Discovery #46: Very little in life is simple.
And by very little, I mean next to nothing. From the six different places I've spent the night in the past three weeks, to learning Arabic, to the history paper I turned in yesterday, to the Arab-Israeli conflict, hardly anything is straightforward.
I suppose part of life is the process of becoming okay with that fact and of doing our best to not give up on complex situations.
I'm in Jerusalem now and it seems I can almost feel conflict every time I leave my apartment. It's not the violent type of conflict that would make me scared or anything, it's more like the kind that disturbs me so much that I want to step off of the segregated bus and throw up. (The Arabs and Jews have separate bus systems here in Jerusalem.)
It's quite a thing to see how poorly people treat each other and how different the quality of life is for different ethnic groups: the Arab side of town is speckled with falafel shops and the Jewish with shopping malls and expensive, brand name stores. It seems the average Jews and the Arabs try not to talk to each other unless necessary.
These two peoples seem to be living in completely different worlds and neither seem to be treating each other properly. That's the kind of tension I'm talking about. The kind that makes me realize that, sadly, human beings are so often very awful to each other.
-- Note: I have met several people who work towards inter-faith understanding in the region and none of this is said to belittle their work. Moreover, these are just some early observations. I sincerely hope that I am proved wrong during my next few weeks here.
And by very little, I mean next to nothing. From the six different places I've spent the night in the past three weeks, to learning Arabic, to the history paper I turned in yesterday, to the Arab-Israeli conflict, hardly anything is straightforward.
I suppose part of life is the process of becoming okay with that fact and of doing our best to not give up on complex situations.
I'm in Jerusalem now and it seems I can almost feel conflict every time I leave my apartment. It's not the violent type of conflict that would make me scared or anything, it's more like the kind that disturbs me so much that I want to step off of the segregated bus and throw up. (The Arabs and Jews have separate bus systems here in Jerusalem.)It's quite a thing to see how poorly people treat each other and how different the quality of life is for different ethnic groups: the Arab side of town is speckled with falafel shops and the Jewish with shopping malls and expensive, brand name stores. It seems the average Jews and the Arabs try not to talk to each other unless necessary.
These two peoples seem to be living in completely different worlds and neither seem to be treating each other properly. That's the kind of tension I'm talking about. The kind that makes me realize that, sadly, human beings are so often very awful to each other.
-- Note: I have met several people who work towards inter-faith understanding in the region and none of this is said to belittle their work. Moreover, these are just some early observations. I sincerely hope that I am proved wrong during my next few weeks here.
Love reading your dispatches, Sari. Praying that God will continue to teach you during this amazing time.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Paul. I really appreciate it.
ReplyDelete