I was talking to a friend the other day, this friend is NOT an Iraqi, nor an Arab. But he/she knows Iraq and the Iraqis quite well...the real ones, that is.
And this friend told me, textually :
- It is very hard to know Iraqis and not love them - they are quite special..."
- Why so ? I enquired...
- I don't know...it is something about you, people...about Iraq...
What is this something ?
I am not sure. I don't know...
I am not the type that toots her own horn either...
I too, have asked myself that question - what is this something that this friend constantly alludes to ?
What is this something that -- despite my fatigue, my melancholy, my loss, my sadness...pushes me to go on ? Pushes me to go on -- towards her, Her. To HER ?
To continue...regardless...
Surely am not from the right sex nor from the right sect and by today's standards, am not even from the right race...my political inclinations if at all, dont nominate me for best performer of the year...
Yet, like a moth that has burned itself a thousands times...I keep going back...
A certain something, a je ne sais quoi...beyond your regular patriotism, beyond love of country, beyond shared, common memories, beyond home, beyond mother tongue....beyond all of that...
What is it ?
I try to put myself in my friend's shoes, who is not an Iraqi...and I ask myself that same question...
What is it ?
And the reply I always get is always the same -- like a broken record, like a picture that refuses to fade away, like an ancient, immemorial statue from bygone days...
And I keep coming back -- like an unwanted visitor, like a lover stealing a few glimpses in the night...
It must be a certain something...a certain, Je ne sais quoi.
Music : Elham Al-Madfai - Khuttar/Visitors
Painting: Iraqi artist, Ahmed Al-Karkhee.
