What a load of… fluff

Let’s talk fluff. It’s all anybody reads these days.

As a fellow blogger made clear to me, many of the important issues that are discussed in the Times of Israel blogs are overshadowed by fluff. Blogs that should be highly read and receive lots of traffic do not. But the fluff does.

Well I have something to say about this fluff. As an activism inclined blogger, I admit, sometimes it does seem a bit absurd to me to be booted in favor of rabbis and vibrators…but it goes so much deeper than this.

It is that fluff, that gives us readers (yes, I am a reader as well) the ability to laugh, to lighten up, to see the bright side. With so much negative news, the lightness of the “fluff” adds a positive spin to the difficulties of the day. There is a reason that the fluff makes the top read lists. We need it!

Reading a long list of what I am going to miss about Israel, makes me realize just how much we have. Benji  Lovitt’s humorous blogs helped me out of a period when I simply could not see the silver lining. Devora Mason showed me that we can get back on the horse,  Sarah Tuttle-Singer’s brute honesty and sarcasm puts a smile on my face for days after reading her pieces, and Jen Maidenberg’s zombies? Scared them right out from under my bed.

Then there is the amazing exchange of ideas that takes place on the Times of Israel platform. Reading about Seffi’s experience on the campus of Columbia University reminds me how very little has changed since my early campus days during the 2nd Intifada, maybe with a bit less virulent anti-Israel activity. Zahava Englard’s blogs relating to her life and experiences from the point of view of an olah living in Judea and Samaria, opens my mind to a perspective beyond simply, “the Settlements”. Ariel Beery’s poignant pieces make me so proud to know that there are other likeminded individuals out there inspiring, connecting, and making our home a better place. David Turner’s deep thoughts on the Jewish people, Middle East, and anti-Semitism, have made me think, and certainly shaped me, from the age of 0; now his writings give others that opportunity, as well.

If we were all writing about serious issues, then how would we be able to lighten up? Each of us adds such an integral piece to the jigsaw puzzle that makes up the Times of Israel blogger community. ToI has offered us something very special. We not only have a close knit community of bloggers, but we also have a single location in which we can share our serious, funny, and interesting thoughts, with an interested, involved, and receptive audience. In our ToI arena, I can read about how amazing our country is, issues that need to be worked on, how we are united as a people, and what divides us, and of course, how to solve all of the problems facing Israel and the Jewish people today; all on the same webpage. It makes me happy.

So my dear fellow bloggers, your fluff is my anti-depression pill. I couldn’t ask for a tastier dose, and thank you all for creating such a colorful mosaic!