From Melanie: Sometimes I forget Houda’s history. We talk day-to-day about college and Ibrahim and politics, and I forget what she knows about the world that I do not. Sometimes a conversation reminds me, and the bottom drops out of the day-to-day. I’m left with the word unimaginable. Returning to the true essence of that word–not it’s casual usage, but a deep, heartbreaking, terrifying awareness of what Houda and her family know about the world that is beyond my capacity to comprehend.
Our imagination is bounded by our experience. The more we read, the more we listen to the stories of others, the greater our imaginative capacity. But we cannot fool ourselves into thinking we know what we would do in extremes we have not experienced. Our imagination will always fall short.
We have two versions of this week’s episode: the 4-minute version edited for airing on KXCI, and the longer conversation.
هدى/Houda: من سمع ليس كمن رأى
Melanie/ميلاني: Do not judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes.
Listen Now
Extended Recording (8 minutes)
Radio Edit (4 minutes)
Houda’s Family’s Home in Aleppo
This video is of the intersection next to Houda’s family’s home in Aleppo. The end of the video focuses on the balcony mentioned in the extended recording above.
