Strive In Order to Thrive

This post has nothing to do with ‘life in Beirut’. Still, I thought it was interesting to share. Sometimes you notice something that you hadn’t noticed before, even though you passed by it almost daily, and suddenly you see it everywhere.

I saw these four trees all in a time span of 3 days. They are the epitome of the Lebanese spirit.

Despite all difficulties, and all obstacles, and all things going wrong, they have no intention of giving up. Survive they will, and survive they shall and survive they must. Just like these poor trees. Maybe this is how they thrive best.

On a side note: Once, when speaking with an Israeli this summer (In Europe, you can relax now), he mentioned that the fact the entire Arab world was after them, was actually the sole reason why the state of Israel still existed. “Jews hate each other, and when you leave them in peace, eventually they will go for each other’s throat. The Ashkenazi (European jews) hate the Sephardic (jews with Arab roots), the Iraqi jews hate the Iranian jews, the jews from Riga distrust the jews from Odessa, and on you go. It is just that the Arabs keep us too busy for that. But the moment you give us peace, I assure you, within a couple of years most jews will have left Israel because of internal fighting.”
He was, of course, highly exaggerating. Still, strive seems to run in the semitic blood. They need it in order to thrive.