When I arrived back to my apartment late on Tuesday night, the eleventh anniversary of September 11, 2001, I opened my laptop to find a burning, bright orange image of a man stoking fire and a New York Times headline reading, “Anger Over a Film Fuels Anti-American Attacks in Libya and Egypt.” As I read …
My commentary in The Indianapolis Star
I was invited to write the following commentary for The Indianapolis Star's Faith Forum column on Saturday, August 11, 2012. The positive feedback has been tremendous; I've already been told that it was discussed at length at a local Quaker meeting, and a professor at the Christian Theological Seminary in Indy will use it as required …
Midnight in Jerusalem (“Peeling Oranges” Series)
Jerusalem: Good Friday, and the first day of Passover. Just before midnight, beneath a full moon and the shadow of the Western Wall, pigeons and crumpled prayers snuggle between cracks in bricks. I sit nearly alone in the women’s section, except for a few Jewish ladies whose covered heads rest against the wall, their eyes …
Continue reading "Midnight in Jerusalem (“Peeling Oranges” Series)"
The Garden (“Peeling Oranges” Series)
One cold morning, I wait for the American neighbors next door, who share a cab with me to school. A smoky mist rises up from their host mother’s garden, the night’s frost melting and crystalizing again in the air. It curls around laundry polls and hovers above the lemon trees, full of pocked yellow bulbs …
Peeling Oranges
During my time in Jordan, I’ve taken many photographs, images that, when I look back at them years from now, will bring back the feelings I felt in those places and with those people. When I look at this picture, for example, I’ll remember sitting in the cold, purple sand in Wadi Rum at sunset. …
JORDAN DENARI DUFFNER 