The Thorn in the World’s side

Where I have been there is no light
From any Sun; we have no Moon nor Stars,
No lightnings like these, much less any of this Fire.

There I must light up all around me.
By my sight all is illumined

(Ramayana, William Buck’s version)

…

At night, walking to the bus stand in Ramallah,
The ground beneath my feet shifted and undulated
Like a giant fish was swimming below the crust of the earth

(Below the cracked concrete
A giant fish rubs and scratches her scales
Helping to shift all perspectives)

The eyes that sit on the top-side of the same concrete
Appear full of boredom and anger
Seem to be waiting for any excuse to close
To close shut – allowing the bodies they inhabit to lash out with pent up frustration and Rage

I know you know we know
The blindness of the body
Is nothing,
Nothing
When compared to the blindness of the heart.

Earlier that evening, at the Friends International Center in Ramallah,
I learned that by the age of three, every Palestinian child is given a sense of pride and place – can name where their village was, and what the main crops used to be…
This is most wonderful I said. How important to have roots from which to draw nourishment…and I also had to ask:

What is there in the school curriculum to balance the drive of Nationalism?
(we could consider that the seeds of two states were planted in 1948)
What is there to remind of the constant flow of change?
(ie life)
What is there which does not foster Attachment to a past that is irrevocably gone?
(neither a statement of good or bad - as my father said : why try to count how many angels used to dance on the head of a pin? … how much more useful to learn how to stitch our pieces together … )

I know you know we know
The blindness of the body
Is nothing,
Nothing
When compared to the blindness of the heart.