Melting . . .

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The past two weeks have been grueling
Grueling for the entire world I think
When we should be grieving
Grieving for the tragedy in Japan
We look on horror stricken
Stricken by violence and more violence
Violence haunts our days and nights
Nights too short sleep is scarce
Scarce are the moments
Moments when the fear
Fear for the future does not creep
Creep unbidden into our thoughts
Thoughts distracted by constant news
News from the streets
The bloody streets
It is a sad world
Where there are humans
Who cannot speak their mind
Speak their mind freely
As we can here
In the land
Of Blog.
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I have been absent, more absent from the blogs, yours and mine, than at almost any point in the past two and one half years since starting this blogging adventure. I miss it and I miss you. These past two weeks, since the 11th of March, 2011, have been quite mad. Literally crazy. Events in my personal life mirrored events in the wider world. Sometimes one feels that one is out of control. Sometimes one feels overwhelmed and swamped by waves one did not see coming. One can only wait for the waves to wash over, and then pick up what is left, and move on, onward through the fog.
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In April 2007, nearly four years ago, I had the good fortune to be able to spend two weeks in Lebanon and Syria. On a cliff face just outside of Beirut, to the north along the sea, are carved a series of inscriptions that passing armies left over the centuries, going back to Roman times. This one seemed somehow pertinent in view of current events in the region. Nearly 100 years ago upheaval swept through the Middle East. More upheaval seems to be in the works now. Buckle your seatbelts, the ride may get bumpy.
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This is what I felt like these past two weeks. One just has to hold up sometimes. The alternatives are not always pretty. "Boy, you've got to carry that weight . . ."
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The news coming out of Syria these past couple of days is worrisome. Syria is a beautiful country, I hope the people there can find peaceful solutions to whatever it is that ails them at present. I took the below photograph from the old Arab fort overlooking the Roman ruins at Palmyra, Syria, an oasis town halfway from Damascus to Iraq. I had wanted to visit Palmyra ever since reading John Fowles' account of his own trip there which he relates in his novel titled "Daniel Martin". (a book which I would highly recommend to anybody, by the way)
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From Lebanon, With Love . . .

Was thinking about Beirut, Lebanon today because my sister-in-law who lives there was here in Paris for a few days, and returned back to Beirut yesterday. It seems like only yesterday we were there with her for her wedding, but it's been two years since then already. So two years ago we spent 15 days between Lebanon and Syria. All I can say, was it was not enough, and we would love to go back. Funny how certain places leave a feeling engraved in memory which may be hard to define in words, but which comes back when triggered by an image. This picture of the bread man pushing his bike, with a black BMW in the background, is one such image for me. He was determined and plodding on, his customers were going to get their bread, no doubt about it.
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Beirut is a paradise for abandoned car lovers. This Mercedes had seen better days. It had probably seen worse days also, as the civil war raged on for year after year. Lebanon is a scarred country, the people who lived through that period are deeply marked by it. They do not wish to return to the nightmare they knew for too long.
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I've said in a few previous posts in these pages that I don't tend to do postcard type photos, but am slipping this shot I took in Baalbek in here just in case you may not be planning on travelling to Lebanon any time soon, if ever, and might have been wondering what some of the incredible Roman ruins there might look like. Baalbek was known as Heliopolis back a couple of millenia ago, the temple there was among the largest in the ancient world, is remains one of the best preserved. . . If ever you have the opportunity to get there, don't miss it. . .
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A Small Cat-Apostrophe . . .

You may have seen the two posts just below here about cats and the good life cats have in general, even on three legs; and since doing those two posts, well, it's true, I've sort of had cats on the mind a bit these past few days, a sort of feline feeling, and for some reason, I thought I'd even seen a few more cats than usual in the neighborhood these past couple of days. But it wasn't until I read Jeff's post at Life Is Beautiful yesterday that I put two and two together to come up with a four-pawed conclusion . . .
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And it is this : The word got out on the street somehow that I was a sucker for posting pictures of cats on my blog, and that word travelled fast ! ! ! Already it got down to the cats in the south of France where Jeff lives, but I heard it had even crossed the ocean, as I started stumbling on other cat oriented blogs all of a sudden, like Attack of the Tabbies, and it was then that I realized I was in serious kitty litter ! ! !
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My goodness, when I got home from work this evening, here is the scene from the street in front of the house ! ! ! There were felines as far as the eye could see. . . they had come from all over Europe, clamoring and meowing in French, German, Hungarian, even Bulgarian, to try to claw their way into my blog ! I had to drive around the block and then slip in through the garden and back door ! And only just escaped a horde of tabbies who tried to leap on my back from our catalpa tree. . . It was shades of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds . . . I may have to board up the windows and plug the chimney !
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I'm not sure how I'm going to get rid of them ? ? ? Maybe I could tempt them with some young chicks like these ? If I let a bunch of these chicklets out at the far end of the street, maybe the cats would all run that way, and stop meowing around the house, there's no way I'll get any sleep tonight if they keep that ruckus up. . .
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Or perhaps it's some fish they'd like ? ? ? If I could drive slowly down the road dangling fish out the car windows, maybe they'd follow me away from here, like the pied piper . . . oh, I'm floundering for ideas. Perhaps if I just give in and post the above photo, that will satisfy them . . . hey, that's an idea . . . ok you wild cats, you're on the Magic Lantern Show now; so you can all stop your caterwauling and go home !
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Beirut Colors . . .

Two shots that show a little color in Beirut, Lebanon . . . taken in April, 2007 . . .
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South Beirut Cemetery . . .

Again in South Beirut in 2007, I took a quick stroll through the Shiite cemetery not far from the infamous Sabra & Chatila refugee camp (which is still very much in existence). There were far too many very recent graves there. Mementos of the departed were often displayed in upright glass cases like this one . . .
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South Beirut . . .

I took these two pictures in South Beirut in April 2007, less than a year after over 400 mostly residential buildings in that already relatively poor quarter had been blown to pieces by the Israeli bombing campaign in the summer of 2006. Reconstruction was in progress, but far from finished, and publicity for certain political icons was in evidence everywhere. . .
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Flags on Blogs . . .

Since adding the "Feedjit" traffic feed monitor to the right-hand side of this blog page a few days ago, have simply been amazed at how many different places people are coming from to visit this relatively, if not totally, obscure blog of mine, and I am really enjoying seeing the various flags popping up from all over the globe. To celebrate all those flags, here are a few flag photos that I've done : the first in Beirut, Lebanon in April 2007, the second in Landernau, France in January 2009, and the third, Old Glory, from the Indianaoplis, Indiana War Museum, in 2004.
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The famous Cedar tree of Lebanon was looking a little the worse for wear here, but then, Lebanon has been through a hell of alot these past few decades... but the flag, though a bit tattered here, is still flying in the wind, and I am praying that Lebanon will find a lasting peace that it so richly deserves. . .
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Shoes Looking for Good Home

What does this photo have to do with anything? Well not much, just a bunch of various colored and shaped shoes waiting for some kind soul to come along and put them on and walk off into the sunset.


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The sunset in this case would have been looking west over the Mediterranean Sea, as this market was on a street in Sidon, Lebanon, a ways south of Beirut, so if you walked into the sunset, you would very quickly be swimming. The Soap Museum in Sidon is worth the visit, as is the ocean front fortress, small but beautiful. Near Sidon is a large Palestinian refugee camp, like others in Lebanon, one of the saddest places in the world. I'm not a politician or a diplomat, but some things just seem so heartbreakingly wrong when you see them with your own eyes, that you know sooner or later they have to change. At least in the meanwhile there are brightly colored flip-flops to wear to the beach. The only problem is, most of the beaches in Lebanon were fouled by fuel oil that ran out of bombed storage tanks in the summer of 2006, at the same time most of the bridges around the country were bombed out, and some 400 apartment buildings in South Beirut leveled by high explosives falling from the sky. The things we do to each other. Driving down to Sidon we went past the Beirut Airport and the site where the US Marine Corps barracks was blown up way back in October 1983, sending 241 lacerated and crushed souls soaring up toward the heavens or plunging toward purgatory or some such, whatever, according to your beliefs. Go in peace... and in a pair of shoes from this photo... they are a bargain, dirt cheap.

Lebanon Volkswagen

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I had to travel to the far southeast corner of Lebanon to the town of Marjayoum, opposite the biblical Mount Hermon, which is now an Israeli military zone, off limits to common mortals like myself, in order to find this old Lebanese Volkswagen parked in front of an ancient palace. Not sure now which was the original color here... shades of Andy Warhol.

Lebanon Landscape

As mentioned below, some parts of Lebanon are dumping grounds, they seem to have far more than their fair share of disemboweled wrecks littering the landscape. The road north through the Bekaa Valley to Baalbek seems to be one long stretch of junkyard... For me, that is photography paradise, I was frustrated to be travelling with a group and could not stop at my leisure... will just have to go back.

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Bekaa Through Barbed Wire

The Bekaa Valley is a fertile plain between the Mountains of Lebanon that rise up almost out of the sea, and the mountains inland along the Syrian border. Excellent wine country, the Romans left many temples and ruins throughout this region. Today fields are bordered with barbed wire.

Car Cadavers

The lovely country of Lebanon occupies a piece of the Earth coveted over the centuries by many forces. Sadly many external and internal forces have too often caused unbearable pressures that have driven people to and beyond the breaking point. Consequently the country bears the scars of many conflicts, which continue to this day. This may explain why parts of Lebanon are poorly cared for, with dumping grounds and abandoned cars appearing to mar or decorate the landscape, depending on your point of view. This desolate green car was in the hills above Beirut, propped up on stilts for unfathomable reasons. Humans often leave unfathomable traces. May the diverse peoples of Lebanon one day find the lasting peace they so richly deserve.

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