The center doesn’t hold — but then there’s camp
Editorial

The center doesn’t hold — but then there’s camp

When does a poem turn into a cliché?

It’s hard not to hear Yeats constantly now; what started as an occasional whispered phrase 10 years or so back has become an earworm.

Of course it’s brilliant, and of course it’s terrifying.

Here’s the beginning:

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
“The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
“Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
“The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
“The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
“Are full of passionate intensity.”

Things falling apart? Yes. The center not holding. That’s right. Mere anarchy and blood-dimmed tide? There it is, trickling in your peripheral vision. And the best lacking all conviction, and the worst being full of passionate intensity? All you have to do is turn on the television, or radio, or a podcast, or look at social media, and they all are, that lineup of soulless villains and deranged acter-outers, ready to pulverize our democracy, both here and in Israel.

Israel and the United States have wildly different kinds of democracies — ours seemed to be staid, bounded by guardrails that now we learn are held together by spit and hope, and theirs, representation run amuck, their constituency-less dealmaking open to so much manipulation and gamesmanship that it’s amazing that anyone could ever make the unwieldy thing run.

There has to be hope, right? If Pandora’s box were to stay nailed shut, what would we do? But that box, luckily, never does stay closed.

Look at last week’s cover story. It’s about a thoroughly grim topic — antisemitism — and many of the artists whose work is hanging in the show evoke the Holocaust. But still, even after October 7 and during the war in Gaza, even after this frightening rise in antisemitism, some of the artists have responded to a call for art about antisemitism with works full of hope.

And then there’s summer camp.

Two weeks ago, we had a cover story about the New Jersey Y Camps, full of photos of adorable kids and gorgeous teenagers having fun. That’s still a very real thing; in fact, it might be even more real this summer, as the fear of covid and the memories of masks and social distancing all fade, and the need to be among Jews grows. And as wonderful as the NJY camps are, they’re not the only Jewish summer camps where kids can have the kind of glorious summers they will remember for the rest of their lives, living with friends who will be best friends forever.

This week, our cover story is about a man whose intellectual curiosity, sense of humor, sense of connection, sense of peoplehood, sense of change, and sense of joy drive him.

Even in these dark times, joy and friendship and love are real. That is another truth that we should remember.

—JP

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