The Carmel Calls to Me

Paul R. Stern
A Soldier's Mother
10 December '10

I've traveled the Beit Oren road many times. My parents "discovered it" and described its winding beauty. It isn't about speed on this road, but about scenery.

It winds up the mountain, turns, twists, and with each turn, there is...was...will be beauty. As soon as I heard about the fire, I thought of the road and the places I have passed there.

Beit Oren, the prison, the horses...I knew the places, the turns in the road. And when the fire was out, it called to me and so I stole a day. That's what I call it when I just need to go off and be away. I can't explain why I thought I might be alone there, to drive and to mourn, but I think, perhaps, that maybe I did.

And as we turned up the road, it was so clear, that other Israelis had heard the call of the Carmel. This road is usually close to deserted; the young and those in a rush prefer the coast road. Almost any road is faster.

And no one who took the road with us yesterday was in a rush.
They...like I...had come to see, to feel, to mourn. Many were on the sides taking pictures; staring off into the burned forests.

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