The world is a marvelous, twisty, strange, magical, beautiful place full of diverse, impractical, practical, wonderfully irrational, marvelously rational people. All going through life....The world is a marvelous, twisty, strange, magical, beautiful place full of diverse, impractical, practical, wonderfully irrational, marvelously rational people. All going through life.

Now, sometime after 2001, Carolyn Casey, from the USA, decided to tour Palestine and Syria. In Syria, she found out that women can walk anywhere, day or night, without fear (she was sure to state that she was only there for a short time so, she didn't see everything, but, what she saw was interesting nonetheless).

In Palestine she visited a family, had dinner with them. While everyone else was away in the dwelling she and their grandmother talked. The grandmother talked about the old days, when the almonds were richer, the fruit was juicier...she mentioned the intifada and how bitter that made everyone.

But then she stood up and said that we got over the bitterness, because why be bitter when you can dance. And they both then danced.

In other news, Harper's Magazine sent a journalist out into the world to find out the world's reaction to September 11th. He arrived in Madrid, Spain, some two weeks after the horrible train bombing. He was surprised to find the government building with no security (but one guard), people being allowed to go in and out as they please.

So he asked someone what was going on.

And the answer he got was 'We're used to this. This has happened before. We could worry about it, but then, I could get hit by a bus tomorrow'. And he chuckled.

Onto Russia. The Russians have a wicked sense of humour. It is part of their worldview that since life has always been really bad, is really bad, and will continue to be really bad, why not laugh?

Onto Bosnia. Some blokes did a study on Panic in people. They studied the World Trade Centre during Septmember 11th and Bosnia-Kosovo. The results of their study was that Panic is rare (where panic would be getting out of the danger area at all costs, even if it means crushing or hurting others); during the World Trade Centre incident, people helped each other, they didn't run pell mell, crushing each other. And in Bosnia-Kosovo, even though families and lives were distrupted, the families still went about their lives, worshipping if they did that before, going shopping, etc.

It is part of the European character, since they are an old set of civilizations that have been conquered and taken over time and time again, of being used to strife, but continuing on. They aren't as conservative as the USA or some aspects of Canada, they know that life is a participatory event; it isn't something to be watched, but something to be experienced. They know that even if life seems to be falling apart or ending, it isn't the end of the world. There are still friends, loved ones, wine, and laughter.

So get out there and enjoy the world. It is waiting for you :)

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