Yes, it’s complicated.

I have not yet mastered the bus system, not even close.  I mostly know when to get off a specific bus at a specific spot to transfer to another specific bus, if I don’t miss the stop.  It’s complicated.  What isn't complicated is what I saw at the opening ceremonies of the Jerusalem Hand in Hand School on Monday. 

Pure joy. 

About 600 kids and their teachers, happy to be back together after what no one could deny, was a summer full of potential to tear Arab/Jewish friendships apart.  Children and adults laughing, singing, and introducing each other, ready to deal with life where they live it.  Little hands speaking to the world.  The world will tell you it can’t work, but apparently it can.   

I peeked into classes and saw kids.  Happy kids, getting back into the routine of school and lessons and being told what to do, by not one, but two teachers.  Two teachers who work as a team teaching in Arabic and Hebrew, teaching by example that we can work together, if we choose to.

And yet, this is a real place steeped in the reality that is Israel.  They don’t pretend the summer didn't happen, or that things will suddenly become easy, or that there will never be disputes or hard feelings. These students, and teachers, and families know their reality but are committed to the path of peace, committed to communicating and trying to understand each other, and learning ways to discuss the hard things in life effectively. Communication, I like that.  It’s a skill that is fast fading in the world, where it’s all about me and my needs or us versus them, and people telling us what we should think.

Will there be, along with the happiness, frustration and hard work? No question.  Even when we like the people we go to school with, there is still math.  Really folks, just thinking about math brings tears to my eyes. While school isn't all math, life is full of challenges.  If we don’t learn how to deal with them in a constructive way, they will pull us down and leave us empty.

So look out bus system, first you, then the light rail.  If Hand in Hand can help grow healthy communities with a better future for children and their families, I can manage a bunch of bus routes.