Yanoun, West Bank
After World War I, while stationed in what is now Pakistan, T.E. Lawrence wrote to a friend back home, “I do not want to meet my past, round some future turn in the road.”
Lawrence, better known by many as Lawrence of Arabia, didn’t much care for his past; he certainly didn’t want to be reminded of it. One of the few things he liked about being stationed in Pakistan was that it kept him out of England, where he cringed before – if not outright despised – the way people viewed him as the famed “Lawrence of Arabia” who performed legendary feats during the Great War. He wanted those years in Arabia to be behind him, not to define him.
Fame and disillusionment plagued Lawrence, but less famous individuals can also wish to not meet their past round some bend in the road. The things, people, and ideas to which we give our energy, bodies, and time will often greet us again. This is part of what gives weight to our choices. This is why what we do now will always be part of tomorrow.
I took this photograph shortly after sunrise while walking among olive trees belonging to the West Bank village of Yanoun. In Israel and Palestine, one walks through a terrain where both peoples routinely meet their pasts, with all its hurt, violence, and dehumanization, in the present. But as I walked down this quiet village lane, I thought not of social/political realities but of my own life, and I hoped that in the future, in those moments when I meet my past around a bend, that it might mostly be a good thing.
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For more about the life of T.E. Lawrence, see “The True Story of Lawrence of Arabia” in the July 2014 issues of Smithsonian.
