Lebanon, My Lebanon

Just a little piece that started me thinking in the first two paragraphs, the more you think we are different, the more you know we are the same:

There are not too many addresses in Lebanon, in the precise, ZIP Code sense of the United States; they tend to be anecdotal, albeit spoken with authority. Such were the directions to Jdeidet, Marjayoun, a small Christian village tucked in a rugged corner of Lebanon, nestled between the improbable borders of Syria and Israel.

Go right at the larger-than-life portrait of Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of the Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah, I was told by my friend Hikmat Farha. At the picture of Musa Sadr, an iconic Shiite leader, turn left, he said. Then pass the posters -- and there are many -- of Shiite militiamen killed while fighting Israel. A checkpoint, Hikmat said, and from there you enter the stretch of Lebanon once occupied by Israel.

I had very similar directions trying to get to Chilahowie, Missour. Except, of course, the signs did not include "martyrs" and political leaders (well, all except the old Kerry is a poodle sign put up by the NRA last election and never taken down)

However, the rest of the story is a great read as well.

Lebanon, My Lebanon