A Moment Beyond Imagining

Gaza--Trips to this part of the world bring surprises at every turn.  Peter Davidson and I are here doing several days of leadership development work with a consortium of 12 Palestinian private schools coordinated by AMIDEAST.  At breakfast this morning, we discovered that our hotel is shared by dozens of the Palestinians formerly held prisoner by Israel and recently released in exchange for Gilad Shalit.  One of them, a prisoner for 27 years who taught himself fluent English while imprisoned, talked with us at some length about the experience.

At a point deep in the conversation about politics, justice, equity, family and the prospects for a future life, the hotel's music system began playing John Lennon's "Imagine."  I was there and would not have believed it except that there were witnesses.  The moment was, as so many are in this part of the world, seemingly beyond coincidence. 

[The picture above is of the "hamsa-hamsa" Hamas-run checkpoint, the last stop before one crosses the one kilometer-wide no man's land before the Israeli wall when exiting Gaza.]