Home as Identity

Shadid can be boxed into many categories: American, Lebanese, Arabic, Greek Orthodox, divorced, father, journalist. Each speaks to one facet of his identity. He feels the tension between his career and his role as father; he was born in America yet since 9/11 knows the disconnect most non-Arabic Americans feel towards anyone who looks Middle Eastern. Since his divorce, he has no true home, and his life is lived constantly on the road in war zones, watching other people be displaced from their homes. He goes to Marjayoun to try to reconnect with his own cultural heritage, and to seek out "bayt," the Arabic word for "house," Shadid associates more deeply as a sense of "home."

Mirroring his personal struggle, Marjayoun and Lebanon have undergone an identity crisis. Shadid laments the loss of the Ottoman Empire a century ago, because the Ottomans represent a time when various...