Pictures of Dar Al-Hajar

Quite possibly the most photographed location in Yemen, here are pictures of Dar Al-Hajar: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=99640&id=509602661&l=452bfbb775‏.

I'm a big picture person. I'm not all about details, not all about how the little pieces fit together, even though I'm fully aware that it's the small pieces that allow the full picture to be beautiful or scarred. I think that perhaps this is both a great strength and my greatest weakness. At any rate, while I ponder philosophical truths and the projected outcomes of mass actions, behaviors and attitudes, I often find myself coming back to a few select authors and musical artists who have a knack for expressing the dychotomies and paradoxes of life in succinct and/or heavily insightful strings of vocabulary. From the side of the written word, apart from the words of the Bible that anchor everything, I'm often drawn to C.S. Lewis, St. Augustine and a few others. From the musical side, Derek Webb has a knack for catching you unprepared with his lyrics composed of riddles and tongue-in-cheek but authentic struggles. At any rate, if you want to be challenged a bit (and be prepared for the fact that you will find plenty to make you angry), I would suggest checking out what's available from one or more of these names. And to give you a taste, here are some lyrics that have been running through my head the last couple of days.

This Too Shall Be Made Right
People love you the most for the things you hate
And hate you for loving the things you can't keep straight
People judge you on a curve
And tell you you're getting what you deserve
And this too shall be made right

Children cannot learn when children cannot eat
Stack them like lumber and children cannot sleep
Children dream of wishing wells
Whose waters quench all the fires of hell
And this too shall be made right

The earth and the sky and the sea are all holding their breath
Wars and abuses have nature groaning with death
We say we're just trying to stay alive
But it looks so much more like a way to die
And this too shall be made right

Yes there's a time for peace and there is a time for war
There's a time to forgive and a time to settle the score
A time for babies to lose their lives
A time for hunger and genocide
And this too shall be made right

Oh I don't know the suffering of people outside my front door
And I join the oppressors of those I choose to ignore
I'm trading comfort for human life
And that's not just murder, it's suicide
And this too shall be made right

(Lyrics by Derek Webb; available on the album "The Ringing Bell" by Derek Webb)