it’s sensible to avoid taking buses in Israel if one can, I suppose; but it’s absurd that the circumstances should be such in which that’s the sensible choice. And what if one can’t get to work any other way than with a bus?
I so hope for better days.