Our last night in Lebanon was upon us. I couldn't believe we were ending now. Just the day before, we had met new friends in Sidon the city where Jesus had set foot. I hardly knew how to process it all. The family, the places, our history.

The only question asked repeatedly was why we had waited so long to come. I couldn't really come up with a good answer. It is the other side of the world. It is dangerous. What if war breaks out? Now I realized, until you come here it is impossible to know the web of joy that connects threads of unspoken violence. "It's always targeted," someone whispers reassuringly.

The Lebanese live like no others. They have a joie de vivre I have never known, maybe because the future is uncertain. They dismiss yesterday's violence with a wave of the hand--khallas, it is finished, followed by yallah, let's go already.