The Next Day
The Empty Road
By Moshe Katz
CEO
Israeli Krav International

July 19, 2016, Israel

Moshe and Harry, back in the ....who knows when.

The Next Day, the Empty Road.....The day after everyone has left.

I have a vision in my head, a reoccurring vision, Bar Ilan University, years ago, 1970's, the day after.

A year together, friends, friendship, deep relationships formed and then the year abroad, the year of study in Israel, comes to a sudden end. One by one dear friends say goodbye, leaving for a new future, back "home", back to the USA, England, Australia, South America, South Africa, everyone leaves and then...

the empty road appears in my head, from way back, from years ago. Where are they all now? What became of their lives? Some are mathematicians, some are carpenters wives, I do not know what they are doing with their lives, what final accord was played.

Some I still know, one will soon be a grandfather, another passed away recently, but most are lost in the purple haze of time. They exist in my mind, on the road. Now Empty.

The empty road, the day after...

We live through storms, we live through pain. Sooner or later it hits all of us and we dream of Peter Pan and Never Never Land. We close our eyes and we are back, the Beatles are playing Penny Lane and we live a Day in the Life, Eric Clapton is playing in Tel Aviv, and then the road is empty but for a moment we want to go back, to Never Never Land, where nothing every changes.

Are we in a play?

Our life passes like a movie in fast forward. Very strange. But the memories never die, hidden deep in our consciousness. Part of us wants to go back, to the past, to a safe place, where nothing ever changes, where no one ever leaves us, where no one ever dies. Never Never Land, We want to stay there for ever. We want to avoid the pain. But .....

We wake up the Day After, in a cold sweat and we find ourselves alone desperately trying to recreate yesterday but yesterday is gone, yesterday must be gone.  The road is empty, the students have all gone home, to university, to careers, to new romance, to marriage and children and careers, and so it must be, and so it must be, but part of us wants to be Peter Pan.

The day after hits us like a blunt weapon, like a ton of bricks, we wake up in a cold sweat and we see the empty road filled with ghosts from days past. We see love that is gone.

And yet we must wake up to a new day, we must wake up the love that still lies dormant in us. Wake up, make up, fake it, make it, get up, stand up, greet the new day. Walk that empty road...make a new friend, shake off the dust, see the sunny sky. Pick your guitar and let the new revolution begin.

The empty road appears in our minds and in our hearts, the day after everyone went home, the day you wake up alone and wonder where have all the good times gone. It hits us all, sooner or later. Faces from the past, voices, people and places, thoughts and time.

The barber shaves another customer and the day goes on, in my mind and in my heart...Penny Lane, old friends, times that have passed. And suddenly you wake up alone and want to call a friend from the past. You want to hold on to everyone you hold dear. You want to return to Never Never Land and be Peter Pan again.

The Middle of the Night and suddenly Tinker Bell appears and whispers something in your ear. You hear the voice and want to be twenty years old again. And it is a Day in the Life, and sometimes that day ends in a car crash and sometimes that day ends with the end of a story.

And you want to fly off with Tinker Bell to Never Never Land, and you want to live your life over again, and you are Peter Pan ...until you wake up. You wake up to a cold lonely reality and desperately search for your Peter Pan outfit. Yesterday....it was just yesterday that I was young, full of hair and full of hope, and suddenly ten years, twenty years, thirty years have got behind you, you must the starting gun and now you face a different reality.

And yet the final chord has not been played. You still have a day in the life to make it right. You still can pick up your guitar and play.

And everyday you read the news, and everyday there is sad news. And every day you must wake up, again and again, and sometimes you wake up to a that lonely road, still empty.

Memories and places, friends and faces, they will always be with us, memory lane, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields forever, and we must move forward. We must move on. New ways New days New friends and...Old Friends.

And I pick up my guitar and play....for the new day that is yet to come.

With Tony at the Beatles museum in Liverpool, England 2014