Bread

I am not the only one.

Have you ever wanted something so badly you got lost in the wanting and forgot the reason for wanting?

W

But Not For Me, Time After Time, I Get Along Without You Very Well, I Fall In Love Too Easily, I Remember You, Let's Get Lost, Long Ago and Far Away, You Don't Know What Love Is.
A morning with Chet Baker and I remember.

"You don't know how hearts burn
For love that cannot live yet never dies
Until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes
You don't know what love is"

Unforgiven

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces fill me with dread.
Yet I still persists.

Street

Streetside bedside.

This photo was taken in the old city of Damascus. It was morning and the two boys were sleeping so soundly on the streets, their expressions peaceful and almost angelic. Around them, things were starting to get hectic but they just slept on, oblivious. I was initially thinking of cropping the photo tighter and by doing so, bringing the viewer closer to the boys. But then I remembered why I had taken this photo from this perspective. I remember not wanting to go too close to them because I was afraid I would rouse them. But I also remember that I did not go up close because I felt uncomfortable; as if going closer would be to intrude on their personal space. A space where I do not belong. And I think this distance or buffer between us is as much the subject of this photo as are the two boys. In a perfect world, this buffer should not exist but it does. Perhaps it is naive of me but I would like to think that this buffer exists because of a disparity in education and opportunities; not really because of income per se. Nevertheless, this buffer makes me uncomfortable and rightfully so. But now what?

Magnify

Heart Instinct Principles

The true religion would have to
teach greatness and wretchedness,
inspire self-esteem and self-contempt,
love and hate.
~Blaise Pascal

Youths

Youthful look.

The Middle East is a land steeped in religion so much so that some of the people I meet find it hard to imagine how a person can be a "free thinker", as we say in Singapore. I remember the shocked look on the Iranian couple's face when I told them that a large number of Singaporeans are "free thinkers". I also remember them asking where did all the "free thinkers" think they came from if there was no God; a question which I could not quite answer. Everywhere you go in the Middle East, be it Iran, Syria or Lebanon you see examples of religious devotion; shrines on street corners, religious inscriptions, people in prayer and icons on display. And contrary to popular believe, it is not just Islam that is being showcased in the Middle East. It may be the dominant religion but most definitely not the only one, as this photo of two christian youths posing by a Damascus street side shrine shows. Perhaps this show of religious display, apart from the fact that the Middle East is the birthplace of the three major monotheistic religions, is due to the fact that the Middle East is a very old land. Modernity has not really taken hold here yet. Which to me is not necessarily a bad thing. It may be a fallacy on my part but it would appear that modernization is always intricately intertwined with secularism and the restriction of religion to the private sphere. Is this a tenant of modernity?

Musing

Sintra rocks

I realized that I have a soft spot for hard rocks.

Moesgard

Just across, so close yet so far

Thinking back, thinking of you,
Summertime, think it was June.

I wonder if we'll meet again,
and talk about life since then
Talk about why did it end

Beehive

So far away

Did you know that the houses are the same, just across the border from where we once stood? I didn't. I didn't know that they could be found elsewhere. At least the guidebook and guide didn't mention that they could. I thought I had left theses houses when we passed. Perhaps things have a knack of following me? Or maybe I am guilty of subconsciously revisiting what I have passed? Then again, it is not surprising to see these structures in a different land. After all, it is only a line that separates the two states, probably penciled in by a diplomat and then made concrete by the passage of time. They've named this place Baghdad. But it is far removed from the carnage and mayhem that now plagues that infamous city of the same name. Maybe they thought that a garden would grow here, in this dry arid land. Maybe to them, a name, a word, matters more than the thing itself; when we name, we hope. Now, the borders seem artificial as it starts to feel the same as that place. But there is one striking difference. Then there were two, now there is only one.

云

你期待一个怎样的夏天？
你会展开一段怎样的路程？
手中是不是还紧紧握住那一年的梦想？

Caged

Freedom and its owner

Fluttering around,
I see a world beyond;
And I long for a view
of the un-caged sky.

Burn

Damascus Sunset

but that's alright because I love the way you lie

Bosra

Curious glances, exchanged.

We smiled as we passed each other on the old Roman road and we both looked back after, just that I had my camera poised. Somehow I had a feeling that he would share my cheeky curiosity. This is what traveling is about; exchanges. The exchange of smiles, curiosity, knowledge and goodwill. Syria and Lebanon are both very old lands, steeped in faith and religion. Walking through the streets of Bosra which are laid out on the old Roman grid one cannot help but feel that a mere 28 years is nothing in this place that has been inhabited for centuries and suddenly, all your concerns, fears and worries seem petty; a speck of dust lost in the cosmos of time.