A Sacred Dance

New York

When I was growing up in the Midwest, I would sit in my backyard, surrounded by Kentucky bluegrass and English tea roses, and try to imagine the Middle East. It was the 1950s, the era of films like Cleopatra, Exodus, Ten Commandments, The Robe--all filled with pageantry. Even Agatha Christie got into the mix with Death on the Nile. My mind's preteen Middle East was filled with bazaars, bedouin camps in exotic oases, the Sinai with lots and lots of very thin, tanned men wearing loincloths, looking alot like John the Baptist. I imagined sitting in the Mount of Olives, overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem. I wanted to ride bareback through the pyramids at Giza.

In the intervening years, I studied alot of theology, including world religions not just Christianity. Now, the contemporary films lean toward a study of societal elements of the ancient civilizations ( although still pageants ) like Gladiator. Except for a little series on PBS called Walking the Bible which traces the Old and New Testament--pretty much tracing the steps or probable steps, for example, of Moses and the Israelites from Egypt through the Sinai ( looks like they didn't really part the Red Sea. They probably crossed in a different part of Egypt where there were areas one could wade to the other side ). Bruce Feiler, the writer and narrator of the documentary, demonstrates the modern Middle East, including the difficulty he experienced trying to get to places like northeastern Turkey where battling Kurds with AK47s blocked his jeep as he trekked toward the possible site of Noah's Ark.

When I sat in that backyard on Norfolk Road almost 50 years ago, I vowed to go to this exotic part of the world, trace the Judeo-Christian tradition ( didn't know the name, of course, nor the Muslim, Taoist, Hindu or Buddhist traditions. )

Today, I leave for Jerusalem. I'll arrive tomorrow morning in time for breakfast. I'm staying steps from the wall of the Old City, along the Via Dolorosa in a convent that sits on the probably spot where Pilate said " Ecce Homo" ( This is the Man ) when he presented a captured Jesus to the assembled crowd. It is minutes from the Western Wall, only remaining wall of the old temple in Jerusalem, and a short walk to the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest places in the Muslim tradition.

After two weeks traveling from the northern part of Israel ( the size of New Jersey ), I'll travel down toward the Sinai desert, Jordan to the East( I'll go to Petra ), and Egypt south across the Red Sea. I'll walk up the craggy red rocked Mount Sinai at dawn after spending a day at St. Katherine's Coptic Monastery that has housed monks since about 500AD when the escaped to the desert to avoid persecution. Over the years, they have made friends with the Muslims, helped them build a mosque near the monastery, and have coexisted peacefully. The bedoin tribe in the area serve as guides up the three hour trek to the top.

A three hour ride through the Sinai on the single road that goes south from St. Katherine's, will take me to Sharm el Sheik where I fly to Cairo early enough in the day so I should be able to see the Sphinx at sunset from the sky.

I'll let you know about the horseback ride. ( It's doubtful. I'm not ten anymore and bareback? Probably not. ) But Giza on foot for sure, then a trip down the Nile with Abu Simbel ( Ramses II waits there ) as a finale. It will make my girlhood dream come true.

Last week, I walked across the park to the Metropolitan and waited under the big clock in the lobby for the docent to begin the Egyptian tour. As Angela, who had gone to Egypt last year, unfolded the three periods of ancient Egypt beginning with around 3000 BCE, I realized that I couldn't quite absorb that length of time, or, more importantly the stunning accomplishments of this evolved people. Angela concluded the lecture, turning to me and saying:" And this superb collection that we have here in New York, Mary Catherine, is nothing...nothing like what you are about to see in the next few weeks."

I've yearned for this trip. What is it that makes up work toward a goal regardless of the obstacles? The Middle East is far from calm. The economy suggests it's probably not a great time for a major trip. I couldn't talk others into joining me on this because, I suppose of the possible danger, and, I suppose because it is not a conventional tour-type trip. ( I hate tours. )
I don't know. I've waited for many years for the "right time" to go.

I've decided this is it. I've studied maps, guide books. I've talked to people who were born in the Middle East, frequent travelers to the area. I've got shekels for the taxi fro Ben Gurion to Ecce Homo Convent. I've got a lunch date with Aziz, a friend of a friend, in Jerusalem tomorrow to discuss the daytrips in country. My veins are coursing with immunity from Hepatitis A and B, thyphoid, polio. Oh, yes, and the flu vaccine.

I found a quote I'd saved from my Camino Santiago trip across northern Spain. It's from Kurt Vonnegut ( an unlikely theologue? )

"Strange travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God."

I put the quote on the first page of my new black journal in case I forget to practice my steps along the way.

More. In four weeks upon my return.
M.C.