GoodTimes

Border Blues

Sometimes I wonder how I end up where I do. This was my thought as I walked atop the shoulders of an icy, starry night on a road between Syria and Lebanon, humming Islands in the Stream (it was playing at the duty free shop) and searching my coat pockets for toilet paper. Our morning [...]

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Goodbye to Beirut

It was time to go. We spent our last day in Lebanon in typical potential peril as we gathered with thousands of others to commemorate the third anniversary of Prime Minister Hariri’s assasination, which, in 2005, had led to a national uprising and the removal of Syrian troops. We sloshed through puddles, fear, skirmishes and [...]

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Jesus Without the Band

Sometimes I think Jesus gets a bad rap. He reminds me of those musicians who began playing because they loved the sound of music but then everyone started calling them a “God” . . .and they were eventually led astray by either their agents or the rest of the guys in the band  . . [...]

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Day in the Life, Lebanon

8:00 Consider getting up, but switch positions and ignore the springs digging into my hipbone. Notice wall-heater is still functioning, which means electricity is on. Which means it could very well go off at 9:00. Good thing I juiced the oranges last night. 8:35: Get dressed and try to put water on for tea. Realize [...]

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Syria

The most common site on the Syrian street. . . Snowflakes in stone at the castle-like ruined home of St. Simeon,  an eccentric monk who, after seeking seclusion and attracting unwanted visitors to leer and peer, climbed and lived atop ever-higher pillars for years on end. Smiling Syrian children waving at us from the back [...]

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That Country You Couldn’t Believe We Were Going To

I don’t know where to begin. . .should I start with the Iraqi girl Rassia, who received kidnapping threats while living in Mosul, and so is now staying at a monastery in Damascus until her Mexican visa comes through. . ..or about the nargileh that everyone smokes (but does not inhale) while they eat their [...]

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Jesus Just Might Have Had Coffee Here

In Antakya, Turkey, our last planned stop before Syria, we stayed with Sakine–a friend of Fevy, our host in Antalya–and her sisters: Feygin, Jaylin (we called her JLo) and Sakine, not yet married, all lived with their mother in a large flat, where they lit a fire to take a shower and drove each other [...]

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Day 56

We are at the end of the beginning. On the road for over fifty six days, our life is predictably unpredictable. Here’s how one day unfolded: 7:00 Michael’s watch alarm goes off. 7:25 We get up. High energy costs mean bedrooms are typically pretty cold, so unless there’s a room heater, I sleep in my [...]

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Giving Credence

Wait, where are we going again? A tribal circle. In honor of the full moon. To pray for world peace. Right. I saw a bad moon rising. Earlier.That day. After picking olives and finding the abandoned, hard-shelled houses of turtles and snails in the earth. Scraping my skin against the metal of the tree markers. [...]

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Damn Good Energy

Ebru makes felt shoes, which are especially good for pregnancy—easy on the back and the calves. Kind to the soles. She is little. And seems quite serious, but then she has this wonderful shy, pink-skinned laugh that makes you feel like she is not only enjoying this very moment, but that she just remembered that [...]

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