Like many communities, my town hosts a Farmers Market each week in a lovely park. The park features a well kept lawn, a gazebo for concerts and large trees for shade. Around the perimeter local farmers, restaurants, artists have booths offering their wares. It's a good place to relax, set a blanket out on the lawn and visit with friends.
On this particular day, I noticed two small groups, sitting 20' apart, separated by a footpath. One group of 4 - 5 people had spread out a blanket and picnic basket. In the midst of their group was a Palestinian flag, planted in the lawn Accross the path, sitting in lawn chairs was a group of three. They held a flag of Israel and a flag of the United States. They also had posters saying 'Free the Hostages' and 'Gaza Without Hamas'. Neither group was talking to the other.
It so happened I was friendly with people in both groups. I walked over to my friend in the Israel group and asked if they were talking with the Palestinians. They quickly said, 'No. They don't want to have a conversation, they just tell us we're wrong.' I offered, "I hold onto hope for peace for the Palestinians and Israelies, for the sake of the children." They agreed. My friend said, 'We can't give up on peace.'
I said goodbye and crossed the footpath, to say hello to my Palestinian friend. He was wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh, the traditional scarf that symbolizes Palestinian identity, nationalism and resistance. We greeted each other and invited me to sit with him on his blanket. I asked, "Have you spoken with the people holding the flag of Israel? I just spoke to them and they're lovely people, like you." 'No' he replied, 'they don't want to talk, they just say we're wrong.'
Walking away, I reflected that the pathway seperating these two groups, was more like a chasm. Neither felt free to talk with the other. Each had created a narrative that 'the other' didn't want to listen, neither group felt a conversation was possible or even worthwhile.
What I describe is a microcosm of what is going on in Israel and Palestine, on college campus' and in towns large and small. We gather with people who think like us and label 'the other' as entrenched, combative and judgmental. We talk past each other.
We're left wondering what it would take to move out from our entrenched camps. To be in diologue with people who are seemingly so differnt. Of course, 'us' against 'them' is not limited to Israel/Palestine. We see it in this political season in the US. Polls show that support for the Republican and Democrat presidential candidates is close to 50/50. We've become increasingly tribal and rarely cross the divide that seemingly separate us. Many of us see this divide in our own extended family. Fearful of whether voiced differences will undermine our familial ties.
Does it have to be this way? Are there guides, graced with wisdom, who can lead us beyond our differences? Is there any common ground on which to stand? Allow me to offer two voices of such wisdom, who recently crossed my path. Meet Defne and Ahmet.
A few weeks ago while flying home from a vacation in the UK, I sat next to two travelers from Cyprus. They were wife and husband, living in a Turkish enclave of that Mediterannean island nation. They were flying to visit their son, living in the US. I was seated next to Defne, a dentist and her husband Ahmet, a physician. Defne told me that Cyprus was a divided island nation, the result of a war between Turkey and Greece in the 1970s. As a result there was a militarized zone between the Greek section which controlled 70% of the island and the remaining 30% in Turkish hands.
Being a child at the time of the war, all she and the people of Cyprus have known is division and mistrust. Thousands died during the political unrest in the early 70's and only in recent years have people been allowed to move through the militarized zone. Although even now, she said, it is difficult. Defne told me that in recent years, with the border becoming more accessible, she's begun seeing patients from the Greek side. She's come to know their stories, their hopes and dreams, which are similar, to the hopes and dreams of her Turkish neigbors. Yet, the political tension that separates them remains.
I asked, "is there any hope of bridging the divide"? She smiled, looked over to her husband and said, 'we sing'. I raised my eyebrow. She said, 'Ahmet and I love to sing. Since we were children we sang the folk songs of our heritage in Turkey. However, once we reconnected with our Greek neighbors we asked, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could bring together Greek and Turk of Cyprus, and sing together? So that's what we do. Each week, we gather at a check point seperating us, and we sing as one choir. Greeks on one side and 20' away Turks on the other. We've learned folk songs, both Turkish and Greek, and we sing each other's song, as one people, as one choir. It is beautiful. It gives us all hope for what someday can be.'
Imagine. Imagine a world where we too, find ways to focus on what unites us. It has been said, 'we are the ones we've been waiting for'. The future rests with us. Defne and Ahmet remind us, that finding a new path, requires a willingness to imagine what can be. The belief that beyond any differences, there is more we hold in common. Shared hopes and dreams for our children and their children.
Defne and Ahmet, love to sing. They dream of a world where Turkish and Greek Cypriots honor the culture of the other in song, and together form one choir, singing in one voice. Imagine.
Imagine a world where supporters of Palestine and Israel come together to envision a future where the children of each people live in harmony, safety and peace. Imagine too, a world where Republican, Democrat, Independent listen to the concerns, hopes and dreams of one another. Imagine finding a path forward where each feels heard and a common path found.
Impossible you say? Yet, each week, at a militarized check point on the island of Cyprus, Defne and Ahmet lead a choir of Greeks and Turks, providing healing and hope.
The anthropologist, Margaret Mead put it this way: 'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. ..'
Change begins when a few people come together, to live into a dream of what can be.
We know that mistrust, fear, retribution doesn't work. We know that fear constricts both the imagination and heart. It doesn't have to be this way.
What dream for a better tomorrow do you hold close to your heart? Are we willing to sit down to listen and learn from those who think differently? Imagine, when such conversations yield a shared piece of common ground upon which to stand, together.
Defne and Ahmet remind us that the pain of the past need not define our future. Now is our time to sing. For the sake of the children and those yet to come, may it be so.
With you on the jouney ~ Kent Harrop
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