If we Lebanese learned anything, it's that life goes on.

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly based on the logo of the series Life Goes On

We as Lebanese have had very tough lessons - please do not say the R word (resilience). It's more like stubbornness and stupidity. But here we are, I ordered a new blazer online - and, superstition I know, my late mother told me not to wear something for the first time on a funeral, so I wore something else for our neighbor's funeral and saved the new blazer for Easter. Also the plumber just came and fixed and changed what needed to be fixing and changing. 

Why am I saying this?

Because we are in a country at war. A country with a winter that stretched long enough. In a country where news follows you even if you avoid it. In a country where little or nothing makes sense. Still, a new blazer, fixing plumbing things, going to see my ophthalmologist, doing blood tests, my glasses broke so I need a new pair, and so on and so forth, as if everything is "normal" when everything is not. But sure enough, like any entrepreneur will tell you over on Linkedin (heaven help us), there are no ideal circumstances, there is no perfect time, there is no stars aligning, you jump in and hope for the best.

That Ralph Lauren blazer - which mind you was so cool it impressed my young niece in the US when I sent her the Easter photos - was not going to wait forever especially that my size is, well, difficult (short, skinny with weird length of the arms). The clogged washbasin was not going to unclog itself. The cover of the WC which decided to crack was not fixing itself.

And so here we are, now it is raining again (insert Supertramp song here). And I am coordinating the rest of the weekly appointments. Life, you know has a tendency to go on.

Either you are on board, or you are in the way.

Life goes on, no, not the TV show.

So life goes on.

Yesterday was a full day - I made an extension to the solar panels (considering am off the grid, please see here). Also with the state electricity as erratic and non-existent as ever, and with the solar panel industry in Lebanon still picking up speed (here) and with communal generators being obnoxiously expensive, there seems to be very little options left. 

A family I know uses generator as a back up to the solar panels, meaning they use it just to fill the batteries from time to time. No matter, if I am saying "Life goes on" it is because really, I am not going to wait for the developments of the region to settle down for me to keep my things happening. Actually I was asked why do it now? Why not wait and see where the "wind blows"? my answer was "what if I keep waiting and waiting and nothing happens, winter will come soon and I need to have energy to warm the house and all that". 

Which bring us to the TV show "Life goes on" - LBC, a great show built around Corky (portrayed by actor Chris Burke) who had Down's Syndrome and his family (note that Burke had Down's Syndrome too). The only other time where "Wind Beneath My Wings" was sung to full-effect apart from the - debatable - movie "Beaches". Please do see about the show here. 

But again, these are some of the things you learn from having experienced war. You just go with life and live it. I once wrote in a poem something to the effect of "I saved something for later, but later never came to pick it up". And so here we are, solar panels doubled in the hope of bringing more energy into the house.