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Courage Is Infectious

Posted February 4th, 2011 by Lesley Hazleton

The magnificence of it!

After two days of concerted attacks by plain-clothes security police and paid goons armed with guns, machetes, whips, batons, and nail-studded maces;  after the coordinated attempt of the Mubarak regime to intimidate protestors, to stop news coverage by arresting and roughing up journalists, and to create the appearance of chaos, this:

The largest protest crowds so far.

And not only in Cairo.  In every Egyptian city.  All calling for Mubarak to step down.  Now.  And all peaceful.

Courage, it turns out, is infectious:  One of the two lead anchors of a government TV station quit to join the protestors, as did the station’s manager, declaring themselves unable to keep up  the hypocrisy;  the head of the Arab League arrived in Tahrir Square to speak to protestors;  even the government turned up in person, when the minister of defense came to ‘review the troops’ and also spoke with protestors, signaling at least a degree of support.

The violence that was designed to keep people away from public protest seems instead to have reinforced their determination.  And here, halfway round the world in Seattle, I am amazed and humbled and inordinately grateful for their courage.

I’m aware that however much I’m feeling, it’s a tiny fraction of what the vast majority of Egyptians are feeling, both in Egypt and abroad — a fraction of what all those living under Middle Eastern dictatorships are feeling as they remain glued, as I am, to the live feeds of news organizations such as Al Jazeera and, amazingly, the most powerful and irrepressible news update of all, Twitter feeds — from rights organizations like Human Rights Watch (@hrw), from reporters like Nicolas Kristof (@NickKristof), and from Egyptian activists on the ground (check my RTs at @accidentaltheo for some of them).

I’m riding an emotional roller coaster of empathy and hope, but it’s the people in the squares and streets of Egypt who are, literally, placing their lives on the line.

Would you?  Would I?  Do we have any idea how much we take for granted what others are willing to die for?

Whatever happens in Egypt in the next few days, watch, follow it closely, spread the news, and be awed — and inspired — by the infectious power of courage.

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File under: Middle East | Tagged: Tags: Al Jazeera, courage, Egypt, freedom, Human Rights Watch, Mubarak, Nick Kristof, Tahrir Square, thugs, Twitter | 3 Comments
  1. Lana says:
    February 5, 2011 at 2:16 am

    I am glued to aljazeera … totally in an emotional roller coaster … hope is infectious … i just fear what this oppressive gonverment has in its sleeve … today we heard about gas pipes exploding … i fear a very well known senario that might drag the whole country into “real” chaos … they have many cards to play .. terrorism is one
    as noam chomsky said (my words) it’s not going to be easy there is so much instake in egypt

  2. Lynn Rosen says:
    February 7, 2011 at 10:38 pm

    Check out Aj Jazeera English for the real news from the Middle East at this link:

    http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al_jazeera_english

  3. Lynn Rosen says:
    February 7, 2011 at 10:39 pm

    Check out Al Jazeera English for the real news from the Middle East at this link:

    http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al_jazeera_english

Fear of the Knife

Posted October 2nd, 2010 by Lesley Hazleton

I always swore I would never let any surgeon near my face with a scalpel or a laser – thus my age-appropriate weathered look.   But I’d known for months that I needed cataract surgery.  My right eye had more or less stopped working, so reason finally prevailed:  since I was losing vision in that eye in any case, what more did I have to lose?

I made the appointment, did all the testing (20/240 in that eye, so yes, a new lens just might be called for), made the date for the ‘procedure’… and then went through three weeks of terror.

Everyone I knew who’d had cataract surgery – and only once I started talking about it did I find out how many people had, from close friends to casual acquaintances to my own brother — assured me there was absolutely nothing to worry about.  It’s a snap, they said.  It’s over in ten minutes.  You won’t feel a thing.  You’ll be so glad you did it.

But while reason said that they knew what they were talking about, terror kept yelling “Yes but…“  and “What if…?”

But someone’s going to stick things in my eye.  He’s going to suck the lens out of it.  He’s going to poke a new one in.   What if his hand slips just a millimeter?  What if I move at the wrong moment?  What if…

Then last Wednesday, the day before surgery, I prostrated myself full-length on the floor of the Pilates studio and begged a fellow mat-class student who’d had the procedure to tell me she’d been scared beforehand.  She looked down at me in astonishment.  “But of course I was!” she said.  “I was terrified for weeks.”

It was such a relief.  The terror was still there, but at least I no longer felt a total fool for feeling it.  It was normal.  It was rationally irrational.  I wasn’t a freak of wimpishness after all.

So yes, the surgery took place;  no, I felt nothing (I’d stuck my arm out begging for the sedative the moment I walked in), though I did see some beautiful colored lights;  and now, two days later, I’m experiencing the somewhat disconcerting feeling of having the use of two eyes instead of one.  This’ll take some getting used to, but it feels like it’ll become the new normal in just a few days.

And I realize now why everyone told me not to worry.  They were simply trying to calm me down.  To reassure me.  To tell me it’d be okay.  They were being kind and supportive and doing what friends do.

It’s just that they’d left out an essential  phrase.

If only they’d prefaced everything they’d said with “Yes, I was terrified too, for weeks beforehand, but…”  then I might have believed them when they said there was nothing to be terrified of.  Well, believed them a little bit, at least.

Or maybe they weren’t terrified?  Maybe it’s just me and my fellow Pilatesian (do only wimps do Pilates?).  Maybe everyone else is courageous and/or stoic and/or blithely unaware of the damage scalpels and lasers can do?

Maybe I really am a wimp?

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File under: existence, technology | Tagged: Tags: cataracts, courage, eye surgery, terror | 4 Comments
  1. Pietra says:
    October 2, 2010 at 5:50 pm

    Well, Lesley, you have me! I would never have made it to the surgery sober and then, of course, they couldn’t have done it …….
    Mazel tov!
    Now you can keep an eye on things!

  2. Jonathan Omer-Man says:
    October 3, 2010 at 4:54 pm

    Well, first of all there was don’t be scared, now there is don’t worry. As your veteran by 10 days, let me tell you that for the first week you will be a fanatic about eye drops every four hours. But then you will forget one round. BUT DON’T WORRY: your new lens won’t pop out and plop into the lentil soup! Just don’t do it too frequently. Anyway, congratulations! Jonathan

  3. Lynn Rosen says:
    October 3, 2010 at 4:59 pm

    Yikes! Cataract surgery. The mere S word drives me into the epizooties. And yet, having gone through the terrors, I, too, am one of those who can counsel “You’ll be glad you did it.” And I can counsel twice since both eyes are now functioning with amazing clarity. You did not wimp alone, medear.There are plenty of us out there who shiver at the thought of anyone coming at us, especially in the eye, AND with a sharp stick! Congratulations and don’t hesitate to go under the sharp stick again if need be.

  4. The Books She Carried « The Accidental Theologist says:
    November 13, 2010 at 12:11 pm

    […] Fear of the Knife […]

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