Some Reflections from Cairo
My first glance at the Nile was a casual look, it was in passing. I’ve only been in Cairo for a few hours and I like it. It has that megacity feel that I’ve experienced in other places, Sao Paulo for example, but it also has this other thing and I can’t quite put my finger on it. There is something about Cairo that says, “I’ve been around for a long, long time.” There is a warmth to the people that is particularly appealing, it is a welcoming place.
My mind can’t help but flash back to my long association with the Middle East, to my visits to Bahrain and to Jordan but more importantly to my long term intimate relationship with a woman from the region. I’ve come to have a sense of an Arab sensibility, a feel for their way of being in the world, and being here, I feel it speaking to me all over again.
I have come to understand myself as a sort of boundary crosser, as someone who is facile inhabiting spaces and paradigms that might be significantly different one from the other, and certainly different from my own. This same sensibility also seems to highlight those boundaries that I can not cross, those things I have not come to understand. And so walking about in a relatively small marketplace, an area that tends to serve the local people rather than tourists and visitors, faced with an air I understood mixed with an air that I cannot yet understand, my reflections started to tend to my own idea of self, to who I am and to the work that I am doing in the world.
And so I pray - may my own inner work bring me closer to humanity, that as I get to know myself better I might become ever more intimate with those aspects of the human quandary that are deeply common to us all. And then I ask - how do I ensure that my work in the world really serves its purpose? How is this drive to re-invent how we work together, to redefine our very approach to change – how does this truly have an impact on the lives of the kids in these allies? And should it? How do I make sure my work is locally rooted while I still respond to this global call for help? How do I stay open in the face of human suffering? How do I become a part of our collective waking up?
My mind can’t help but flash back to my long association with the Middle East, to my visits to Bahrain and to Jordan but more importantly to my long term intimate relationship with a woman from the region. I’ve come to have a sense of an Arab sensibility, a feel for their way of being in the world, and being here, I feel it speaking to me all over again.
I have come to understand myself as a sort of boundary crosser, as someone who is facile inhabiting spaces and paradigms that might be significantly different one from the other, and certainly different from my own. This same sensibility also seems to highlight those boundaries that I can not cross, those things I have not come to understand. And so walking about in a relatively small marketplace, an area that tends to serve the local people rather than tourists and visitors, faced with an air I understood mixed with an air that I cannot yet understand, my reflections started to tend to my own idea of self, to who I am and to the work that I am doing in the world.
And so I pray - may my own inner work bring me closer to humanity, that as I get to know myself better I might become ever more intimate with those aspects of the human quandary that are deeply common to us all. And then I ask - how do I ensure that my work in the world really serves its purpose? How is this drive to re-invent how we work together, to redefine our very approach to change – how does this truly have an impact on the lives of the kids in these allies? And should it? How do I make sure my work is locally rooted while I still respond to this global call for help? How do I stay open in the face of human suffering? How do I become a part of our collective waking up?
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The Gathering’s Mission
The mission of The Gathering is to build an Intergenerational, movement, rooted in history, cultures and non-violent direct action to heal communities, build collective strength and generate an environment of hope and opportunity.
Civil rights and social justice organizations have come to understand that collective action on a national basis is required to stop child incarceration and challenge the immoral process which perpetuates an unjust justice system. These groups are working under extremely difficult circumstances and many of them with little or no resources. The Gathering is a national movement that creates a coordinated space to 1) fortify relationships between regional groups, 2) support local endeavors and 3) enhance the ongoing organizing of non-violent direct action training. Central to its mission is strengthening our moral environment.
- “a project of tides center” -
"The Gathering" is a project of Tides Center 501c3
Civil rights and social justice organizations have come to understand that collective action on a national basis is required to stop child incarceration and challenge the immoral process which perpetuates an unjust justice system. These groups are working under extremely difficult circumstances and many of them with little or no resources. The Gathering is a national movement that creates a coordinated space to 1) fortify relationships between regional groups, 2) support local endeavors and 3) enhance the ongoing organizing of non-violent direct action training. Central to its mission is strengthening our moral environment.
- “a project of tides center” -
"The Gathering" is a project of Tides Center 501c3
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