my usual post-travel game started yesterday, the monthaversary of my arrival in syria. i come to work, start up my computer, look at my calendar and notice the date. then i think: "where was i one month ago today?" and then i reflect just how long ago and far away that memory seems now.
so this morning when i saw october 12th i thought about how on the morning of september 12th me and this swiss guy woke up early to go to the syrian interior ministry to get our permit to go to quneitra.
which is why this article seems especially freaky to me this morning. i realize this one month ago thing is a little arbitrary. there seems to be a relation between today and thirty days ago, when really it's just an accident of our calendar. it's also just another example of my ego-driven existence. how everything i read somehow someway has to relate to me, even when it really doesn't. this guy's suicide or alleged suicide has absolutely nothing to do with my visit to his office last month (it didn't! really!. i didn't even enter the office--some guy from the ministry met us in the booth on the street outside and issued our permit from there).
i know all that. but it's still freaky.
