Snowball Fight

[from a friend of a blog reader]

"I woke up the morning of January 31, 2008 to see six inches of snow on the ground, the first snow to accumulate in ten years in the village of At-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills. A little before 7:30, I saw some neighbor boys and the snowball fight began. I had been threatening them for the past several days, since snow had been predicted.

"That snowball fight continued for four hours, involving most of the one hundred fifty villagers. I threw a snowball at a seventy five year old man who returned the fire. One husband and wife had an intense battle. I made sure to hit every one of the small children a number of times and let them hit me.

"I went to about every home in the village to start a fight. I didn’t want to leave anyone out. I didn’t see anyone as I approached one house. I waited a bit and when I saw one person, I threw a snowball at him. Almost immediately, like hitting hornets’ nest, at least fifteen people came out of the house, all of them attacking me. It was great. Later the head of the household thanked me and said the little battle meant a lot to his children. Later in the morning much of the battle centered in one area. There were snowballs coming from every direction, and you never knew who was an ally or a threat.

"It was an amazing day. It is a commonly held value in the village that people do not throw things at other people and hit them. That standard was pushed aside and everyone was throwing snowballs at everyone. Age, cultural, and gender barriers broke down. Adults acted like little children. A lot of aggression was expressed, all in a good way. There seems to be a cultural need to at times throw away our rules, and let loose. We sure did that today, and at the same time did nothing immoral.

"I asked a number of people if it had also snowed in the Israeli settlements around At-Tuwani. They all said it had snowed there also. So maybe there is one God who makes it snow on everyone, not just on his favorite people, be they Muslim, Jewish, or Christian. The question is whether we respond to God’s gifts with joy and whether we allow those gifts to bring us together. To make exclusive claims on God is to deny the oneness of God. There was nothing exclusive about that snowstorm."