“Do not say you stole this horse,” the amir said.
The amir called loudly, “Stop and the horse is yours.” The man stopped and returned, knowing that the amir would never go back on his word. The amir dismounted to help him, and as soon as the crook was seated in the saddle, he took off at a gallop. The amir stopped to inquire why, and the crook replied he was very sick and needed a doctor, and he was too sick to climb up on the horse. When the amir approached, the crook began to cry and wail. The crook waited by the side of the road where the amir and the wonderful horse passed each day. One day a crook came to one of the envious amirs and offered, for a price, to steal the horse. Selling the horse, he said, would be like selling a member of his family. Other amirs were envious and tried to buy the horse, but the owner always refused. Once there was an amir who owned a horse so strong and beautiful that it was known all over the land. When Jiddu told my father this story, he prefaced it by saying his father had told it to him and he must never forget it, and that is how he told it to me. After that, he said that was the last one. We continued over several years, a story here and a story there, until there were 24. This enriched my painting, and it also allowed a special intimacy during those conversations. They were not long, and with each one he added a bit more detail. Many times I would go to my parents’ home in Alexandria, Virginia, and I would sit at the kitchen table while my father showed me a new story he was working on. About an hour later, my father agreed, reluctantly, to write down his stories. In 1946, he was 19 years old when my grandparents brought him with them to the us.Īt first, he refused my request, explaining that these were private family stories. Born in 1927 in Damascus, he moved to Beirut, Lebanon, in 1933, though he returned often to Damascus to visit family. The gallery loved the idea, but then I had to ask my father for his approval.
MY FATHERS WORLD KINGDOM TALES SERIES
I told the gallery I envisioned a series of paintings, each based on one of his stories, inspired stylistically by Jacob Lawrence’s famous series, “The Migration of the Negro.” During the conversation I mentioned the possibility of a show centered around my father’s true stories and, ultimately, his arrival in the us. It focuses on learning the geography, the cultures, the habitats and animals of different countries, as well as the religious climate of the countries and what the attitudes are toward Christianity. I pray that it will open our eyes and show us how fortunate we really are to live in our own country which is so rich in everything and where we have so many freedoms.A few weeks later, the Gallery Al-Quds in Washington, D.C., asked me to consider developing work for a solo exhibition.
We are doing MFW Exploring Countries and Cultures, which is more than just a geography/social studies curriculum, but is designed to also give children an understanding of the prayer needs of people in other countries who live very differently than we do.
It will be the first year I've had to report to the school district for Sweet Potato, who is now 8 years old. I am very excited about the new school year. If we squish some things (for example, doing two states per day instead of one) we should be able to get finished just in time to start the new year! We are trying to wrap up for the end of the year. We often randomly take a week or more off at a time because of appointments, holidays, weather, etc. Our school year has been very.scattered, I guess you could say.
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