Walk Like An Egyptian

I'm grinning like the Cheshire Cat today. I admit, I'm a news junkie and I've been GLUED to Tunesia first and now Egypt for the last month or so. Know how you wake up in the middle of the night? You roll over, go to the bathroom, maybe the kitchen for a drink? I've been turning on CNN for the latest pictures from Tahrir Square.

Yesterday I was listening to Mubarack and I, like a lot of people, said "WTF man?" Part of that may have been because I don't speak the language but it WAS being translated. But something was in the wind and we all knew it. After Friday prayers in Cairo, something was going to happen. Maybe good, maybe bad, but even I, sitting here in the urban village, could sense it. And this morning, it did.

I love watching the power of the people. I don't know what will happen in a free Egypt. I don't know how this will affect the Middle East. But I'm sitting here, watching the raw feed on CNN.com and thinking of another day in another century. Eight months pregnant and a toddler underfoot and some television show I was half watching was stopped with a breaking news slide and the familiar face of Tom Brokaw telling me that the Berlin Wall was coming down.

I burst into tears. Granted, I was probably hormonal, but the thought of my kids growing up in a world that no longer boasted a divided Europe was overwhelming.

I feel that way today. Not teary so much, but just as light. People CAN and DO make a difference. Brave people who continue to stand up for their rights and their needs, the students and the mothers and the old men and everyone else who have stood in town squares for centuries, defying their governments and rallying for their own rights. Sometimes, it's unsuccessful. Sometimes it leads to war. And sometimes, like today, it leads to thousands of people so joyful, so free that one can't help but share in the party. If I had an Egyptian Flag I'd be flying it.

Egypt may be better off. They may be worse and it may, in the long run, make little difference. But today, now, at this very moment, they're free.

Today, we're all a little bit Egyptian. And tonight, courtesy of the recipe section of TourEgypt.com, I'm making Chickpea and Cauliflower Couscous. And maybe I'll dig out my copy of Jo Stafford's "You Belong to Me." You know it. It's the one that starts:

"See the pyramids along the Nile..."