MESSENGERS FROM THE FUTURE

In any culture superstition plays a significant role in the behavior of individuals. The fortune tellers, astrologists, palm readers, coffee cup readers, and voodoo performers are thriving professions even in our current nowadays technologically advanced societies. Opening an umbrella inside a house is a bad luck, walking under a ladder is not a good sign, having a black cat crossing your path is considered a very bad luck, breaking a mirror is a seven year jinx, stepping on a crack on the road may cause the death to your mother, and the list of superstitions goes on and on.  I recall when I was a young lad that whistling inside the house, especially near the wheat clay containers, caused my mother to panic and slap my hands.  She told me the whistling would disturb demons and genies.  Since that time I only whistle out in the open whenever I have the urge to bother demons and mischievous souls.  Many societies are advancing to the point they manufacture everything from the needles to the cell phones that are placed as satellites in orbits around the Earth. These societies value human beings as individuals and as a collective unit because their motto is “the whole is much better than the parts.”  Unfortunately, Middle Eastern rulers suppressed the inventions and allow only the mediocre individuals to be in charge of issuing religious decrees from the left and right.  They are trapped in time to the point of their mental ability to excel is disabled, perhaps for the last a few centuries.  The only scientific achievement by these scholars is the search for designs that resembles Arabic letters on watermelon seeds and hides, deformed tomatos, and chaotically overgrown potatos. Sometimes I am really amused by the explanations of things reported by these scholars. For example, seeing a bee landing on top of a frog head is explained by the might of god that directed this bee to the frog. The common street man is fed up with these ruling and perhaps stopped believing in these self-appointed legislators who do nothing but warn people to either follow the rules or face a calamity that turns the human race into nothing. The probability of having these self-appointed legislators to be messengers predicting the future is one in a quadrillion.

Human race judges many creatures as being the messengers of bad luck.  For example, a crow flaying overhead a person and cawing is a message of bad news about to happen. Snakes, even though I hate them, are considered no good creatures most likely due to religious reasons.  The list of animals and plants that bring bad news is too long.  None of these stereotypes predict the grief of parents for the death of a child. Parents supposed to be perished before their children do. The death of a child is the most devastating thing a parent may encounter. It brings sorrow, sadness where condolences do not seem to have any effect on parents.  I imagine a grieving mother or father would have the feeling of being dead in spite of signs of being a living entity.  Every time I watch on the broadcast a Syrian father carrying the corpse of his child and walking to bury it, I hold and clench on to my only granddaughter (Riannah) as if I am protecting her from bad things from happening.  I also scan the sky to make sure no crows are flying overhead.

On one occasion I told Riannah, “one day I will take you to Palestine.”  She said “what’s that.”  It is obvious that I need to keep lecturing about Palestine so it will continue to live in our hearts because I am afraid the messengers of the future will overlook Palestine and the descendants of Palestinians in diaspora.  Another reason why I need to keep lecturing about Palestine, so it can live inside us until the end of time, is because others appear to have forgotten it. For some painful reason, I keep an eye on the number of Muslim pilgrims traveling to perform their ritual in Mecca and its surrounding.  It does not seem to me that these pilgrims are aware that a trip to the Dome of the Rock is highly recommended to complete the ritual.  Highly recommended means it is almost required in Islam. Millions upon millions of pilgrims go to Mecca for their rituals every year and none of them appears to realize the importance of the Dome of the Rock in the odyssey of Islam.  Cutting the trip to the Dome of the Rock is a huge abyss in Muslim faith. Places of significance to the Muslims fate in Palestine are long forgetting in just one or two generations.  Young fellows do not even know where Jerusalem is located.  I quizzed many of these young people about the location of the dome of the rock.  95% of them thought it was located in Saudi Arabia.  A few people thought it was a title for a song. When I heard this, I put my head between my hands and lowered it until my forehead touched my desk.  At that point I realized I have part of me buried in Palestine and part of Palestine is still living in me.  This appears to be the only comfort that keeps me paddling.

In general, there are two occasions when people plan on visiting financial planners.  The first occasion is when parents start thinking of saving to afford the education of their children and the second occasion is when someone start saving for retirement.  I am one of those people who are meticulous about how to deal with financial issues partly because I grew up in a poor family and we appreciate the monetary values.  The thing that strikes me the most about visiting financial planners is that all of them toss the following question right at the middle of our faces: “How long are you going to live?”  Every time I hear this question I look into their eyes to see deep into their souls and I always conclude that these financial planners could not, will not, and are not messengers from the future. As absurd as this question sounds, I always give the following answer:  “I think I am going to live 94 years.” Most of their reaction is “wow.”  Then I go through the history of my ancestors to justify my answer.  I start talking about my grandfather who was so old his skin changed color several times.  He died at age of 112 years or perhaps older.  He was a soldier in Ottoman Empire army.  He was sent to fight in Yemen in World War I.  He escaped from the army and walked back from Yemen to Palestine on foot. He continued to work at age of 90 or so harvesting the land and living on raisins and dried figs. My father was a shepherd walking several miles a day tending his flocks and died at age of at least 100.  My mother died at an age of 91 years old.  I would continue to talk about the age of my siblings, but the financial planners always interrupted me by saying “that is good enough. We believe that your life expectancy is 94.”  Somehow 94 years always misses up their calculations and I end up having more virtual money than what I may spend at the age of 94.

At the end of the discussion, several financial planners I dealt with would ask “did your grandfather really live 112 years?” My answer was always “Oh, yes.” Then I follow up with my story about my problem getting a passport from Jordan so I can travel outside the country.  When I tried to apply for a passport, the officer asked me to bring any document to show that I was a resident of and I have roots in the West Bank (which is the part of Palestine that was under Jordanian occupation between 1948 – 1967).  I sent a message to my Family in Bani Naim to send me any documentation to prove that I really existed in that part of the world. My grandfather was still alive at that time and my mother convinced him to borrow his Ottoman Empire passport.  I took my grandfather passport as an evidence to prove my point to the passport office.  I actually talked to the same officer who sent me away the first time.  He did not believe me and refused to issue a passport to me. At the end I bribed a third party to get me a passport.  With only a $30 bribe, I was able to receive a passport in less than 24 hours and without the need to my grandfather passport.

Messages about the future of the Middle East countries and their tyrants were floating around for a while thanks to the Twitters and Facebook. The prediction of the future was very clear according to the old proverb “who lives by the sword will die by the sword.”  This type of proverbs is based on repeated historical incidents and the probability of them to fail is almost zero.  The issues that are not clear about what is called nowadays as the “Arab Spring” are not quite predicted yet. No palm readers, gypsy fortune tellers, or astrologists can tell as at this time where the “Arab Spring” is heading to. This term is even ambiguous since many people do not believe the events lead to the downfall of a few tyrants is really an “Arab Spring.”  All the messages from the future that I can read is that this  period of silence in which I am hoping to see a real move toward the revival of the Arab Nation are scrambled. It would have been really weird if this “Arab Spring” does not move in the direction that was meant to be.  I am really afraid from the idea that people are really fighting to fill in their bellies and sense what is like not to be starving.  Once the bellies are full, the desire to seek integrity for a nation will be evanesced rapidly. Our despair continues as the Arab revolutions entering a gray period full of bickering and accusations and it appears to be hijacked by opportunists worse than the deposed tyrants.

On one spring night I woke up by a very mysterious low frequency vibration.  I laid down in bed for a few minutes to figure out whether I was dreaming or not. I kept hearing a hooting sound. I came outside and the moon was full and blue.  After I inspected the source of the sound, I observed a great horned owl sitting at the top of the house. It flew away and I came back inside the house thinking about that beautiful owl.  A few minutes later the smoke alarm start sounding the most annoying buzz.  There was no smoke in the house, no fire, and everything appears to be normal.  The events of the owl and the smoke alarm may have been a coincident. Many cultures think of the owls as bad luck birds.  In the contrary, other cultures associate them with wisdom.  To me, I love these beautiful birds and they are as mysterious as the skin-walkers and shape-shifters.  They are perhaps one of the true messengers from the future.  These owls are not the only creatures that have senses beyond the sensory of human race.  Recently, scientists discovered that elephants communicate by using infra-sound with frequency less than 20 Hz.  Sounds with this frequency may travel long distances.  Birds and other animals, such as cows and horses, can sense the low frequency vibration from earthquakes way long before humans can realize the devastation of these natural disasters.

While the sensors of human race are quite limited, we have the ability to predict the future and invent instruments to complement our deficits.  We are perhaps the true messengers from the future. We know our past, present, and predict the trajectory of the future.  Our mind is perpetually working and planning while we are awake and in our dreams while asleep.  Our DNA is programmed with switches no other creatures possess even though I am perplexed of why many men are ridiculed during their life time, but honored and respected after their death. Occasionally, I have the desire to carry with me a lucky charm to comfort and put me at ease.  Other occasions I forced myself to disown my past so I can tolerate the idea of living tomorrow.

Omar Manasreh
30 May 2013