Architecture and landmarks

This kind of loss, profound and lasting, gives way to clarity born from rejection. It sharpens your appreciation of loyalty and authenticity in relationships.Perhaps the people I thought I knew, I did not know at all. And perhaps the people who thought they knew me, did not know me at all.

There is a reckoning under way. Like most reckonings, big or small, near or distant, it can be messy and painful.We are trying to navigate a pitiless world that, on the disagreeable whole, punishes dissent and rewards compliance.To those friends who have opted for distance, I say this: I am convinced that you believe what you’re doing is right and just. So am I.

I write not to wound. I write to insist.I insist that Palestinian lives matter.

I insist that Palestinians cannot be erased by edict, force, and intimidation.

I insist that mourning should not be a daily ritual for any people.The then 25-year-old Spanish volunteer arranged housing for refugees in abandoned facilities like schools and libraries, and set up community kitchens, language classes and art activities.

“It was kind of a massive cascade of people,” Garcia recalls.“My own memory of that time is oddly patchy,” he admits. Though there was one encounter that stood out.

In one of those schools in Athens’ Exarcheia neighbourhood, where refugees painted the external wall to illustrate their memories of their journeys, Garcia met a Syrian woman in her late 70s.“I’m not afraid of being a refugee. I have lived all my life. I’m happy with what I have lived,” he recalls her telling him. “I’m afraid that my grandkids will be refugees for all their life.”