Thank You

The end of the year is a wonderful opportunity to say THANK YOU - or in my case: Thank Yous. 
A previous version of "Thank You" from an earlier stage of the blog can be found here. 

This list consists of people who have helped me (in regards to the blog) during the past year. It includes people from Israel, UK, USA, Germany, Finland and Denmark, who helped by emails, phone, Skype, Facebook, WhatsApp and face-to-face, and are readers of the blog, family members, friends, strangers and strangers who became friends. 

It does not include the people who tag me when they come across something relevant or send me links they know I'll be interested in, as (luckily for me), they are too numerous to mention in name. 

It does include the people who once / several times / on a regular basis help me, in a generous, dedicated manner, in many various ways: from advise, proof reading, language checking, editing, video editing, translating from English to Hebrew, translating from Hebrew to English, translating from Danish to Hebrew, making phone calls in Danish, rewriting, searching for data, searching for data in French, giving feedback, inviting to give paid for talks, lectures and lessons, introducing me to relevant people, graphic design, makeup, recommendations, lending equipment, filming video, analising statistic results, legal advice - to helping with the code of the blog and recording an audio track in a studio. 

Thank you to those who help when I ask and to those who help before I even get the chance to ask. 

Thank you to those who help right now, because this is when I need it: this instance. 

Thank you to those who initiate a cooperation with me, to those who say "yes" when I invite them to cooperate with me, to those who attend the meetings I initiate and to those who help me, or at least try to help me, make the changes I wanna make. 

Thank you to those who make me laugh when they not only assist me free of charge, they also apologize for not doing it sooner / quicker :) . 

Thank you to those who even on those rare occasion in which I do try to pay them for they work, refuse to charge me for their professional assistance. 

Thank you to those who support me in times of crises or meltdowns, thank you to those who support, encourage, appreciate, to those who help "spread the word" of what I'm doing / saying, the blog and the Facebook page of it. 

This isn't something I take for granted, I'm very grateful, thankful and appreciative, and to put it simply and honestly - I couldn't do what I do without them (In first name alphabetical order, simply cause I needed to sort this out somehow): 

Amir Cahane, Amir Shemesh, Anat Gelb-Price, Anu Harju, Asaf Abir, Aviad Dayan, Carmel Vaisman, Daniel Alfon, Daniel Landau‏, Dor Nachman, Dvorit Shargal, Elad Raz, Eleanor Kantor, Frankie Simon, Gali Halpern Wienerman, Galit Rubinstein, Gili Meisler, Hagai Ginzboorg, Hila Tsairi, Ido Kenan, Ilan Shadai, Inbal Lottem, Inbal Saggiv-Nakdimon‏, Jakob Sabra, James Norris‏, Jonathan J. Klinger, Joseph Catran, Katrin Döveling, Keren Elazari, Korina Giaxoglou, Lior Zalmanson, Ma'ayan Alexander, Matan Melamed, Meirav Darzi Meiri, MeyTal Greiver-Schwartz, Michael Diamond, Mórna O Connor, Motti Shimoni, Moran Leshem Bar, Nimrod Benzoor, Nir Yaniv, Oded Yaron, Omer Levy, Or Meidan, Paul Solomon‏, Rachel (Berman) Madar, Rinat Korbet, Ronit Lavy‏, Selina Ellis Gray, Shimon Peretz, Shiri Yeshua, Shmuel Loutaty, Stacey Pitsillides, Tal Bitton, Tal Guttman, Tzach Ben-Yehuda,‏ Uri Gonda, Yael Gaaton, Yossi Glazer.

A special thank you goes to my parents, Maya and Eli Shavit. Without their significant support - including a substantial financial one - I could not have devoted myself to what I do the way I have these past few years. 

I even thank the handful of people tho refuse to meet me, who don't appreciate me or what I do (for lack of a degree or for not being part of the academia, for example), who refuse to help me - because by doing so they only make all those who do support, assist, encourage and appreciate stand out even more. 

I would also like to take this opportunity to say something personal 

I disagree with phrases such as "Everything happens for a reason" or "There is good in everything". No: some things happen for no reason what so ever, like a driver who acts recklessly on the road and kills my brother, and there isn't, there hasn't been, there won't be and there could never be anything good in or about my brother's death. 
There are some good things that happen or can happen despite him being dead. Not following his death, not in consequence of his death - despite his death. And the people who help me along the way are one of those good things. 

The last Thank You in this list goes to Tal: a unique, vibrant, unusual and unforgettable character, who touches/d and affects/ed so many lives during his life - and after his death, that hardly a talk of mine goes by without eyes in the audience "light up" as I mention him, or people nodding their heads when I talk about him, or someone doesn't come over afterwards to tell me about that time they met him / spoke to him / read what he wrote. And hardly a meeting goes by without there turning out to be a direct or indirect link to him. People help me in my own right, true, but many help me in his right. 

Tal in a picture taken by Colin Ritchie

As you know, I didn't plan any of this. It just came into being. And I now have a job (and yes, it's a full time job and no, I don't make a living out of it yet and yes, you can help) which causes me to cry a lot, both because of the content I come across and because of my personal pain, and it's a job that makes me wonder from time to time if I'm crazy for doing it, and it's a job that makes me edgy whenever I see I was tagged somewhere in Facebook because I don't know if I was tagged in an adorable cats video or because someone had died. It's an odd thing to go through, whenever you see yourself tagged, wondering if someone had died. And I have a job which allows for many options to present themselves in Facebook when I look for either "Death" or "Digital": 

This job also fascinates me, it sometimes makes me go to sleep in the small hours of the night because an update arrived and I feel I have to write a post about it right now, a job that makes me check my email curiously in the morning because who knows what interesting updates arrived while I was asleep, a job that makes me feel I'm doing something important and significant and that I'm helping people through what I do - and it's dedicated to Tal. And along with my wishes to create a change on a bigger scale, when someone tells me that thanks to me the digital aspects of their lives are now in order and taken care of, I'm moved, because I know that if something were to happen to him/her, even just for his/her family, it's all worth it . 

Thank you.