“Can you tell me where my country lies
Said the unifaun to his true love's eyes.”
- Dancing with the Moonlit Knight, Genesis
The search for home, for country, for principles, for soul...the lyrics from Genesis effectively call up emotions and paths we take in politics, in religion, and in art and literature. The use of a new mythic being in the lyric above, a unifaun, is an effective element to do this, a bridge back to our mythical days combining the mythic past of a unicorn, our innocence expressed as a faun, and our ideals and realities of those in uniform. We have everyday meetings, sometimes with people searching. To ask the question of “true love's eyes” is riveting and demands a cosmic truth narrowed down to what is in front of us.
In our everyday lives, the hard reality and drama often seems to merge with larger forces from beyond our neighborhoods or the ideas with which we are most comfortable. Sometimes, we get lost. At other times, it is our countries or our societies that get lost. Perhaps the things we belong to get lost, go adrift, and they lose us. Much of art has been made of our search for this. The search to regain and reclaim. Much of politics has been about this. An Arab spring and an Occupy movement attest to the fervent beliefs of many that are searching.
One man in particular is searching right now for his freedom, but for years he has been searching for his home – and what home means. He is a knight, dancing in the moonlight of the world's stage. Not front and center, unfortunately. The sun shines on a world stage only if there is celebrity scandal, and we can be entertained by the stage. No, this stage is one where only the moon shines a light, but still, that light is strong once your eyes adjust. For this man who is searching, who has dared to ask where his country lies, spring has turned to trouble. He is searching not just for a place, not just for an idea, but for the reality of both. Only where place and idea meet and blossom can he help to bring his country to where he thinks it should be.
He occupies, right now, a prison in Egypt. I became aware of him through @Alikat747. Here is a poem for his predicament, which is our predicament, as well. I don't know Alaa, and I am too privileged to really know what he is going through. Still, if we don't raise our voices, the other side of midnight may come – a darker night for Alaa and others in his country, a night we cannot truly imagine here.
You can find out more about Alaa here, and sign a petition here.
Said the unifaun to his true love's eyes.”
- Dancing with the Moonlit Knight, Genesis
The search for home, for country, for principles, for soul...the lyrics from Genesis effectively call up emotions and paths we take in politics, in religion, and in art and literature. The use of a new mythic being in the lyric above, a unifaun, is an effective element to do this, a bridge back to our mythical days combining the mythic past of a unicorn, our innocence expressed as a faun, and our ideals and realities of those in uniform. We have everyday meetings, sometimes with people searching. To ask the question of “true love's eyes” is riveting and demands a cosmic truth narrowed down to what is in front of us.
In our everyday lives, the hard reality and drama often seems to merge with larger forces from beyond our neighborhoods or the ideas with which we are most comfortable. Sometimes, we get lost. At other times, it is our countries or our societies that get lost. Perhaps the things we belong to get lost, go adrift, and they lose us. Much of art has been made of our search for this. The search to regain and reclaim. Much of politics has been about this. An Arab spring and an Occupy movement attest to the fervent beliefs of many that are searching.
One man in particular is searching right now for his freedom, but for years he has been searching for his home – and what home means. He is a knight, dancing in the moonlight of the world's stage. Not front and center, unfortunately. The sun shines on a world stage only if there is celebrity scandal, and we can be entertained by the stage. No, this stage is one where only the moon shines a light, but still, that light is strong once your eyes adjust. For this man who is searching, who has dared to ask where his country lies, spring has turned to trouble. He is searching not just for a place, not just for an idea, but for the reality of both. Only where place and idea meet and blossom can he help to bring his country to where he thinks it should be.
He occupies, right now, a prison in Egypt. I became aware of him through @Alikat747. Here is a poem for his predicament, which is our predicament, as well. I don't know Alaa, and I am too privileged to really know what he is going through. Still, if we don't raise our voices, the other side of midnight may come – a darker night for Alaa and others in his country, a night we cannot truly imagine here.
You can find out more about Alaa here, and sign a petition here.
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