Mirty & Ted's (hopefully) excellent adventure

Any short-list of the most talented writers in the Jewish blogosphere would certainly have to include Mirty.  I have been reading with a combination of awe and discomfort the amazing distance and clarity with which she crafts her personal narrative. 

Without attempting to tell her story here, suffice it to say that Mirty's discussion of religion, family and marriage follows a trajectory of belonging, disenfranchisement, flight and eventual compromise/rapprochement that should sound at least vaguely familiar to anyone who has ever struggled with issues of faith, love and relationships.

The greatness of Mirty's writing is that even as its honesty sometimes makes me cringe... it also imparts valuable lessons to the reader that were clearly purchased at incredible personal cost to the writer.

Mirty and her husband Ted (not their real names) have been on vacation here in Israel for the past couple of weeks... and Zahava and I jumped at the opportunity to meet them for dinner in Jerusalem this past Thursday evening. 

However, by Thursday afternoon it became clear that an unscheduled meeting was going to keep me from leaving work as early as I had planned... and Zahava was also working under a last-minute deadline.   So I called Mirty and asked if we could bring them down for a late dinner closer to our home rather than eating in Jerusalem.   After a quick consultation with Ted, Mirty graciously acquiesced.

What I didn't know is that Ted and Mirty had sort of agreed that they wouldn't visit any 'settlements' during their trip to Israel.  I also didn't realize that Mirty hadn't exactly explained to Ted what 'our area' meant when she had run the change in plans by him.

So... after picking them up in Jerusalem, and driving through the first roadblock on the tunnel road to Gush Etzion, the concrete barricades and coils of barbed 'concertina' wire along the winding road prompted a few tense words to pass between our guests.

I'm sure Mirty didn't set out to deliberately mislead Ted.  After all, so much of what I've written about the area where I live has revolved around the relative safety and high quality of life.  And for his part, Ted was a very good sport... taking the unscheduled foray into the West Bank with good humor and an open mind.  But still... passing the lights and minarets of several Arab villages along the way did cause a few, um,  lulls in the conversation.

We stopped in Efrat for a few minutes to pick up Zahava and then headed off to one of my favorite little eateries in the world; Gavna.

To really get a sense of this charming rustic restaurant, you should really read the description of Gavna I wrote after our first visit there last year.  But if you're in a hurry, picture a little wooden shack in the middle of the woods... sitting at the end of a looooong winding dirt road... perched on the side of a tall mountain...that has, at most, 20 tables (including the ones outside on the porch and down below in the garden).

To his credit, Ted asked me only once if I knew where we were going as we wound through the woods in total darkness.  And Mirty asked Ted only once if he was really 'OK with this' during the bumpy ride through the wooded road.  I took it as a good sign that Ted took my 'yes' at face value, and quickly answered Mirty with a 'yes' of his own.  :-)

The food at Gavna was every bit as good as i remembered (even if the service was a bit, um, random), and Mirty and Ted turned out to be every bit as delightful in person as one would expect from reading Mirty's blog. 

Ted is a funny, soft-spoken man whose looks and mannerisms leave the observer with the distinct impression that you are having dinner with a mellow Mandy Potankin.  And other than her slight Texas drawl, Mirty was close enough to what I was expecting that I I instantly forgot what I had thought she would look/sound like. 

Mirty and I had the inevitable conversation about some of the bloggers we read (and commenters we enjoy), as well as what we each get out of writing.  Thankfully this didn't dominate the evening, though, and the four of us talked easily about everything from politics to family to gadgets.

In an unsolicited gesture, Mirty offered to be photographed (I would have never asked), and even gave me permission to post a picture of her here on treppenwitz.

Now, I know some people enjoy not knowing what their favorite bloggers look like... and others are dying to know.  So to be sensitive to both camps I'll offer a workable solution:

Those of you who would prefer to have Mirty remain as she has always been in your mind's eye... you should consider this sentence to be the end of today's entry.  Thanks for stopping by.

However, those who (like me) have been dying to know what Mirty really looks like... click the link below (I can't remember if Ted gave his OK on having his picture published... so to avoid hoodwinking misleading him twice, this is just a picture of Mirty & me ).