House of Curiosity...

People… people… and more people.

The hospital is full of people who have come to visit teta.  The first thing you see when you walk in the long corridor is that people have poured into the corridor out of the room.  It is almost surreal!

I always thought that we are a small family, I often joked that we are so few, we won’t fill a bus.  Oh boy! how wrong I was. 

Modernity and family ties

First thought that occurred to me during last few days is  that I have not seen most of these people during the Eid, even though it was .. what…less than a month ago?   As a matter of fact, I have never seen at least half of the guests.  It hit me that people in our culture don’t share other people’s happy occasions; they share their sad ones only.  Ya3ni, I have never seen most of these people’s in family weddings for example (my analysis is that this is an economical issue;  happy occasions are more expensive, so people keep guests at minimum.  Sad occasions, on the other hand are cheaper, how much do they cost? dark coffee?)

The second thought that occurred to me is that modernity has affected our communication skills so severely, that we no longer talk each other… and consequently, we have no ties with our communities.  

I was examining those who came to the hospital, and their relations to my grandmother.  Among the relations are the following:  her sons and daughters,  their spouses, her grandchildren, their spouses, her daughters and sons in laws’ brothers and sisters, and their spouses,  in some cases their cousins and their spouses.  Her grandchildren’s in laws (including sisters and brothers  and parents in law) her cousins, their spouses,  their spouses families,  her nephews and nieces, their spouses,  their spouses families.  Her husband’s cousins and their spouses. Her sisters and brothers’ in laws,  her sisters and brothers daughters and sons in law and their families. 60 years worth of neighbors, friends and their families (daughters, cousins, daughters in laws… etc.)

The thing is I realized that I don’t know most people who have these relations to me…   and if I know them, I have never put any effort to maintain such relations…  it is modernity, it is that we no longer inter-marry, and we don’t live near each other…  it could be many many reasons…  but the main thing is that I realized that we lost something very valuable…  communities.

On a different note, teta is hopefully better,  the left side of her face is still  hanging slack, she still can’t move, and she keeps coming and going in consciousness… she is with us a minute and in a far away land another,  she talks to me as if we are cooking, while she is laying in bed…

Hope she will get better.