Doors

 

 

eb ew alef: ba 

ew eb: bab 

bab is door.

 

Do you know that the greek god Janus is the god of beginnings and endings. A door joins two sides, which makes the door both a beginning and an end. Janus is the god of doors.

 

Do you also know that some scholars think that the word January comes from the word Janus? I was born in January. And I feel like I’m always standing at the threshold, looking inside and outside. 

 

In the desert, everything is yellow and flat except for the door frame, that is placed in the middle of the clearing. It opens to the other side of the desert, which is the same as before.

 

My aunt always said that sitting on the threshold brings bad luck. But my mom never liked my aunt, and so we spent our summer nights lying on the threshold, our heads covering my mom lap. Usually, the radio would be on and Oum Kalthoum would sing in the background her melancholy tune.

 

At the entrance of the house, my grandfather died. On the next moon, my nephew arrived. 

 

There are many types of doors. The one I love the most is the wooden arched doors; with a colored glass in the upper part. Like the one that opens to the stone house in Carmel street in Haifa or the doors store in Jaffa (next to Al-A’jami). I hate the turnstile doors because they remind me of checkpoints. Especially Qalandia.
Do you know that if you pronounce bab backwards it is still pronounced bab, so the end and the beginning are the same.