I don't blog about the Middle East. I find it tiring, and I believe that the amount of attention the region gets is disproportionate compared to the amount of suffering that goes on in the rest of the world. In case you doubt that, I urge you to read this article in Sunday's New York Times about the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I also don't know as much about the Middle East as I do Latin America and the closest to the region I have been is Morocco.
I think Queen Noor (and part of the region's problem is the continued existence of royal titles) summed it up well when she said to Larry King tonight that there is something horribly wrong in a war when more children die than soldiers. I certainly can't argue with that.
So what does one do when one sees such suffering in the world? What does one when one sees the president of the United States looking more and more like a deer on the highway with headlights shining in his face?
I know what I do. I think about Kathleen McAvoy*.
When I was attending San Francisco State University, I worked at the Student Health Center from 1 to 5 in the afternoon. It offered a panoply of outpatient health services including counseling. There was one young woman there who was always waiting for her appointment with her therapist right by the door shortly before the health center reopened after lunch. She was always quiet, looking down at the ground never meeting my gaze as I buzzed the button to be let in to start my shift.
One day I walked by and saw her waiting and nodded to her as I usually did with out any response. She responded with a warm hello and a glistening smile that cut through the fog and stunned me with its radiance.
What it did for me was fill me with hope. Never mind that I cannot recall her ever smiling like that at me again, but that one briefest of moments filled me with hope that I retain nearly thirty years later.
Let's not lose sight of that. Sometimes that's all we have.
*Not her real name.
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