I read the Ten Pillars of Wisdom years ago. It is from that book that I take one of my favorite quotes:

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.

I once visited Wadi Rum and Aqaba while living in Israel in 1997…or maybe it was 98. I went to Jordan to see Petra, which was in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Wadi Rum was far more impressive although it was semi-accidental that I went.

Lawrence of Arabia is a very long movie, split into two parts by an official intermission. I saw the first half years ago in Wadi Musa at the Petra Hostel, where I am sure they still show it nightly.

The second half I watched for the first time tonight. It is one of the most amazing stories I could ever conceive: that a man could lead an entire race of people, to which he didn’t belong, through sheer strength of will for no other reason than to feed an ego that he feared and a belief in himself that threatened always to swallow him up. And yet you knew his love of Arabia was real at the same time.

It is a similar story to that of Kurtz in the Heart of Darkness, yet not so allegorical. The story of T. E. Lawrence is true. Crazy.

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