The last time we were in Egypt was shortly after the Arab Spring, and there was a feeling of hope and dread. This time, hopelessness, of a kind that I feel I see again and again, wherever I go in the world. The mood of this age, a season of ashes.
We went for dinner with the Boddhisattva and her friend, a pair of westerners. They are doing the sort of thing which typically causes a red fog to rise before my eyes: they have enrolled their children into a ‘world school’ (or similar), in which families move around between different parts of the world, while their children have a glorious unschooled schooling. I find objectionable the withdrawal from society and one’s responsibility to others, but also the easy mobility, of delighting in children learning in Egypt or Guatemala (the next stop) when actual Egyptian children or Guatemalan children could not ever go to their western country to do the same. Such entitlement, and worsened by the contempt that he, at least, felt for this country and its people, and disregard for the trauma of seeing your currency tumble in value by the day and the tourists disappear because of pestilence and war.
The owner of the restaurant, an older Nubian man, was full of despair, wondering what the future was for his grandchildren.
The westerner remained contemptuous, clearly assuming this was a play for money. He told us instead of his move from high-earning investment banking to coaching (a natural career progression these days), and spoke in particular of the wonders of doing ‘constellation work with horses’. This mystified me as I have no familiarity or interest in the coaching world, but I later learned that constellation work is a sort of roleplaying where you designate people in the group to be (for example) your father and mother, and then role play conversations with them. Constellation work with horses is similar, except you designate horses, and since horses can tune in to your spirit, it is very rewarding. (Of course, I assume constellation work is done with leaders, and leaders are attuned to horses so it all makes sense).
The GF and I giggled great deal about it afterwards.