27.2013
One of the happiest winters we had was in the late eighties
when we spent a sabbatical semester in Tucson Arizona. We drove from snowy Iowa
City, where we lived, to Arizona at Christmas time. What I noticed first were
the different colors of Santa Catalina Mountains and the smell of citrus bloom
in the air. Whoever lives in a cold climate can identify with my conclusion,
that we arrived to paradise.
A year later we returned to Israel and my husband got a job
at Ben Gurion University in the southern city Beersheba. Beersheba is not a
beautiful place, but an hour away in 3 directions there are some of Israel’s
most beautiful spots: the Dead Sea to the east , the Mediterranean sea to the
west, and the *Ramon Crater to the
south.
One late afternoon we drove to the Ramon Crater and were
struck by its beauty. We were overwhelmed by the different colors inside the
crater and loved the gazelles running on its rim. We both remembered beautiful
Tucson and our happy time there and at that moment decided that we would buy a
house by the crater in the small town of Mitzpe Ramon (Ramon Observation
Point).
The opportunity came
some weeks later and within two months we were already at our new home in
Mitzpe Ramon, that was 23 years ago. We only stayed one year in Beersheba and
then went back to the States, but that house has remained our home in Israel
and whenever we went there on vacations we spent our time in Mitzpe Ramon
mostly doing what we loved doing in Tucson: hiking and being outside.
The sleepy town of Mitzpe Ramon has a strange mixture of
people: there are the pioneers who created that settelment in the 1950s when
they built the road to Eilat. Then in the 60s new immigrants were brought there
from North Africa, in an attempt to populate the Negev. In the 70s a group of
Americans who call themselves Hebre’ic Blacks came to live in Mitzpe Ramon, and
later on the hippies, the artists, and the nature lovers came to town in an
attempt to escape city life.
Two years ago the most expensive resort hotel in Israel was
built on the rim of the crater. Guests in that hotel spend more than 1000$ a
night to sit on their balconies and watch this natural wonder. However, so far,
even this development has not changed the town which has remained sleepy as
ever.
If you ask around,
many people here in Mitzpe Ramon would say that they do not want their town to
change; this is exactly what they were looking for when they left the big city
for the quietness of the desert mountains. Yet, other people may complain about
a very high unemployment rate and the lack of opportunities for the residents.
Unfulfilled potential (just like unfulfilled talent) often
causes disappointment-- a feeling of opportunities missed: "Mitzpe Ramon
could have been just like Sedona
AZ, if only. . . " Indeed Mitzpe Ramon is a classic case of an
unfulfilled potential: it is a small, unsophisticated town by one of the most
spectacular natural formations on earth.
But, from selfish reasons, I still prefer this state of
unfulfilled potential. In the late 1970s I visited another magical place-- Stanley Park in
Vancouver BC. It had wild, not yet explored, beach areas. Going back there with
my family in the mid-1990s I saw that in 15 short years the park has been transformed. It has become a cultured park,
still beautiful, but for me it has lost its magic.
Whenever I tell people about my house in Mizpe Ramon they
say that I am very lucky to have a home in such a beautiful place, but usually
they add that it is a pity that nothing has been done here. I don’t delude
myself that Mitzpe Ramon will always stay the same, and when it does I may even
be happy for the local people who will benefit from more opportunities. But in
the meantime I enjoy being in this quiet unfulfilled place to where commercialism
and progress have not yet arrived.
*The Ramon Crater is a geological feature of Israel's Negev
desert. Located at the peak of Mount Negev, some 85 km south of the city of
Beersheba, the landform is not actually an impact crater from a meteor, but rather
is the world's largest makhtesh. The crater is 40 km long, 2–10 km wide and 500
meters deep, and is shaped like an elongated heart.Today the crater and
surrounding area forms Israel's largest national park, the Ramon Nature
Reserve. Wikipedia:
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makhtesh_Ramon)
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