My Gift

On the recent trip to Jordan we carved off two days in the Wadi Rum (last time it was about 18 hours total because of a travel snafu caused by flooding in Petra), and this proved to be a wonderful decision.  Trust me, there will be a ton of posts about the Wadi Rum in the coming days.  Let me just start off with an event that occurred as we were leaving.  We were having breakfast before grabbing jeeps to head out and make our way to Shobak Castle and then Petra.  The head of the Bedouin camp where we stayed pulled me aside and said, "I have a gift for you."  Now, Jordanians, and especially Bedouins, are famously hospitable and generous, so I wasn't totally surprised, but expected it to be a bottle of wine (which we received from the other Bedouin camp where we stayed three years ago) or maybe a keffiyeh.  Instead, he slipped off his coat and gave it to me.  Yes, he literally gave me the coat off his back.  I was stunned, and, truthfully, was doing my best to not cry in front of everyone (not that I would have minded that much).  It is wonderfully threadbare from years in the Wadi Rum, and who could ask for more than that?

I've brought home a lot of things over the years, some material and some immaterial, but it's difficult to imagine that I will cherish one more than this coat, because it is both material and immaterial/transcendent.  I can't look at it without thinking about the incredible kindness of the Jordanians, but also of my favorite place.  I will be back, although not nearly soon enough.