Same moon

“Good evening. It’s a nice night...the moon is so bright and it’s lighting the whole city”, is the message I got by my new Facebook friend from Gaza.

I responded that in Canada where I was, it was the afternoon and the sun was bright and shining.

As we had just recently met online via mutual friends and through a thread of comments that followed a status pertaining to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, he just assumed I was in Israel.

He responded: “Well, at least we have the same moon.”

As our conversation continued, he proceeded to ask me if there was a lot of snow and then telling me he’s never experienced it and only saw in on the television screen. From that followed more talks of limitations being in Gaza, then a little politics with a quick summary of how things developed in the last few years from a Gazan’s perspective.

His English is not perfect but for the complexity of our conversation, he wrote eloquently and passionately. He also seemed quite mature; my new Facebook friend from Gaza who is only 22 years of age and studying Mechatronics engineering.  (Um, what? I never even heard of that field before!)

He ended the talk on politics and said: “I am happy that you listen to me, you don’t have to believe all that I say, but just don’t believe everything from media or Facebook.”

I tried to comfort him with a few words of reassurance about a hopeful future and to remain optimistic and he responded with: “That’s what makes me still alive”.

Although it was still day time in Canada, I looked out the window and happen to see the moon in the beautiful clear, blue sky. I went straight to my chat conversation with my friend from Gaza and told him that I can also see the moon, and I wrote: “We share that view of the moon right now.”

He responded: “Happy to know such a person.  

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