WOWed by the past

The most interesting person I had the chance to meet in a long time was Yom Tov night. I was staying with a friend by her adoptive family and we went to visit a friend who was spending the chag at the same yishuv as us. He was staying by a family he had become close with while at yeshiva in the neighborhood. We were sitting in the random people's house catching up on old times and politics, when the host dad walked in and sat down. It started pretty innocently, as he asked me and the other friend I had come with where we were from. Two hours later we walked out having sat through the most interesting history lesson I have ever had the chance to attend. Our host had been born in the old city, where he spoke Yiddish to the Jews and Arabic to the Arabs. At 13 he was handed a gun to fight the Jordanians when he was taken POW for a number of months. Since then he fought in every Israeli battle. He spoke of political ups and downs throughout the years. He spoke of Gush Katif and the incoming knesset. He spoke and the three of us sat there enthralled...only disappointed when he decided to call it a night, and we went out to the street to discuss what was, what is, and will we be able to enthrall the future with our past.