We’ve been feeling too many emotions. Many, many emotions. When I say “we,” I’m not just referring solely to myself, my inner circle, or my community. I mean every individual, spanning across every generation, every culture, and every background, who has borne witness to the events unfolding in Palestine over the past six months. The emotion runs deep because it seems as though we’re collectively experiencing it, as if our hearts have synchronized to resonate with each other’s feelings. It’s more than grief, more than outrage, and more than pain. It’s an emotion deeply ingrained within us, existing long before we could even articulate it. It’s an all-encompassing sense of disillusionment that permeates our being. In his recent Saturday Night Live monologue, Egyptian-American comedian Ramy Youssef distilled the weight of our collective emotions into a single, powerful line: “I’m out of ideas, all I have are prayers.” Prayers, in this context, mean more than just religious rituals. It’s not the prayers we’ve been taught to perform or the ones we turn to in difficult moments. It’s not about seeking guidance when we’re lost or confused. Instead, prayer, in this…
