From a human perspective, the collapse of a dream is a universal experience, one shared by many. I believe that the feeling of catastrophe is among the most excruciating emotions humans can face. Novels like Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind” and Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” allude to this concept.
Even the religious narrative that explains the beginning of life on Earth starts with the expulsion of Adam and Eve. This signifies a disruption in their world, forcing them to seek refuge on Earth, perhaps making them the first refugees in history, according to the religious account.
I met a Palestinian woman who identified as such, her family having been expelled from Palestine. She recounted how her mother spoke of their home until her last breath.
Her mother, she said, loved sketching the house in exile, its rooms, balcony, garden, and everything else. In a sense, she was “reclaiming” her original home through her art. Whether through reminiscing or other means like art or literature, storytelling can serve as a form of reconstruction, a path towards psychological balance.
Those who have not witnessed the collapse of their world cannot fully grasp the experience. This includes my generation, born into the aftermath of the Nakba of Palestine, inheriting the consequences without directly experiencing the destruction and the immediate loss of place and associated memories.
Yet, I have personally experienced the disintegration of the world I knew, the most harrowing of which was watching the Israeli military march arrogantly through the streets of Tyre during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. The sight was far beyond my capacity to bear.
The feeling of humiliation was indescribable. Later, watching the US military enter Baghdad on television, I was overwhelmed by an unbearable sense of indignity. I turned off the TV, unable to endure the spectacle.
I still recall Gabriel’s words that struck me deeply: “The most difficult moments are those when one’s world falls apart. And one can only watch it crumble.”
The passage concludes on a note of resilience, acknowledging the pain of a lost world while recognizing the power of memory, art, and storytelling to offer solace and a path towards rebuilding.
Salim Nazzal is a Palestinian Norwegian researcher, lecturer playwright and poet, wrote more than 17 books such as Perspectives on thought, culture and political sociology, in thought, culture and ideology, the road to Baghdad
