The Bullet Collection by Patricia Sarrafian Ward cannot be put down. I have been devouring it for lack of a better word. All those who grew up during the civil war in Lebanon would love this book. I was at least 25 when the war broke out so I had had my childhood, good, bad or indifferent. Discovering how it was for the generation of Ms. Ward makes me appreciate the good, the bad and the ugly of mine. We were very lucky to have been growing up in between two wars, the end of WW2 and the Lebanese civil war. But to live through it while growing up and to write a book about it on the other side is heroic. Amazon.com only has used copies of this book but get it.
Those Lebanese!
I also devoured Hourig's paper submitted for her doctorate degree in education. She had shared parts of it with me throughout the years and I had given her the degree based on bits and pieces of her beautiful writing. This completed version is a tour de force unimaginable and unique. She has done a magnificent job, painfully, painstakingly, slowly but surely. We thought it will never end, and in fact, it hasn't. It has the ability to make a difference within and without. It is her unique approach both in writing and researching that makes it original.
I have been reading her paper since the day following her defense, in Montreal. Profoundly moved by the whole experience, I cut my trip short and returned home with a lot to think about.
As if on cue, Khajag and his son Vassag landed in New Jersey two days later from Toronto and took me out, out, out, out, way out there in a place where it was easier to think.
Words are not enough to express my utter amazement at how Dr. HA has made the journey, the journey of a hyphenated identity, a Lebanese-Armenian-Canadian-Woman identity journey.
Those Canadians!
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