Love: A Casualty of War...
A while back, we had a post called, True Love, that gave some insight into the fate of a relationship in a war zone.
This post continues the theme with, When Love Is a Casualty of War.
From the Blog:
"'My Lebanese girlfriend does not want to listen to The Cure’s song “Killing an Arab.'
“'Turn it off,' she demands.
"This is odd. Helen is a huge Cure fan; in fact, I never really listened to The Cure until we started dating. I turn around to face her, my mind racing to produce some witty remark that will make her laugh and defuse the sudden tension, but our eyes meet and I am utterly disarmed. I hear her sigh as she walks away.
"It’s not that Helen doesn’t like this particular song, it’s that she doesn’t like songs about killing Arabs, especially when in real life, our peoples are killing each other day after day. We cannot enjoy the song’s catchy rhythm or ironic lyrics when bombs fall and Katyushas fly. What used to be a harmless song has become an unwanted reminder of the gulf that exists between us.
"Together, Helen and I had tried to create a tidy little universe with a population of two. In this universe, it didn’t matter that I was a Jew and Helen was an Arab. We were beyond the politics.
"On our first date, we set a precedent by skipping out on a proposed tour of the Lincoln memorial, preferring to tour each other’s contours rather than those of a lifeless statue. As the months passed, we discovered that Helen’s attempts to teach me French were as doomed as my own throat-clearing lessons in the correct pronunciation of challah, her favorite new food. We could even laugh at the irony when Helen peeled off my sweater to reveal a T-shirt emblazoned with “Don’t Worry America, Israel Is Behind You.”
"Politics slumbered alongside us. Sometimes it spoke in its sleep, sometimes it rolled over, but it did not wake up.
"And then, the war..."
This post is absolutely worth reading to the end; so, here's that link again:
When Love Is a Casualty of War.
3 comments:
Thanks for pointing us in the direction of this story. It gives me hope that if two people can see through their differences of religion and nationality, the rest of the world may someday follow in these footsteps. It starts small but like ripples in the water they expand greater distances over time.
anonymous,
Thanks for a penetrating and vital comment!
Puzzled Woeman,
You're welcome!
And, Yes, the ripples Do spread!!
~ Alex
This beautifully written story gives us emotional insights into the situation that are invaluable.
Two people who know each other as individuals, love each other as individuals, are cast into turmoil as a result of the clash of idealogies. It's the Romeo and Juliet story with a much more complex and dangerous backdrop.
That theirs is a microcosm of the larger situation is true in a sense, but as we expand our focus from 2 people to see the larger conflict, we are adding more and more people to the equation, people with their own logic, their own beliefs, their own pain, their own hatred.
While Bogey was correct when he said "..the problems of two little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world", in a sense these two little people, by their ability to overcome this overwhelming trouble, may be the spark of hope to inspire the world.
A big responsibility for them, if they look at it that way, but they have the most important motivator-the one that is sorely lacking in the bigger scenario-Love.
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