Two days ago ...

... I had several email conversations. The first one began when a friend sent me the soon-to-be timeless quote by Ghassan Tueni, to which I replied with this. It went on for most of the day, she - who interestingly is NOT Lebanese - being the optimist, and I being the cynical realist/pessimist.

Another one of these conversations has a much longer history. Towards the end of February, a group of us decided here in the Bay Area to join together and attempt something ... what that something was depended on the person you spoke to. Some looked at it as a grassroots think tank, where some of the ideas discussed could potentially be presented through legal representatives to the Lebanese government, and others, such as myself, thought that for now, a forum to sound off and bake our half-baked ideas would be acceptable. Even though my gut told me that this would fizzle out, a few of us put in the time and the effort, and it grew in number - yet not in content. And it did fizzle out, but unlike what some have thought, this was not due to divisive attitudes - even though there were members from all backgrounds - but rather simply because life happened. How effective this would have been - given that executing ideas is on a much more strenuous level than coming up with them - is a question I do not have the answer to.

Two days ago, this group was reactivated with a plea from someone to reignite the flame. I sat on the sidelines in this conversation and watched as the support came in, until eventually someone sent the same quote I had sent in the first conversation. He went even further than I did and asked do you think we deserve a country given that after the war and the March 14 movement we still elected the same "politicians" as leaders (with a small 'l').

You see, I know we have a country - it isn't an issue of whether I think it or not - and the question of deserving it is relatively pointless, but it just is not enough to quote Patrick Henry (and to be fair, my friend did not quote him), and, although necessary, it also is not enough to hold up signs like this. One of my favorite childhood novels was Catcher in the Rye, and in it one of the characters wrote "The mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one" (originally by Wilhelm Stekel) yet it seems that very few of us, if any, are "living humbly" for the "Lebanese cause". Those that have fallen were forced to fall, and it is time that our cause - which is now mainly an issue of survival - transcends all differences. Why this has not happened can be attributed by some to their lack of "faith in the masses", but this is as faulty as using "human nature" as an answer to other questions.

If this issue is to be internationalized, then we should go down that path fully accepting what consequences may later come after the issue of survival is shelved, and rogue elements should not later on insist on comments such as "we should have done that this way". There will be consequences, but for now, let it be so. However, shifting part of the burden to the shoulders of others does not diminish our share. There are things that only society can deal with - and whether you're an optimist who accepts that things might not turn out as great as you've imagined or a realist who is willing to work for something better than the current reality, we all have a responsibility to do something.

And in a third conversation, a friend decided to take an initiative that is a step in the right direction - in the long-term. I will take this opportunity to both thank this friend - who will read this - for taking this step, and to express a sliver of hope that this initiative does not fade as many others have. After all, the Lebanese cause isn't just about vindicating the lives of "martyrs", but also about ensuring the lives of everyone else. Khalil Gibran, who wrote Pity the Nation just over a century ago, also wrote in 1908 Spirits Rebellious, which serves as the literary vision of what we now need to follow with action.

As for me, my flight leaves in around 2 hours. I finished with the Special Alien Registration and went through the Puffer. San Francisco -> Paris -> Beirut -> Home, where I'll have a nice cozy dinner with my family, and enjoy the night sharing tales of abroad, and then plan on spending the next couple of weeks with them, friends (maybe even a few bloggers), getting work done, and seeing how things go.

posted by Lazarus, 1:33 PM