ol7

there are people you meet who you know are on solid ground. you can see it in their posture, in the calm of their shoulders, the ease of their expression. they're not worried about tomorrow, or afraid of leaving; they have somewhere to go, something to lean on. some of us are born on mountains, …

oc5

a lot of people seem to think that honoring a relationship means upholding the principles of monogamy, and in the event you make a mistake, slip up, cheat, it is your moral duty to inform your partner, and absolve yourself (given of course that it was just a one-time thing). but what about those couples …

ol6

we were never together, but we had each other, the way one has a tattoo; under the skin, painful at the outset, painful to remove, but satisfying, cool, complementary, could be permanent. all of a sudden he was always around, his boxers were in my apartment, he was asking me about lunch, inviting people over, calling me nicknames. then he was gone before he'd left.

ol5

there are two ways to lose people: by hurting them, or by being hurt.

oc3

the post-blast period has been a weird one for every lebanese person, even the diaspora ones with a less-than-mild attachment to the motherland. for the first few weeks after it happened, i had friends texting and calling me from all over the world, people i haven't spoken to months or years, some people i haven't …

ol4

the 'l' in 'ol4' stands for lebanon today. imagine you and your siblings inherit a house. a biig, beautiful, ancient house, five stories high, made of stone and rounded with balconies, with a red brick roof and garden all around. you and your siblings move in with your families and all your things. you live …

ol3

first time. in december, i left my lover in canada and flew to a sunny place for the winter. for the six years preceding, we hadn't been apart for more than a month or two at a time, and what is 'apart' in an era with smartphones and wifi? we hadn't ever actually truly been …

ol2

some say the greeks had 8 words for love. some say they had 7, others 4, still others 6. but the underlying idea is that these emotions were identified as being distinct from one another, rather than permutations of the one. but the ancient greeks were pagans, and just as love was separated into several entities, so was god himself.

oa1

we're reading a book this week by hebdige on subcultures in the 50s and 60s, mostly 'punk' or some derivative of it, and how they used style to make a statement. there are rastafarians, teddy boys, mods and rockers, beats, skinheads and punks, all using style as a form of resistance, using the potentials of …

ol1

the first time i fell in love, i was four, and it was with a boy named zeus. he was my cousin, and i knew we were meant to be because both our names started with the letter 'z'. zara and zeus. zaraandzeus. we were almost one name, one person - but he was - bad.. he was …