After the memories, a return to routine

The screen has been lowered. Three days of associations with a figure who cast a long shadow on our modern state of Israel, of memories, passing thoughts, exaltation and deep wrath, attempts to reconcile, to object -- and to shrug.

After eight years without any movement in the hospital, in streamed the long line of visitors and escorts, although fewer than expected. The public was glued to the television, but not like in the past. Not out of contempt for the dead, but because eight years have passed, making people forget and diminishing the power of such events.

There were the familiar scenes typical of state ceremonies. As usual, the highest ranking officials and members of the general public were in attendance; those who came to grieve and pay their respects, as though the world stood still for a moment, and those who came to see and be seen, vying for just the right angle in front of the lens, whose eyes could be seen trailing after the cameras.

Israel has become accustomed to these scenes. The second generation of fallen leaders are passing away, comrade after comrade, friend after friend. We've already attended so many of these events in honor of our leaders.

As the poet Haim Gouri wrote, here before us lies a "long, long line" of "lilies": David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Naomi Shemer, Yigal Allon, Ovadia Yosef and Arik Einstein. The nation has already turned the page, stopping only every so often to look and to part, but then continuing on with its daily routine.

At first, many are sure the moment will be commemorated for all time, that the loss will be felt for many years to come. But experienced mourners know all too well that tomorrow morning, or perhaps next week or even next month, the gravesite will go quiet, and no one, save immediate family members, will visit.

Already in the midst of three short days of mourning, there is a sense that people want to return to their daily routines, perhaps because eight years have passed since Sharon's collapse in January 2006.

The time has come for routine to once again take center stage -- John Kerry and the housing crisis, the European boycott, the Holyland trial, the election of the acting head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the carousel movement of the stock market.

Years will pass, maybe a decade. And then headlines will tell of new heroes. For a mother sitting with her young ones, first graders and older students, Ariel Sharon will join other leaders for whom the next generation asks unfeelingly and out of boredom: Who was that? A street name? Even guests on the game show "1 vs. 100" won't always know. Like always.

טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו