Re: What's Normal?

["Beth Gunn" <happyhoofprints@hotmail.com>]

Maryanne,
I have been wanting to respond to your post here for days.  First, my good
whishes go out to all of us, to you and to your daughter in NY.  I read your
posts to get real input from a real person:) and fellow rider on this
delimma.  Have you read your friend, Friedman, books?  Are they printed in
English?  My husband loves reading history and now I, too, am trying to "get
educated".  Would the books be available here?
Thank you for all your input
Best Wishes and Ride Often!
Sincerely
Beth and Clann Gunn
South Carolina USA
----- Original Message -----
From: Maryanne Stroud Gabbani <maryanne@ratbusters.net>
To: Ridecamp <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Cc: Equine-L <EQUINE-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 8:17 PM
Subject: RC: What's Normal?


> My daughter had a favorite bedtime story about a lop-eared rabbit who
tried
> to work that out. The answer wasn't easy for him and it doesn't seem easy
> for anyone else. Spoke to her today and she said that there are a lot of
NYU
> students who are really happy that Columbia has co-ed dorms because they
> can't go to their own if they are below 14th St. Classes are being held by
> those professors who can get in to do them...traffic has been one way out
of
> New York for the last few days, and that's been tough on commuters. She
said
> everything is sort of "normal but not the same" and I think that's about
as
> good as it can get.  Today was the first day of her History of Islamic
> Civilisation class....one she's taking with her brother and a bunch of her
> friends of a variety of national and religious backgrounds. The professor
> said he didn't feel like lecturing but just talked with the class about
how
> they were feeling these days and so on. She and Nadim had no idea it was
> going to be so timely...just thought it would be fun and probably not too
> hard given their background. Apparently the prof is excellent and it was a
> very therapeutic experience for all of them.
>
> We spent a long time on the web today because the VP of my trucking
company
> was supposed to travel by Swissair to take his son back to Manhattan,
where
> Amr's wife works for the United Nations. He didn't want to get stranded in
> Zurich with a 9 year old but he was glad that he and Heba had decided to
let
> him have an extra week off school while she was sent to Yemen on a
project.
> While on the web I checked out the New York Times, which I subscribe to
> online and there was an excellent editorial by Thomas Friedman on the
> response of authorities to this situation. Friedman is an interesting guy
in
> that he's Jewish, studied Arabic and Middle Eastern studies and then
covered
> the Lebanese War for the NY Times. He broke the stories of the Sabra and
> Shatila massacres. Then he was transferred to the Jerusalem bureau. He
wrote
> an excellent book about that entitled, fittingly, From Beirut to
Jerusalem,
> and recently another called The Lexus and The Olive Tree about the changes
> in the world since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Much of what he talks
about
> is the power of the internet to bring people together for good and/or for
> evil and how this is changing our world. Five years ago Egypt didn't have
> internet and the FEI wouldn't have had the crazy lady from Cairo bugging
> them and we wouldn't have had all these discussions. I can't help but feel
> that on the whole they've been good for all of us. I needed to be able to
> talk about my worries for my children and friends in New York and many of
> you needed to talk about your anger and fears as well. I can't help it,
once
> a social psychologist, always a social psychologist, as my family always
> said.
>
> No matter what we do there are going to be evil people among us. All we
can
> do is to try to see them and thwart them. There are also going to be
> ignorant and foolish people...those we can try to educate, though it may
not
> always work. The times ahead are going to be very difficult for the people
> who are trying to round up this diverse band of fanatics, many of whom
were
> trained by good trainers from the US to fight in the Russia/Afghan war.
What
> a shame that the training should be turned on the trainers.
>
> I'm going to follow this but I have nothing more to say. I found that I
love
> endurance as much for the learning involved as for the riding. Lord knows,
I
> do little enough of that these days but I've promised to help some of my
> friends with the things I learned at the Pan Ams. I want to thank so many
> people who have been caring and supportive. It's been horrendous to have
my
> daughter so far away for the first time and hear her cry because she's
> frightened, but not be able to go to her. One thing that I'm sorry my
> husband never had a chance to learn is how you can have friends all over
the
> world that you've never even seen.
>
> Now I am going to bed with a hot whiskey and lemon and the Dalai Lama's
new
> book like a good Irish Muslim and try to shake this cold so I can ride my
> horses.
>
> Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
> Cairo, Egypt
> maryanne@ratbusters.net
> www.ratbusters.net
>
>
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