We Have To Hold Each Other

I met Sharon Grinker at the marina in Herzliya. It’s a beautiful marina, and a big one, at least for someone who's never spent time at a marina. By the time I found him, I was a little late and a little sunburned. He was standing on the boat, talking with two women. I later learned that these two women were part of a program Sharon founded called Breaking Waves.  Both of them had lost their husbands on October 7th. They were laughing together, easy and light, despite what had brought them there. I knew quickly that this was a special place.  Breaking Waves is a trauma treatment program that takes people with PTSD out to sea in a yacht and teaches them to sail. I’ll admit it sounded like an odd idea for therapy. Then I got on the boat, and it made sense. There’s the open water, where no one can reach you, allowing you to tune the external world out. There’s also the work of learning how to operate the yacht.  And there’s a group of people who slowly learn how to share their pain with one another, all while learning how to keep the boat (and themselves) afloat.  Sharon is a retired IDF colonel. Years ago, during the Second Intifada, he was the IDF Spokesperson for the Foreign Media. That job has only gotten harder since October 7th, as Israel tries to explain itself to a world that has grown increasingly hostile. These days Sharon's mission is to help the growing number of Israelis living with PTSD.  ​