Guyssssss I am coming in hot.

I've just seen a video from Glastonbury where a performer is getting everyone to cheer "death, death to the IDF". This is f*****ed. I thought we got to the point in liberal democracies where chanting death to a group of people wasn't cool? Whatever your views on the situation in Gaza.

Imagine if after Putin's invasion of Ukraine people took to the streets of London and were chanting "death, death to the Russian soldiers"... less catchy but this would just be bizarre? The messages were (/are?) "we stand with Ukraine", "stop the war", "peace for Ukraine" etc. Very different message. (Hasn't quite worked unfortunately... I just saw Russian casualties are up to 1 million and Ukraine in the hundreds of thousands...)

BIG TOPIC

Anyway hi. I'm writing to you from Jerusalem, where I have been for the past six weeks (it was meant to be four but my flight was scheduled for 12 hours after the strike on Iran began). Such a fascinating time to be here. Gratefully, I have felt pretty much safe the whole time (thank God) including during the two weeks when we had constant sirens due to missiles from Iran (I have videos! Crazy stuff.) So yes thank God and also thank you to the Iron Dome etc and IDF operating it and keeping me, a random foreign visitor, safe... I do not wish death upon you.

okay.

So I haven't written for ages. From memory this edition was meant to be about being responsible for our own emotions… no one has the power to offend us without our permission… that type of thing. (I have been procrastinating writing to you because I wanted to lay out the perfect argument, instead I might just introduce the topic and maybe we can revisit another time. Who knows!)

That Glastonbury death chant could be a good example... some people (many in the crowd apparently) hear that and feel excited / pumped up!! Others might hear that and feel scared. I hear that and feel sfoilsmdfosndfpgsmdflksdf (common emotion for me.) Someone else might hear that and feel confused because they don't know what the IDF is, and they barely speak English or they were too drunk to follow what was going on. I assume his intention was to be provocative and I'm sure he did that very successfully, but you see it's not possible for him to *make* anyone feel something specific, how it lands depends on the person receiving the message. You could growl at someone and they feel scared OR they might find it funny. See what I mean?

One of the stoic dudes + a Jesuit priest (??) both explain this well, so maybe I can share another time once I dig up the references.

In other news, I guess I just wanted to say hey!

I'm leaving Israel on Tuesday, all going to plan, and I'll be back in Melb for a bit. I have had such an interesting time here. I came to learn more about the situation in Gaza and for spiritual reasons. I have had many long and interesting conversations over the last six weeks... about war, religion, God, ideology, and my favourite... potential solutions to long standing problems. I very much hope these conversations continue for me, outside Israel. If you're interested any of this stuff / what I've learnt here let's hang... would love to catch up!

xxx Delia

P.S. if this newsletter is not for you please do not hesitate to unsubscribe!!! My (lovingly) unapologetic era has begun. People pleasing is dead! Thank God. (Just kidding I am still terrified of accidentally offending people, and them feeling upset, and me feeling terrible, but we are getting there.) But I do fully appreciate that I am not for everyone, all the time, and neither are these topics. Also emails can be annoying!! I get that. (+ I don't check unsubscribes, no idea who's reading tbh unless you tell me.)

P.P.S. What else have I been up to? Podcast is kinda still going but haven't published in a while... I intend to soon. I have been posting more on insta which has been scary. AND I started a money shame blog over on substack. Terrifying. Oh yeah and I updated my LinkedIn and wrote some unhinged stuff. Yay for free expression.

Links to everything here: deliaburgess.blog​

BYE!