Editors’ Page: Time and Change

Two articles in this issue resonate with me very personally. The first is “When People Lived at Petra.” When I last visited Petra, people were indeed still living there—the Bedoul tribe of Bedouin. They lived in often beautifully fitted caves that were once tombs—away from the main tourist sites. My wife and I stayed overnight in one of their caves. The lovely young Bedouin couple, Mifla and Nawil, whose home it was, slept on the ledge outside the cave, graciously giving up their usual sleeping quarters for the night. On a tiny propane stove, Mifla cooked us a delicious dinner called magluba, a paella-like dish served on a large platter. Each of us ate from a different section of the platter. As we ate, little Bedouin boys no more than seven or eight ran up and down the steep slopes in the dark with goat-like sureness. One misstep and they would have fallen to their deaths. In the light of our fire, they smiled. We slept peacefully on mats. We awoke with the sun to a glorious morning.