Categories: uncategorized
Date: 08 October 2005 23:12:47
Generally today hasn't been the best of days. I went to town this morning, with a shopping list, was unable to buy any of the items, but managed to break my phone (by dropping on the floor of the toilets in M&S), so the only thing I purchased was a new mobile. On the way home we had major problems due to 60,000 England fans trying to get to the match, a tram running over a pedestian (we had to evcuate the tram inbetween stations!) and buses being incredibly slow. Due to all these little things, and other friends and family who were obviously having stressful times too, I was feeling very tense.
This evening I went to a Martin John Nicholls concert. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I certainly wasn't expecting what happened. He has been to Palestine and has written a number of songs about the situation there. I knew most of the songs already, but tonight they came alive through the stories and pictures behind all the songwords. Photos of innocent children at gun point. Bethlehem, supposedly a Holy Town, torn to pieces. Stories from women who have been refugees for 50 years, and still carry their house key in the hope that they will be able to return someday. I realised I had spent the day worrying about mobile phones and football fans, when all these people were suffering so much more.
The whole evening was incredibly powerful. I don't fully understand all the politics behind it all, but photos of innocent children caught up in all the mess, saddened me deeply. It reminded me that one of our neighbours in Manchester were refugees from Iraq. This family includes a 8 year old boy, who was once out playing in our street with other children. One of the other children asked him why he left his home country. He simply said because everyone was doing this to each other, and did a realistic impression of someone using a machine gun. He had obviously frequently witnessed such violence. That really hit home - children really shouldn't see stuff like that.
At the end of the evening, during the last song, we were asked to share the peace with our neighbours. As I did, a voice from within my head shouted "WHY FOR GOODNESS SAKE CAN'T EVERYONE SAY PEACEFUL WORDS TO THEIR NEIGHBOURS????!!!"
Sophs came to the same event this evening, and is sat beside me waiting to post, if you would like to read a different perspective.