From The New Journalism Project – 

Responsible participation is not shutting myself down, but truly experiencing; To ask to be touched, to be shaken to the core and there, to hear the silence between the sounds. Reminiscent sounds.

How do we see it through the eyes of “old journalism?”

• It is a problem. A severe warning sound. A painful development resulting from circumstances. 
• There will be blaming, there will be anger, there will definitely be pain.
• From here may come a call for change – to relieve the lockdown is one possible direction / to give government grants in favor of solving the problem as another possible direction. Or something along these lines…

What will we see through the eyes of new journalism? 

The pain will be felt. Maybe even more so, because there will no longer be a leakage of energy from blaming and trying to find solutions.

If we are deeply rooting ourselves in the pain, simply allowing ourselves to feel this –  that in our society today, one in four teens feels such deep despair, such a lack of horizon, of hopelessness, while lacking positive role models they can look up to for guidance and inspiration, that suicide actulally seems like a real option to relief the pain?

As a journalist, I would like to visit the home of the parents, of several parents, to ask how they are, not just about their child’s suicide (if you can even ask such a thing) – to tune into the background of this specific incident. The pandemia and the quarantine undoubtedly exacerbated the situation, but certainly did not create it. I would like to ask how someone growing up in our society today perceives himself, and what happened following the quarantine, that he can believe he has lost his support?

There are several things that have been lost – contact with friends, the education system framework that along with it come social connection, a position in society, a focus of energy, a motivation for the future that relies on my achievements. But do these things define who we are?

With the deep sorrow and harsh pain, this phenomenon reveals the loss of self-knowing of this new generation, the fragility of the perception of Self, that relies on achievements and social contexts.

A person who does not know himself from within, but only through the connections and labels given to him by society.

***

It made me think of my grandfather. Yesterday, I found an old photo of him from when he was 50 or so – where he was still strong, upright, such a handsome man, and so kind-hearted, sweet and loving. In his old age he toughened, had shrunk, and the distortions of his perception exacerbated. He grew up as “salt of the earth” as he said back then – a kind of “king” of his Kibbutz – everything the new Israeli dream aspired to – my grandfather was, or presented. And his confidence was nurtured and built from it. 

When they left the kibbutz (for ideological reasons, where did we hear such a thing? In the 1950s, they left the comfortable, embracing and familiar network that he was born into and grew up in, because he did not agree with the way the kibbutz’s excluded the integration of the new Jews immigrating from the Arab countries),

So with no property or possessions, already with 3 daughters, without any official education, the young family left for Jerusalem. I do not know all the details, but I feel inside me, that at this point, his confidence cracked. Without the social context of the “kibbutz king” – who was he? There were long and stressful years of poverty until they managed to establish themselves. In his old age behavior, I can recognize this need that lingered in him – to prove he is worthy, that he did a lot, that he gave a lot, constantly proving himself. For us it was exhausting. Yesterday, I suddenly recognized the fragility within him that created it. He did not know that he, who he is, as he is, is enough.

**

So how does this relate to a new journalism looking at teen suicides? Within me it connects, in the universe that I am, it is related, it resonates. When our self-worth and sense of security stand fragile and shattered, relying on external references,

When these change – it destabilizes us, who we think we are.

It’s really not easy, definitely not simple to admit it, but let’s face it, we’ve been lost for a long time.

How do we return home? How do we call ourselves back into the knowing of our true nature, which is whole, and beautiful, and abundant, by its very essence, by its very nature?