Abstractions of François al-Hajj

There are bombings of some capacity everyday - somewhere in the world, someone is disgruntled enough (or the pawn of those that are) to manifest it through extreme violence.. and apparently it is pretty easy to create and deploy an exploding device that can do a fair bit of damage.

However, the psychology of such folks, the societal conditions surrounding such events, and other such heavy subjects are things that I will not get into right now. Still, a front-page article in the NYTimes today about a bombing in Lebanon has me mentioning this topic to you:

General Killed in Bomb Attack in Lebanon
By Nada Bakri and Graham Bowley
Published: December 13, 2007

Again, I will leave the real analysis and discussion for later (and, perhaps, to folks more learned than I), and so will stick to the superficial. The target of the bombing - and main victim (there were several) - was a senior Lebanese Army officer; his name was François al-Hajj. I know nothing about the man, his politics, or his military record (besides what I gleaned from the article above); but I know he had a badass name.

Please excuse the flippancensical attitude that would allow me to focus my attention on the poetic appeal of the victim's name, while disregarding the whole terrible circumstances surrounding his death. To that, I will just say that it is an odd world that we live in, and the human mind - similarly strange - makes such abstractions so possible, and, further, so accessible.

This leaves us to meditate on the syllableistic pleasure intrinsic in the words - again, nevermind the man for now: François al-Hajj

Right off the bat, the exotic sounds roll of my tongue like a fancy magical spell (eye of newt!); in full, it is an invocation to conjure up (romantic visions of) faraway lands and times that may-or-may-not have actually existed in reality. No matter, no matter, of course; we are more interested in fodder for the imagination; and I am surely inspired to dream, to dream and write. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, close your eyes and chant "François al-Hajj" (pause) "François al-Hajj"; there is no other. And, in doing so, indulge in the fantastical episodes that unfold before you.