With the on come of the new year, the media has given us a review of the events of 2005; and it seems that at least in my current part of the world, 2005 has been nothing but a series of life-taking events…
Last night, the Egyptian police tried to evacuate Sudanese refugees who have for months now inhabited a park in a busy and high-profile part of Cairo, demanding that the UN, Egypt and the world lend an ear to their pleas. Many of these southern Sudanese have fled the persecution in their own country and have arrived in Egypt legally or illegally. Their stay here is temporary, but ‘temporary’ in these cases can mean years. Still, they have no concrete rights in their current ‘in-limbo’ situation. They are often mistreated and taken advantage of by those who exploit their situation. I understand that Egypt alone cannot help them until all the necessary forces in the world put their heads together and find them new permanent homes in other countries. Still, the order of the nation has to be kept, and the police decided it was high time to move them to a refugee camp and out of this park in the middle of busy Cairo. Naturally, when you’re pushed to the limit, you will fight back. The Sudanese obviously fear that by moving to a refugee camp they will be out of sight and out of mind and so they resisted. As a result, over 70 people of Egyptians and Sudanese were injured and 25 Sudanese were pronounced dead.
Yesterday morning the headlining crime of the day was the killing of 10 people from three separate families who lived on the same street. A mentally ill person (as the police reported) came into their sleepy homes and slaughtered children, mothers and fathers, disfiguring the men and women and gutting the children and taking their organs. The day before, 11 family members of a Shiite family were slaughtered in Iraq. The day before that, three innocent girls were murdered by their father in an act of mistaken honor killing in Pakistan. And to top it off, last night they showed “Saving Private Ryan” on TV – as if we don’t have enough war and death in real-life we need to escape into another war movie, no matter how good it is! When “Saving Private Ryan” first came out in 1998, I couldn’t wait to see it and see it again. Last night all I could bare to do was change the channel, for it was just too much to see art imitate life in this manner.
This morning I woke up early and decided to watch some TV with my morning coffee, hoping that the media would be finally cheering us on to enjoy our New Year’s Eve, encourage us to have fun, be merry and plain silly when the clock strikes twelve. Instead, it continued to serenade us with the devastating events of 2005. The paper didn’t help much either, for the headline read that the two most significant events of the year were the Tsunami and the Iraq war.
Finally, as I was flipping through the channels, I saw a trailer for the movie “Serendipity.” I had seen this movie a few years ago. It’s a cute, not quite realistic, mostly chick-flick movie, but being a girl myself and in need of some entertainment, I enjoyed it immensely along with my popcorn and coke at the movies. Today however, just the trailer and the memory of that movie had quite a different affect on me. Have you ever wondered what the word ‘serendipity’ means? The dictionary says: the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for. Exactly what I was doing (only I was seeking it) and EXACTLY what I so desperately needed! I need something that is pleasantly unexpected, happy, positive...agreeable to hold on to and help me welcome the New Year! No, the movie wasn’t that thing, but it explained exactly this longing, searching feeling going through me. Can we be forced by the world to observe all that is unpleasant, angering and sad in the world that we almost fail to remember even one good thing we can take out of this year? Is it the world, the media or our minds that react so strongly to disasters and forget the hopeful moments? I always thought that nature gave us the gift of forgetting because if we were to remember each and every event in our lives, the sad ones would so overwhelm us it would be impossible to continue living. But it seems that somehow we’ve messed with our internal protection system that we now remember the BAD and forget the good!
I asked someone the other day what kind of year it’s been for him and he said: “It was a good year! Nobody “real close” died!” At the time, I laughed because I thought that is the most warped joyous expression I’ve heard in years! But come to think of it, he’s right! If we can twist this urge back around somehow to go back and see things in a good light - you know just MAKE ourselves do it - then maybe there is hope.
This year, my life took a 180-degree turn and I have yet to see where it will lead. It has been one of those “questions” years for me. Still, I saw my father come through an open-heart surgery alive and well. Granted, he now is a lot more aware of his other ailments (back pain, sciatic nerve, etc.) but we are one life-threatening problem down, OK?! And this is what I will hold on to when the clock strikes midnight tonight! May all you who have had “questions” years (and it seems that in the world there are many) have this coming year be an “answers” year for you!
Happy New Year with Love and Blessings!
