Passionate Nomad

So I refuse to discuss American politics on my blog ... there are enough people out there to voice their more educated opinions so that I would have nothing original to add ... however foreign politics is different......

Speaking of foreign, I just finished a biography today of Freya Stark - an incredible traveller and writer of the Middle East.

Passionate Nomad, by Jane Fletcher Geniesse, is 300+ pages of pure adventure. Freya Stark was a woman born in the late 1800's who went on to travel independently in the Middle East, beginning in the 1920's, when women simply didn't do that. She spoke multiple Arabic dialects fluently, published dozen of books on Arabic history and culture and multiple travelogues, and worked to promote democracy in Iraq and Egypt during World War II. She stated often that her one great regret was that she "was not born a beauty"; but Freya more than made up for that with her adventures of crossing uncharted desert territory with a few donkeys and Arab servants, playfully sweet talking guards into letting her through closed borders, and keeping up a constant communique of all her travels with friends and family at home. Yemen, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Afghanistan - she knew the Middle East like the back of her hand.

What was interesting to me about this book was the picture of the Middle East during the early 1900's that emerged, and the history lessons taught through Freya's travels. It was also revealing to read about Britain's decline as the world's great superpower, and how America firmly grasped that role following WWII. I really do wonder at how America so quickly forgot the occupation that gave birth to our Revolution, and now feels very little regret over instituting its own occupation of foreign lands. Maybe - just maybe - that will change. (And that's as close as I'm coming.......).

This was especially inspiring to me because her life as a traveller and writer really didn't start until she was in her late 20's - and even then, she really found her niche in her post-40 years. She was also single, except for a brief unsucessful attempt at marriage in her late 50's (The man was homosexual, so it's really no wonder it didn't work out). Of course reading it made me want to jump on a plane and run away to Jordan, or Syria or Lebanon, or at least take a look at the Egyptian pyramids, for crying out loud. My time will come...