Real Heroes

Anyone can slay a dragon, he told me,
but try waking up every morning
& loving the world all over again.

That's what takes a real hero.
(StoryPeople)

“The Situation”

“The Conflict”

How often are these words used to describe the place that I now call home? People ask how “the situation” affects life, politicians talk about “the conflict”, I came to get a better understanding of “the situation” and almost everybody is aiming to solve “the conflict.” The focus is on UN resolutions, UNESCO admittance, peace talks, and quartet delegations. With all this focus on what is happening on the global stage, it is easy to forget about the people who live here every day, who each day wake up and make their life here.

After a recent Sunday morning church service, I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Pastor and a group of visiting Lutherans. So much of me wishes I would have recorded this conversation so I could let you listen to it and hear his words and his voice for yourself. He talked about his hopes for a peace that would allow him to keep his rights. He spoke of a hope without optimism. He told stories of being a minority of a minority(Christian=minority #1, Lutheran=#2) but encouraging his congregation to add their “brick” with the hopes that when everybody adds a brick something wonderful can be built. He shared his changing the Lord’s Prayer to “Lead us not into humiliation" each time he crosses the checkpoint. He asked that when we returned home, we returned changed and ready to continue to walk with the Palestinian people. But mostly he reminded us that life is happening here daily:

“When people speak about Palestinians they talk about a people in crisis. They do not speak of the life here. When politicians stop seeing us as a people in crisis and start seeing us as a people with needs and with life, then peace will happen.”

“It isn’t happy all the time, we do cry, but after our crying there is a new day. Life here is a choice. To wake up each morning, that is a choice, that is life here. The parents who decided to get their children an education so they will be ready when there is peace, that is life here. To need permits to cross our borders and visit our holy sites, but to keep trying, that is life here. To be labeled dangerous by a government, and to choose non-violence, that is life here.”

Every day I spent here, I get to spend time working with and getting to know the real heroes here. They are the parents of the children I help teach, the teachers I work with, the host family I live with and the people who continue to share their stories in hopes that somebody will hear them.

Yes, Palestine’s acceptance into UNESCO is a great victory, the UN resolution is important and successful peace talks would be a huge step forward. But I do believe that the real heroes are the people who live here and decide to wake up each morning, choose life and work to love the world are the real heroes.

At this point, I leave you with words from Rafeef Ziadah, a Palestinian spoken word artist and activist. Please take the time to hear her words.

“We teach life, Sir. We Palestinians wake up every morning
to teach the rest of the world life!
Sir!”