The heart

My colleague H. is a talented tour guide. He was talking about his favorite places to take visitors. Highest on the list is Jerusalem. He told me, "Jerusalem is the heart--all the pain, all the love, all the beauty, all the loss. Jerusalem is a story." I'm not sure how this sounds without hearing him actually say it with all of the emotion in his voice. It was a particularly wrenching thing to say because H. is Palestinian and hasn't been able to get a permit to come to Jerusalem since 2004. But it's been lovely to hear him talk about the many layers of stories and the deep connection he has to the land and the history here.