Category: Middle East

BETHLEHEM'S CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY: CHAOS, CONFLICT & CHRISTIANITY

12/23/2015

Things haven't changed much in 2000 years. The site of Jesus' birth was a hotbed of chaos & conflict.

Spoiler alert!

If you’re perfectly happy with the biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus according to the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, simply go back to surfing the Web. Our paths never crossed. Merry Christmas!

On the other hand, if you're up for a less homogenized version of this historical event, if reading between the verses then and seeing the site as it stands now sounds intriguing, than go ahead and check out my 2014 visit to Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.

Suffice it to say, my own humble pilgrimage was a life altering event. As a Christian, my visit (and His birth) is a memory I turn to often in the chaos of today's modern holiday.

THE GIZA SPHINX: HUMANITY'S EXISTENTIAL CRISIS?

3/4/2015

Life is a mystery. Why should the Sphinx be any different.

As if finding meaning in my own little life isn’t enough of a challenge! Why must the Sphinx come with so many questions rather than answers?

ISRAEL'S YAD VASHEM HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL: GARDEN OF THE RIGHTEOUS

8/26/2014

“…I believe that it was really due to Lorenzo that I am alive today; and not so much for his material aid, as for his having constantly reminded me by his presence, by his natural and plain manner of being good, that there still existed a just world outside our own, something and someone still pure and whole, not corrupt, not savage, extraneous to hatred and terror; something difficult to define, a remote possibility of good, but for which it was worth surviving.

…But Lorenzo was a man; his humanity was pure and uncontaminated, he was outside this world of negation. Thanks to Lorenzo, I managed not to forget that I myself was a man.”

- Primo Levi describes his rescuer, Lorenzo Perrone, from his book If This Is A Man

They were from all walks of life - physicians, peasants, priests and public figures; the highly educated and the illiterate; men and women, neighbors, coworkers, and complete strangers – all humanitarians, most ordinary people confronted with extraordinary circumstances, the moral collapse of society. They responded to the inhuman treatment of their fellow man with courage and compassion, often at great risk to their own life.

ISRAEL'S YAD VASHEM CHILDREN'S MEMORIAL: DEFYING AND DEFINING THE DARKNESS

8/22/2014

I got a little side tracked in my intent to share next my visit to Yad Vashem's Garden of the Righteous. The Children's Memorial just kept haunting me. You'll understand when you read today's post. I promise; next week, the Garden of the Righteous!

* * * * * * * * *

She was fifteen when she died, an aspiring journalist; a feminist ahead of her time, an optimist in the worst of times. A kindred spirit I came to know when I was fifteen, twenty years after her death.

Anne Frank’s diary lent a poignant voice to the fight for human dignity. Her image lent a face to the 1.5 million innocent children who died during the Holocaust.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

“It's utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness; I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too. I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better; that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.”
—Anne Frank

Anne Frank was at the forefront of my thoughts as I made my way through Israel's Yad Vashem Children’s Memorial.

YAD VASHEM: ISRAEL'S MOVING HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL

8/19/2014

In an instant, the world went from Technicolor to black and white.

Janusz Korczak and the Children Memorial.

It was a heavy dose of reality, making our way through Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, situated on a hillside overlooking Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem Valley. The mood was understandably subdued, like that of a wake; only in this case six million men, women and children had lost their lives.

How does one reconcile our superiority as a species with our unique ability to do what no other creature can do – bring about our own extermination?

WALKING JERUSALEM'S VIA DOLOROSA

7/29/2014

Like most Christians, I really didn’t need a truly accurate historical connection to justify walking the Via Dolorosa. The holy city of Old Jerusalem was close enough for me. All I really needed to walk “the way of suffering” was faith, a humble heart, and a good pair of walking shoes.

MASADA & THE MYTH

7/23/2014

It wasn’t the gaunt, majesty beauty of this remote mountain location that elevated this desert fortress to mythical proportions; nor the fact that the archaeological ruins we were touring, once part of Herod the Great’s elegant mountain-top stronghold, included one of the oldest synagogues in the history of mankind.

Talk about a room with a view!

It took about 30 years to complete construction of King Herod's mountain-top retreat.

Masada, Israel’s number one tourist attraction, includes a narrative of epic proportions that, according to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, makes this Dead Sea Judaean desert mesa, “a symbol both of Jewish cultural identity and, more universally, of the human struggle between oppression and liberty.”

ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT: A BRIEF REFRESHER

7/18/2014

I’m still trying to sort through it all.

I’ll never understand the death of innocent children.

For most of my life, tensions in the Middle East seemed a distant distraction by religious zealots that went back thousands and thousands of years, fodder for the Bible, the Torah, and the Quran; and then Jimmy and I toured the Holy Land.

I’ve seen the 25-foot tall wall, dubbed the “Apartheid Wall” or “Berlin Wall” by the 2 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and the 2 million Palestinians living in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. It was chilling; and sad.

When finished, Israel's "separation barriers" will cover over 400 miles.

It was chilling to realize that in almost seventy years a trickle of Jewish immigrants turned into a flood of epic proportions that ultimately displaced 700,000 Arabs, the then majority population; sad to consider just how much history repeats itself.

What was really sad was acknowledging just how little I personally knew/remembered about the Israel-Palestine Conflict before my Middle East trip; and how quickly that conflict has escalated (again!) in the weeks since we’ve returned.

If you’re a loyal blogee, though, you know how much I tend to learn (and then just have to share) when it comes to travel.

Did you know . . .

TEL AVIV HIGHLIGHTS THE BEAUTY OF THE MOMENT

7/7/2014

It doesn’t matter what we have. It’s never enough. We always seem to want more.

Yep, standing on the balcony of our hotel room in Tel Aviv, watching the sun set on the edges of the Mediterranean Sea, I considered the 12 hours that represented our overnight stay, and for a moment found them wanting.

HERE'S TO ANOTHER TWO YEARS!

7/2/2014

Two years! That’s 24 months, 104 weeks, 730 days, 403 posts.

That’s right. Today marks exactly two years for A Place Called Roam; by design, a travel blog, but if you’ve been reading between the lines for the last two years, by default, it’s my lifeline to understanding where I’ve been and where I’m going. Thanks for listening. I need all the help I can get!

I’ve never been sixty (and then some) before; never been retired before, either. My life has always been filled to the brim with purpose, kids, chaos.

I’m evolving, again, morphing into the new me, shedding my skin (alas, not nearly as effectively as my younger self did) along with the kids and the chaos. It’s been as liberating as it has been frightening.

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