The turn-off to Maloula on the road from An-Nabk to Damascus, Syria (June 9, 2010) Early on the afternoon of June 9, 2010, I stood on the side of a Syrian highway and took this picture. For the previous two nights I had been staying at Deir Mar Musa, a monastery perched on a mountainside […]
Build Love, Not Greatness: Thoughts While Sitting In Ruins
Luxor, Egypt – April 11, 2010 The picture above is a view from inside the Ramesseum, a mortuary temple of Pharaoh Ramesses (Ramses) II, located in the Theban necropolis near Luxor, Egypt. It was built in the 13th century B.C. The Ramesseum is one of my favorite places in Upper Egypt, in part because it […]
Snippets Of Conversation From A Month In Iraq
Almost two years ago, in May 2017, I spent four weeks in northern Iraq, meeting an eclectic mix of people, from youthful backpackers to weary soldiers, from Catholic nuns to restaurant cooks. I think often of these people, and am thankful for the small glimpses they gave me into their lives, hearts, and work. To mark the two-year anniversary of the visit, here are eight snippets of conversation jotted down in my notebook:
The Role Children Play In Connecting People
A historian could talk for weeks about the Turkish city of Mardin, located in the country’s southeastern corner not far from the Tigris River. But in this post, I only want to say a word about one of its more recent inhabitants. Her name is Reyyan, and when we met in 2017, she was three […]
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