Be careful with my baby girl

I wrote this in 2012 at the time just following the revolution when we had very high hopes that have now turned into a lot of doubts and disappointments. I guess not publishing it then shows that these doubts have always been there even when hopes were high.
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"Careful please. Do not hurt my baby girl," I can hear her scream. Do not pull too hard for I want my baby to be as perfect as I imagined it to always be. I know she will be a baby girl. She will be beautiful with a smile that is just as big as the collective smiles of 85 Million Egyptians. She will be smart and caring, powerful and daring.

This baby has been long in the womb; more than 3000 years. Not an easy pregnancy by any measure. The mother has been abused, hurt, humiliated, by enemies and even more by those who claimed to be her kids. So many times I thought, it is time for the precious baby to come out, to later discover, it was just signs of false labor.

This time it seems real. Painful more than usual, but it just feels different. I feel the baby is really ready to come to the world? I am eager to see my baby, but anxious, so please be careful. This baby has to come out in as perfect a shape as I imagined her to be. Please protects her from those waiting to wipe out her beautiful smile, to scare my precious beautiful dream away. Please make sure she remains innocent and pure free of your greed and imperfections and of your division and opportunism. Take care of my baby 'Democracy' and when she grows up she will take care of all of us."

Getting Older, but not Old

Meeting old friends after a period of absence of communication, can be both exciting and eye opening. Last week, I ran into one of those old friends and the first thought that transpired was: we definitely look older. As we chatted and recalled the old days and joked, I started to think that we maybe are getting older but definitely we are not old. Some grey is starting to show, but the high school years are still fresh in my memory as if they just happened yesterday not more than 25 years ago. This reminded me of few years ago when were in our home in Egypt and the door bell rang. I opened the door to see an older man in his late sixties. He asked for my dad and when my dad came to greet the man, I was amazed at what I saw. The two men screamed away 50 years of their age. They were the two teenage friends, they once were; happy to have met after these long years and reminiscing about these beautiful years. It was a moment I am glad to have witnessed and has now been reaffirmed by my own experience. So I guess one advice I have to self is to make sure to find and visit with friends from these old young days. Keep it simple, it does not matter where we are now, but where our young hearts have been in the old days. These will hopefully be boosters to stay always "young at heart'