I think it was that awful explosion in 2020 that made Beirut real for me. Prior to that it had just been a place I heard about on the news when I was a teenager, and then silent. But the pictures after the explosion, and everything we learned about how it happened, suddenly made it a real, living place.

And now it's being deliberately bombed. Again. It's really heartbreaking.

The heartbreak the background hum of our lives, just as persistent as the hum of the terror drones flying over Beirut, whose sound I hear in every voice recording that they send me.

But you know what is more persistent? Our will to live. We live through, around, and despite the heartbreak, with tenderness and love.

I'm reminded of a poem by Rafeef Ziadah, she wrote it more than 14 years ago, during another Israeli invasion of Gaza.

"We teach life, sir"

I hope that we manage to persist in our tenderness after this nightmare is over.

- YouTube

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(www.youtube.com)

Adjacent to the struck building, there's a gorgeous heritage building with an unobstructed view to the Mediterranean, looking over the Ayn elMrayseh old mosque. Perfect location.

Since the early 2010s, there has been an ongoing epic battle between the urbanists and heritage activists vs the owner of the building. He wants to demolish to build a massive high rise in its place. He managed to evict the old tenants, drill a massive hole in the floor of two of the floors to render it uninhabitable. But the activists got a court injunction to stop the demolition, and the developer was forced to build external scaffolding to prevent additional structural damage.

Well, after today's strike, the videos show that the building is still standing perfectly. I'm sure that the owner would have loved for the strike to demolish it too, but alas, that's not how fate works.

#urbanism