What’s Better than a Minute’s Silence?

Ahoy there, mateys!

I’ve kept silent on the topic of silence. Truth be told, I’m not a big fan. I can get through Yom HaShoah and Yom HaZikoron without difficulty, but beyond that I tend to have silence fatigue.

Different people have different coping mechanisms. I don’t mean to disrespect the people for whom others stay silent. I acknowledge that some sacrifices and tragedies must be marked with dignity, I’m just not a fan of us all doing it together. I don’t like doing the same thing as everyone else, at the same time. It feels forced… and a little creepy.

I get that my response to the minute’s silence is marginal at best and so I keep silent. When people spammed my feed with petitions in the build up to the London games, I politely declined to respond. I didn’t hate. I just didn’t Like.

The main reason I stay out of the debate is because I’ve never come up with a satisfying alternative… until now.

Aly Raisman’s gold medal-winning Floor performance was, for my money, the best, purest and most delicious way to honor the Israelis who fell in Munich in 1972. Rather than a minute’s silence we got roughly a minute’s worth of raucous tumbling and life-affirming flinging herself about all set to the glorious syncopation of Hava Nagila.

Miss Raisman made no comment on the IOC’s denial of the repeated request for an official minute’s silence. She had no political axe to grind. She simply said, “I am Jewish that’s why I wanted that floor music.”

Miss Raisman, I congratulate you on your brace of gold medals. I too am Jewish and I loved your floor music.

If you feel like sitting for a minute in silence and watching her perform her medal-winning routine earlier this year, here it is:

http://youtu.be/x7hpWenVBCw