There was a time, before the earthquake, before the war. before the occupations, before the dictators, before the warlords, before the explosions, before the tragedies. Before. It seems we have to go into the recesses of history to find a time where the Levant wasn’t in turmoil. It’s a distant memory. We see black and white pictures of it. We hear about the taxi routes from Jerusalem to Beirut, continuing onto Damascus, up to Aleppo and beyond. Before borders divided and wars traumatized. This “Before-land” doesn’t even seem real now. We talk of never-ending catastrophe and chaos, as if this is a curse, or worse, destiny. I don’t even know if “Before-land” exists. I’m not out to romanticize the past, but in the wake of the recent earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, and the seemingly endless tragedies that have fallen upon the region, I have to believe in “Before-land. ” Because tragedy cannot be a permanent state of being. A before also implies an after. And therefore we have to believe that a better after is possible. We don’t know what it looks like or how it comes into being, but it must exist. It has to exist. In spite of tragedy, there is life. There are babies born in the rubble, and mothers tending to their children with the weight of concrete above their heads. There are families sleeping in cars for fear of returning to their homes. None of this is romantic. It’s real. We bear witness to death and life in the same instance. And in life, there is memory too. “Before-land” lives on in the Aleppo cookie seller, who has made the same almond macaroons stuffed with chocolate or pistachio for decades. “Before-land” lives on in the soap-makers who have perfected a recipe over thousands of years. “Before-land” lives on in the 6000+ year old olive trees who continue to bear fruit. You only hear about this part of the world in tragedy. That’s when it makes the headlines. And in this simplification, we relegate the Levant to a past, present, and future of destruction. We are conditioned to forget that people with a culture and a heritage and thousands of years of acquired intuition make up a homeland. We fight for this life pulse to continue.
I leave you with ancient pottery from the ancestors of Syria and Turkey. Stored Memories.
https://syr.onrender.com/
This site pairs requests for aid with direct donors to support those impacted by the earthquakes in Syria.
Please donate whatever you can to any organization of your choice.
Pick any vessel you’d like. I’ll fill it with flowers and send you a high-res file.
Beautiful gold, strong iron, shaped stones... they all go through either fire or harsh movements... We people become wiser, stronger & nicer when we go through hardships... Birth is always accompanied by tears! 💖