I grew up in a small town in Lebanon, and just like the many of us who were brought up in the homeland, I got spent a good amount of time around my grandmother. My teta was an outstanding woman, her looks werent the only thing that made her stand out for me, but the 6 ft blond, blue eyed sheikha, who was the envy of all the towns girls back in the day (as she claimed) had her own preposterous theological Druze theories, which haunted my little brain. > > > > I wasnt an 8-year old who waited for Santa and the elves, instead my teta elevated my anticipation to what she called the judgement night, in which our 5 concealed seedat (masters) will come for us from their hiding place behind the Great Wall of China to reward the good and punish the bad. Not that I was intrigued by the fact of how are these horses going to gallop all the way from China, neither was I concerned of not making it on the good list, because its given that being a Druze was your golden ticket there, but I was completely fascinated by the fact that being Druze gave me a total exclusivity to knowing that. Out there behind the Great wall of China there are red, blue, green and yellow horses, that are kept secret to the whole world except to the few who are good and trustworthy known to be the Druze .That which I call now the colored horse syndrome gave little me a great deal of superiority and pride, as I waited patiently all these endless nights for the secret to reveal and for the colored horses to come out of their concealment. > > > As innocence evolved and maturity settled, I no longer waited for the colored horses to come out (thankfully), but I was never freed from the colored horse syndrome, and never dropped that pride. It was maybe the child in me who still believes, or maybe the sense I found in some of Tetas theories .There was one thing she told me once that probably affected me the most. I was once walking her down the Hamra street for her Drs appointment, when we encountered an old homeless man on the side of the street. Touched by the sight, my teta paused for a while as she caught her breath, straightened her hunched back and said with persistence ya teta this would never happen to a Derzi, because no Derzi will leave another Derzi with no home or shelter. I never thought about what she said that day, but when I did, there was a truth behind it . I scanned the history of wars and devastation our homeland has been subject to, from the 1948 crisis in Palestine,to the Lebanese war in 1975 and currently the Syrian war. Millions of people left their homes to an unknown fate, they stayed homeless, or lived in camps struggling for survival, yet we have not heard of any Druze family that had to live in such conditions. Many Druze were displaced forcefully yes, but only to find shelter in another Druze village that they made home.They might have lived poor, devastated, homesick and broken, but always proud. > > > This is what I carried with me of being a Druze, I learned that we arent rich with resources, we arent influential with the demographic presence, we arent protected or feared for from big countries, but we are decent, down to earth people who carry pride and attachment to their identity and community. This is the colored horse I once believed in and this what I want to pass on to my kids. > > > Though passing this pride is a struggle. our kids are not the same gullible kids we were. The big world became smaller, the minority is influenced by the majority and diversity became a new identity. We want our kids to prosper to this great evolution but we still want them to believe in the colored horse tale, to get the syndrome and pass it on to their children and the many generations to come. From here emerges the importance of the ADS and our obligation towards it .From the fact that I care and you care for this to continue, arises the responsibility towards this community, towards our families, towards our ancestors and the people who made us who we are. The ADS isnt owned by a president or debited to a secretarys account. Its owned by the community and run by your concerns. It develops from your feedback from your presence . All these titles are nothing but volunteer work that all of us ,members of the community, take turns in participating in at a point in time, only to help set plans, but from there on comes everyones job that originates from passion and not a title . This is not a solicitation but its a reminder that there in the very far east behind the great wall of China we have horses waiting in concealment, and they arent just any horses, they are horses of original colors, and this secret is not revealed to the world but only to the very few who are trustworthy and they are called the Druze.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 17:37:56 +0000
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