Apparently today, the ceasefire started. I am trying not to be a hypocrite as I was a bit geographically in a rather safe area (save for an airstrike on the highway nearby), if I offer condolences for the dead people's loved ones, or wish recovery for those injured, these are simply hollow words. But if I am writing today, honestly because as Lebanese we are cursed. Where do I begin? I won't. All you had to do is follow the news to understand why.
But blessed we are too. No, no really. Yesterday I saw a video (here), of a man laughing at the ruins of his building. No, let me repeat - a man shows what is left of his flattened building and - not just smirks - but outright smiles at the debris. I honestly, was proud of him. Honestly, he's the embodiment of our crazy ethos as people. Generational trauma be damned. People just pick up the pieces and soldier on and make the best from what is left. Seriously, you look at international news and people are appalled as to how they lost their homes. Here in Lebanon, you laugh at the debris.
There is an expression in Arabic "bala dmegh" (without a brain). I think somehow we are. Not just somehow, totally so. I am avoiding the R word (resilience) because I hate it. But this is more than just resilience. For heaven's sake, throngs of cars are already returning to the south of Lebanon to non-existent homes, to villages which were destroyed as if they were in a video game. These people don't care, they're going back (sorry Charles!) to their heritage, to their roots.
The same ones they carried throughout their displacement.
This land is their land.
This land is our land.