Memory matters. What we cannot remember we cannot possibly repair and what we cannot repair we are bound to repeat, again and again.
This stunning passage was posted this week by Elif Shafak in “We are the Memory Tribe“, which begins by talking about writers being “professional rememberers”, a “memory tribe”. She then moves on to how we relate to memories, including this passage about the country of her origin, Turkey:
Our entire relationship with the past is full of ruptures and laced with holes. The history of the Ottoman Empire—of any empire—changes dramatically depending on who is telling the story and who is not allowed to speak.
At this time, I cannot help but be drawn to the situation in Israel and Gaza and draw parallels with the passage above, and then that feeling grows even stronger with the closing passage, once again:
Memory matters. What we cannot remember we cannot possibly repair and what we cannot repair we are bound to repeat, again and again.
The history of the Levant is complex and dates back thousands of years. Whilst powers outside the region look to dictate the future there, they cannot have the memories of the people of the region, forgotten and remembered. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb pithily and concisely put it just two weeks ago:
We the Lebanese are fed up with proxy wars. Proxy wars never end because the players don’t have skin in the game.
I wish for the people of the region to remember their past, learn from it, and, as we all hope, repair what is damaged and broken, rather than keep repeating.