A Story That Should Never Be Forgotten: "Palestine, remembering a past homeland"

Stop by the exhibitions hall, conference center, Bibliotheca Alexandrina to see the Palestine exhibition. If you don't have the time check out the stories told be the pictures below ...

Take the time to read the stories below the pictures ... to know ... to be reminded ... so you'd never forget.

Part of The Story:

Khalil Raad's Talking Images:

We should never forget this story and it should always be told and remembered ...

The more things change the more they stay the same

When I am at this point where I can't take an important decision .. when I can't take that necessary leap of faith, this quote comes to mind



"The more things change, the more they stay the same. I'm not sure who the first person was who said that. Probably Shakespeare. Or maybe Sting. But at the moment, it's the sentence that best explains my tragic flaw, my inability to change. I don't think I'm alone in this. The more I get to know other people, the more I realize it's kind of everyone's flaw. Staying exactly the same for as long as possible, standing perfectly still... It feels safer somehow. And if you are suffering, at least the pain is familiar. Because if you took that leap of faith, went outside the box, did something unexpected... Who knows what other pain might be out there, waiting for you. Chances are it could be even worse. So you maintain the status quo. Choose the road already traveled and it doesn't seem that bad. Not as far as flaws go. You're not a drug addict. You're not killing anyone... Except maybe yourself a little. When we finally do change, I don't think it happens like an earthquake or an explosion, where all of a sudden we're like this different person. I think it's smaller than that. The kind of thing most people wouldn't even notice unless they looked at us really close. Which, thank God, they never do. But you notice it. Inside you that change feels like a world of difference. And you hope this is it. This is the person you get to be forever... that you'll never have to change again."

The Best Family in the World

or maybe the worst ... I can't really tell anymore ... I got to witness miraculous events and gain life experiences at such a young age (16 and 17) ... got to know how it should feel to be really in love ... what it means to be a perfect husband ... what it means to be a good wife ... what it means to really care ...

I got to see people grateful in afflictions ... long and painful afflictions ... believing in God ... with their family (my family) supporting them ... always being there for them ...

Real love that could be both felt and seen ... witnessed on deathbeds ... in hospitals hallways ... at weddings ... and at dinner every night ... Unconditional love ... expecting nothing but more pain in return ... the pain of having to take on more responsibility ... accepting that burden without the slightest hesitation ... crying themselves to sleep every night ... only to draw a smile on their family's face ........

Depressing, tell me about it ...
Beautiful, can't think of anything more beautiful ....
Rare .........

I am just beginning my life ... drawing the first steps towards building my own part of that family ... thinking how can I settle for less!! ... and how can I find that rare beauty in such dark times ?! ...

Hoping :)

MeshMesh Theory

Thanks to MeshMesh (my cat) for helping me develop this theory and hereby I name the theory after it.

MeshMesh theory is a theory that describes the impossible recipe of keeping a relationship going ... any kind of relationship between any number of people .. restricting is a dog thing ... this is a cat theory.

For simplicity and without loss of generality will stick with a relationship between just two ...

Back to the theory ... MeshMesh theory bases any relationship on interest ... the two parties sharing this relationship must be interested in each other and in the relationship for their relationship to move on and grow stronger ... if any of them lost his/her/its interest the relationship is doomed.

There are numerous types of interest ... personal interest, financial interest, interest out of obligation or sympathy, etc. ...

MeshMesh theory states that "For the parties to keep each other's interests they have to follow some simple steps:
1. always make the other party feel needed ... no one likes to feel obsolete or useless
2. always take just the amount of interest needed to keep the relationship going ...
3. and always show that you can live without this relationship ..."

This concludes MeshMesh theory.

The proof is this theory is a million pages and is incomprehensible by a single human being or cat ... maybe a human being with a cat ... so don't bother asking for it.

The Good, The Bad and Me

This post is a little personal ...




"Be Good" he said and to be good I tried. No rude back talking, no neglecting how everyone felt, no getting it my way or nothing at all and no blocking others and it felt good. But for the first time for as long as I can remember I chose not to back talk, use smart words or be rude and it hurt me both physically and emotionally. And that got me thinking, is it worth it? is trying to be a good person (make no mistake I am not even close to being good) worth being exposed and getting hurt??

All that got me to rethink what aspiring to be a better person is all about ... well I am not good enough to be talking about what it means to be good but I can mention one thing, my friends. God blessed me with friends that are really good and I can't even come close to describing the role they play in not my life but everyone else around them and never ask for anything in return. Thinking how everyone looks up to them, appreciate them and pray for them always helps and reminds me what this life is all about.

My friends, for giving me hope and something to always look up to, thank you :)