Penance
July 19, 2006
I owe a dear friend an apology. I offered up certain details of his life on this here site, and it was not my place to do so. It does not matter that the fact that they were details about HIS life was merely incidental to my making a point about MY life. It does not matter that any of the opinions or thoughts I offered here about his life were all things I�d already said or would have said to him in person. Just because we are completely open with each other, and just because he is actually a fairly open person in general, does not make it okay for ME to be open with HIS life.
So, even though you probably won�t see this since you wisely decided to stop reading this blog after�in a moment of weakness, vanity, and stupidity�I did what I vowed I�d never do, i.e., give the link for this diary to friends of mine here in Cairo, I want to apologize to you, PG. I know you know that I never said any of the things I said out of disrespect for you, but somehow that�s exactly what ended up happening. I did not respect your privacy. If you had done the same to me, I�d be fuming. And yet, somehow, a few minutes after expressing your displeasure at what you saw on this site YOU were the one making jokes, trying to make ME feel better about what I consider to be a serious friendship faux pas.
Which�since maybe I�ve never made clear here the many things I love about you�is just one of the things I love and admire about you. Your good humor, your kindness, and your easy-going nature. So, thanks bro, for being so cool about this. And again, I�m truly sorry for being so careless. {Delete offending entries. Learn Lesson.}
In other news�Lebanon. This past weekend I went with my family to the beach for 3 days, and we spent most of that time glued to the TV, watching the news. Last night, my brother�who is in New York for the summer�called to tell us that one of his friends had been killed in Lebanon, when the building he was in was hit and subsequently collapsed on him and his family. Two other friends of his�American citizens of Lebanese origin�are trapped in the country with little hope of getting out any time soon.
So, please�don�t ask me to be objective about this, and don't ask me to believe that anyone in anyway invested or interested in what's going on in Lebanon right now can be objective either. And don't ask me to think of this in political terms. Who did what wrong. Who made what strategic mistake. Who is the real, the bigger asshole.
Because right now, in my opinion, we�re all assholes.