Thinking about a year ago.

 Here are two posts by Michael Rosen, in the series The King and his Tutor.  The first one is from yesterday:

'Tutor,' said the King to his tutor, 'when does history begin?'

'Good question,' said the tutor, 'and the answer is that it begins when we say it begins.'

'Really?' said the King, 'surely there are more objective ways of deciding this.'

'There may be,' said the tutor, 'but we have to think about what we want people to believe.'

'We do,' said the King.

'I mean,' said the tutor, 'people are often keen to dig up all sorts of old grievances going way, way back. That doesn't do anyone any good to go over all that.'

'Yes,' said the King, 'it's quite unpleasant the way they do that.'

'So what we do, instead,' said the tutor, 'is pick a day and state clearly, "This is when it all began".'

'I can see a problem with that,' said the King, 'it'll be only us saying that.'

'I don't think you need worry about that, 'said the tutor, 'once we've named the day, we'll find that all the scribes will write it in their Annals.'

'But I've heard that there are rebel scribes who dig up stuff that shows that the sort of thing that went on on the day that we've chosen as the first day of history, also went on before that day,' said the King, 'and what's more, say these rebel scribes, at those times,  it was our side doing it,' said the King.

'That's such a tedious, pernicketty point,' said the tutor, 'you can rest assured that everyone will ignore it.'

'That's good,' said the King.

'It is,' said the tutor.

And the second is from today:

'I think we're doing well,' said the King's tutor to the King.

'How so?' said the King.

'The scribes are talking about Day One,' said the tutor.

'That's good?' said the King.

'Yes indeed sir,' said the tutor, 'because if they're talking about Day One, they're not talking about any days before Day One.'

'I'm not sure that I'm following you on this,' said the King.

'Look, if everyone's talking about Day One,' said the tutor, 'then it means people are 'getting' it that it's more important than other days.'

'But are there any days that are more important than Day One?' said the King.

'I don't think so,' said the tutor, 'but the problem is that our enemies think that there are more important days than Day One.'

'So it'a kind of Battle of Days going on?' said the King.

'In a way, yes,' said the tutor, 'but we don't say that.'

'Why not?' said the King.

'Because that would be admitting that there are other days,' said the tutor.

'What went on on these other days?' said the King.

'That's precisely the kind of question we're trying to avoid, sir,' said the tutor.

'Sorry,' said the King.

'Apology accepted,' said the tutor.

Today, of course, is October 7th. A year ago we had just heard the news about the Hamas attack on the kibbutz in Israel.

In today’s Guardian online two headlines stood side by side:

I wish you could see the living nightmare in Palestine. But how much more must we see before something is done? Nesrine Malik. Here’s a link.

It is a year since my mother was murdered at her kibbutz. Out of this horror, surely peace must come. Yonatan Zeigen. Here’s a link. 

Two different sides of a coin perhaps. Both wanting peace. As the King’s tutor said, “The scribes are writing about Day One.”

I think that’s all I want to say today.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone.