Icon at Orthodox Church in Nazareth |
Icon at Orthodox Church in Nazareth |
Last night, my first in the house, most of the family gathered in one living room to watch World Cup soccer action. Before the Costa Rica-Uruguay game, we caught up on the evening news. Generously, they watched Al Jazeera English--so I could follow along.
Here I was, in Arab Nazareth, surrounded by a loving, joyous family...watching news that saddened us all, worried us all, even terrified us. Hostilities all around, north and south, east and west. I have to admit I was bewildered by the experience: wanting to cry for all the bad news and shriek (again) for my own country's mindless militarism, but feeling the remarkably resilient bonds of love that tie this family together. Across the large screen: horrible images of continuing violence in Syria, renewed hostilities in Iraq, attacks in Ukraine. Violence and bloodshed, chaos and invective, on and on and on. And the Palestinian-Israeli conflict continues, deepens, obviously. Three Israeli teens are still missing in the West Bank. Hamas and Fatah are governing together, frightening Jerusalem. Right-wingers in the Israeli government blame Netanyahu for everything, Netanyahu blames Hamas, everybody hurls threats at everybody.
If I'd been anywhere else tonight--any other hotel, any other town, any other home--I might have come unglued. Such was the mayhem, the cruelty running wildly across the TV screen. But somehow this Manasra family--three generations, fifteen souls, devoutly Muslim all--somehow their love for one another (and sweet hospitality) is its own kind of strength. They're so clear--all of them--that love is the reason for all of this: for family, for religion, for life. And with that love, they endure all kinds of news, and all kinds of threats, even violence here in their hometown.
Poster found at Catholic Church in Nazareth |
At breakfast this morning, Abed el Salaam, the grandfather and Sufi patriarch, reminded me that his name means "Servant of Peace." "That is what I am and that is what I shall be," he said to me across the table. There is, as there has always been, such light in his eyes, such sweet love in his face. All the world's sorrows, all the world's rage can't touch it. And I'm ever so grateful for that today.
2008: With Abed el Salaam in Nazareth |
Bob and his boys, 1986 |