WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.800 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:06.060 align:middle line:84% So it's really good to be with you. 00:00:06.060 --> 00:00:14.750 align:middle line:84% In 2015, in the fall of 2015, I left my job 00:00:14.750 --> 00:00:17.210 align:middle line:84% and my apartment in New York for what I thought 00:00:17.210 --> 00:00:20.510 align:middle line:84% would be a year in Morocco on a Fulbright. 00:00:20.510 --> 00:00:26.060 align:middle line:84% I had proposed a project to research representations 00:00:26.060 --> 00:00:30.200 align:middle line:84% of Blackness in the Maghreb, in that part of North Africa 00:00:30.200 --> 00:00:34.340 align:middle line:84% and Northwest Africa, both literary and visual depictions 00:00:34.340 --> 00:00:35.000 align:middle line:90% of Blackness. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.150 align:middle line:84% And I went and I thought I would be there for a year. 00:00:38.150 --> 00:00:39.710 align:middle line:84% And two months into my time there, 00:00:39.710 --> 00:00:43.100 align:middle line:84% I was on an overnight bus that crashed. 00:00:43.100 --> 00:00:47.030 align:middle line:84% And I was badly hurt and it took a minute for the doctors 00:00:47.030 --> 00:00:50.000 align:middle line:84% to figure out how badly hurt I was. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:53.510 align:middle line:84% And I ended up in Zurich, Switzerland, where 00:00:53.510 --> 00:00:56.660 align:middle line:84% I had lived with an ex-partner who's Swiss, 00:00:56.660 --> 00:01:00.570 align:middle line:84% and was in the hospital for about two months, 00:01:00.570 --> 00:01:02.430 align:middle line:84% had a number of surgeries, and ended up back 00:01:02.430 --> 00:01:04.290 align:middle line:84% in my childhood bedroom in the Bronx. 00:01:04.290 --> 00:01:04.920 align:middle line:90% You know? 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:07.200 align:middle line:84% And so to think that you're about to spend 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:08.850 align:middle line:84% a year in your ancestral homeland 00:01:08.850 --> 00:01:11.310 align:middle line:84% and then to end up home quite differently 00:01:11.310 --> 00:01:14.220 align:middle line:84% was, of course, a surreal experience for me 00:01:14.220 --> 00:01:16.410 align:middle line:84% and rife with spiritual questions 00:01:16.410 --> 00:01:22.470 align:middle line:84% that I filled notebooks with, and eventually made this poem 00:01:22.470 --> 00:01:23.470 align:middle line:90% out of. 00:01:23.470 --> 00:01:30.030 align:middle line:84% So I think I will read the poem nearly in its entirety, which 00:01:30.030 --> 00:01:33.360 align:middle line:84% takes me about 10 minutes just so you can feel prepared. 00:01:33.360 --> 00:01:35.970 align:middle line:84% You know what you're getting yourself into. 00:01:35.970 --> 00:01:38.040 align:middle line:84% We're about to go on a journey to Morocco. 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:42.610 align:middle line:84% Lots of things happen, many of them challenging. 00:01:42.610 --> 00:01:47.650 align:middle line:84% So I think it's important to let you know where you're going. 00:01:47.650 --> 00:01:51.110 align:middle line:90% 00:01:51.110 --> 00:01:53.710 align:middle line:84% It's called "On the Overnight from Agadir." 00:01:53.710 --> 00:01:59.020 align:middle line:84% And there is an epigraph from Darwish. 00:01:59.020 --> 00:02:02.335 align:middle line:84% "Your cause and your life are one." 00:02:02.335 --> 00:02:10.570 align:middle line:90% 00:02:10.570 --> 00:02:14.320 align:middle line:84% "Don't go to discover your roots, ladybug says. 00:02:14.320 --> 00:02:17.860 align:middle line:84% If you want to look for roots go and look at a tree. 00:02:17.860 --> 00:02:22.990 align:middle line:84% Another day at a cafe, avoiding, pretending. 00:02:22.990 --> 00:02:24.790 align:middle line:90% Why did you come here? 00:02:24.790 --> 00:02:26.200 align:middle line:90% Tell me why. 00:02:26.200 --> 00:02:28.510 align:middle line:84% If you want to die, go ahead and die. 00:02:28.510 --> 00:02:29.930 align:middle line:90% Do it quickly. 00:02:29.930 --> 00:02:34.290 align:middle line:84% If you want to be dead, you can be dead. 00:02:34.290 --> 00:02:38.910 align:middle line:84% But the days are long and always the same. 00:02:38.910 --> 00:02:42.120 align:middle line:84% But the nights are long and always the same. 00:02:42.120 --> 00:02:46.305 align:middle line:84% I feel that time has me in a way, do you know? 00:02:46.305 --> 00:02:47.980 align:middle line:90% A tree. 00:02:47.980 --> 00:02:51.700 align:middle line:84% But do you see its roots when you look at a tree? 00:02:51.700 --> 00:02:54.730 align:middle line:84% The syringa from the cover of that playbill in high school 00:02:54.730 --> 00:02:56.020 align:middle line:90% haunted me for weeks. 00:02:56.020 --> 00:02:57.700 align:middle line:90% Its net of empty branches. 00:02:57.700 --> 00:03:00.670 align:middle line:84% See, that's the problem, that right there, 00:03:00.670 --> 00:03:03.610 align:middle line:84% how the mind moves from the one thing that's here 00:03:03.610 --> 00:03:08.990 align:middle line:84% and suddenly I am 55 though it's still 2 o'clock on Tuesday. 00:03:08.990 --> 00:03:12.260 align:middle line:84% 2 o'clock on Tuesday happens in Morocco too. 00:03:12.260 --> 00:03:14.800 align:middle line:90% 00:03:14.800 --> 00:03:19.360 align:middle line:84% My mother says we are European, and I shake my head 00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:21.160 align:middle line:90% at her desperate face. 00:03:21.160 --> 00:03:24.340 align:middle line:84% My mother says we speak French in Morocco. 00:03:24.340 --> 00:03:26.610 align:middle line:90% And I shake my head. 00:03:26.610 --> 00:03:28.500 align:middle line:84% Morgan says maybe it could be good 00:03:28.500 --> 00:03:30.420 align:middle line:84% for you to travel to the motherland. 00:03:30.420 --> 00:03:33.280 align:middle line:84% It's necessary trauma for each of us. 00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:35.400 align:middle line:84% I call my partner, my ex-partner in Brussels 00:03:35.400 --> 00:03:37.980 align:middle line:84% with whom I lived in seven cities on three continents, 00:03:37.980 --> 00:03:39.960 align:middle line:84% and say Habibi, I think I just want 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:45.240 align:middle line:84% my own apartment and a dog and to stop working like a mule. 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:47.370 align:middle line:90% And we laugh. 00:03:47.370 --> 00:03:50.880 align:middle line:90% Morgan says you have to go. 00:03:50.880 --> 00:03:57.480 align:middle line:84% Why do I sense that I cannot trust what I feel in my chest? 00:03:57.480 --> 00:04:00.940 align:middle line:84% Are there even trees in North Africa? 00:04:00.940 --> 00:04:08.360 align:middle line:84% If you don't want to live, you don't want to live anywhere. 00:04:08.360 --> 00:04:09.590 align:middle line:90% Avoiding what? 00:04:09.590 --> 00:04:12.080 align:middle line:84% The-- I'm sorry but there's no other way 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:14.240 align:middle line:90% to say it-- meaninglessness. 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:16.100 align:middle line:84% So that is why you get on a plane 00:04:16.100 --> 00:04:17.899 align:middle line:84% and go to the third world for a year? 00:04:17.899 --> 00:04:18.950 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:04:18.950 --> 00:04:20.329 align:middle line:90% Clearly, I don't know. 00:04:20.329 --> 00:04:22.880 align:middle line:84% When the third world as a phrase is so-- 00:04:22.880 --> 00:04:26.960 align:middle line:84% did the colonizer kill or make thrive? 00:04:26.960 --> 00:04:32.750 align:middle line:84% Did the colonizer kill or make thrive? 00:04:32.750 --> 00:04:36.100 align:middle line:90% Honestly, who cares? 00:04:36.100 --> 00:04:40.340 align:middle line:84% I don't need history to justify me. 00:04:40.340 --> 00:04:41.225 align:middle line:90% I just want a dog. 00:04:41.225 --> 00:04:43.980 align:middle line:90% 00:04:43.980 --> 00:04:46.560 align:middle line:84% I wouldn't mind having a Moroccan lover, 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:49.770 align:middle line:84% I tell my shrink, out of things to say. 00:04:49.770 --> 00:04:53.520 align:middle line:84% Perhaps taking a Moroccan lover, ideally a Black one, 00:04:53.520 --> 00:04:56.940 align:middle line:84% will help you feel connected to yourself in a new way, 00:04:56.940 --> 00:05:02.890 align:middle line:84% rejuvenate your enthusiasm for living, your sense of purpose. 00:05:02.890 --> 00:05:05.500 align:middle line:90% I fire my shrink on the spot. 00:05:05.500 --> 00:05:07.750 align:middle line:84% Call the second one as I'm leaving the office, 00:05:07.750 --> 00:05:09.490 align:middle line:90% and fire her, too. 00:05:09.490 --> 00:05:12.310 align:middle line:84% On the street a Frenchie shits on the curb, 00:05:12.310 --> 00:05:15.430 align:middle line:84% her owner on his phone, looking the other way. 00:05:15.430 --> 00:05:18.430 align:middle line:90% I know exactly who I am. 00:05:18.430 --> 00:05:20.230 align:middle line:90% It's that there is no point. 00:05:20.230 --> 00:05:26.500 align:middle line:84% And then I'm telling you, just go, and look at a tree. 00:05:26.500 --> 00:05:30.670 align:middle line:84% Then in the early morning hours on a bus almost returned 00:05:30.670 --> 00:05:35.650 align:middle line:84% to Rabat, a razor of light slits my eye down the center. 00:05:35.650 --> 00:05:40.750 align:middle line:84% Suddenly, the bus on its side, dirt in the air, 00:05:40.750 --> 00:05:42.835 align:middle line:90% stars in the dirt. 00:05:42.835 --> 00:05:45.890 align:middle line:90% 00:05:45.890 --> 00:05:50.870 align:middle line:84% In one skull, an eye looks west, another east. 00:05:50.870 --> 00:05:54.810 align:middle line:84% Into a net of glass a girl's face is pressed. 00:05:54.810 --> 00:05:57.980 align:middle line:84% A hand cuts the smoke inside the bus. 00:05:57.980 --> 00:06:01.550 align:middle line:84% He stepped over a woman his Omi's age, hijab beside her, 00:06:01.550 --> 00:06:04.100 align:middle line:84% blonde hair exposed, her arms and legs 00:06:04.100 --> 00:06:06.500 align:middle line:90% splayed into a geometric shape. 00:06:06.500 --> 00:06:09.410 align:middle line:84% He threw himself from the bus's side, a tingling 00:06:09.410 --> 00:06:12.280 align:middle line:90% from his shoulder to his thumb. 00:06:12.280 --> 00:06:17.680 align:middle line:84% A green eye, a brown eye in the same skull. 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:20.590 align:middle line:84% A woman inside a bush, a child and man 00:06:20.590 --> 00:06:25.180 align:middle line:84% merged at the waist, two heads, two torsos, no feet. 00:06:25.180 --> 00:06:31.480 align:middle line:84% On the side of the road, weeds, a cough, another, no horns, 00:06:31.480 --> 00:06:36.290 align:middle line:90% a light, some trees. 00:06:36.290 --> 00:06:42.530 align:middle line:84% Inside the darkness my eyes make a dark, all outline. 00:06:42.530 --> 00:06:46.970 align:middle line:84% It hangs heavy over me, its empty face locked 00:06:46.970 --> 00:06:52.950 align:middle line:84% on my emptied face, holding us there in mutual study. 00:06:52.950 --> 00:06:56.245 align:middle line:84% Then a slow lifting, and I breathe awake. 00:06:56.245 --> 00:06:59.150 align:middle line:90% 00:06:59.150 --> 00:07:01.730 align:middle line:84% Awake in the hospital bed, my phone rings. 00:07:01.730 --> 00:07:05.580 align:middle line:84% Ladybug, you thought you were going to Morocco, 00:07:05.580 --> 00:07:07.950 align:middle line:90% she says, laughing. 00:07:07.950 --> 00:07:12.030 align:middle line:90% You were going to the body. 00:07:12.030 --> 00:07:13.830 align:middle line:84% I know the doctor says he's fine. 00:07:13.830 --> 00:07:15.820 align:middle line:90% But he cannot feel his hand. 00:07:15.820 --> 00:07:16.420 align:middle line:90% I know. 00:07:16.420 --> 00:07:17.670 align:middle line:90% But the doctor says he's fine. 00:07:17.670 --> 00:07:20.045 align:middle line:84% The doctor says he'll be back to his old self in no time. 00:07:20.045 --> 00:07:22.620 align:middle line:90% What language were you speaking? 00:07:22.620 --> 00:07:23.980 align:middle line:90% Did you reach his parents? 00:07:23.980 --> 00:07:24.480 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:07:24.480 --> 00:07:26.580 align:middle line:90% He doesn't want them to come. 00:07:26.580 --> 00:07:28.620 align:middle line:90% Has the mother been informed? 00:07:28.620 --> 00:07:30.690 align:middle line:84% Of her Blackness or that of her children? 00:07:30.690 --> 00:07:31.800 align:middle line:90% Stop. 00:07:31.800 --> 00:07:36.555 align:middle line:84% The boy's neck, has the mother been informed of the neck? 00:07:36.555 --> 00:07:40.210 align:middle line:90% 00:07:40.210 --> 00:07:46.340 align:middle line:84% Dear one, I was trying to enter my own life. 00:07:46.340 --> 00:07:49.160 align:middle line:90% I felt outside my own life. 00:07:49.160 --> 00:07:53.660 align:middle line:84% I was looking, trying to find a door to quiet 00:07:53.660 --> 00:07:56.600 align:middle line:90% the mind I knew I was more than. 00:07:56.600 --> 00:07:59.510 align:middle line:84% I wanted to control only what I could control. 00:07:59.510 --> 00:08:02.330 align:middle line:84% I wanted nothing grand, epiphanic, oracular. 00:08:02.330 --> 00:08:05.120 align:middle line:84% On the contrary, I wanted to be small, 00:08:05.120 --> 00:08:09.410 align:middle line:84% to disturb and be disturbed the absolute least. 00:08:09.410 --> 00:08:11.110 align:middle line:90% Silly? 00:08:11.110 --> 00:08:12.580 align:middle line:90% Naive? 00:08:12.580 --> 00:08:15.970 align:middle line:84% The clock kept telling me my birthday 12:27. 00:08:15.970 --> 00:08:19.730 align:middle line:84% Every day for a year I saw it twice. 00:08:19.730 --> 00:08:21.170 align:middle line:90% You were waiting to live. 00:08:21.170 --> 00:08:22.955 align:middle line:90% It happens to the best of us. 00:08:22.955 --> 00:08:26.800 align:middle line:84% The withing is within wherever you take it. 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:28.060 align:middle line:90% When did you break your neck? 00:08:28.060 --> 00:08:29.740 align:middle line:90% Three years ago now? 00:08:29.740 --> 00:08:32.789 align:middle line:90% What stillness did you seek? 00:08:32.789 --> 00:08:35.340 align:middle line:84% Whatever you're looking for is not here. 00:08:35.340 --> 00:08:36.960 align:middle line:90% What does he look for? 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:38.370 align:middle line:90% Who does he look to be? 00:08:38.370 --> 00:08:43.809 align:middle line:84% If he wants to be dead, he can be dead. 00:08:43.809 --> 00:08:46.990 align:middle line:84% Dear one, I thought the clock was 00:08:46.990 --> 00:08:50.560 align:middle line:84% telling me to start over that I could start over any time. 00:08:50.560 --> 00:08:52.840 align:middle line:90% I mean two births a day! 00:08:52.840 --> 00:08:55.840 align:middle line:84% As the bus tilted onto its side and crashed, 00:08:55.840 --> 00:09:01.030 align:middle line:84% I saw all I would not become, a thin book turned into a face, 00:09:01.030 --> 00:09:06.940 align:middle line:84% the face turned into for my work, I exclaimed inwardly, 00:09:06.940 --> 00:09:10.630 align:middle line:84% to no one in particular as we hit the gravel. 00:09:10.630 --> 00:09:11.920 align:middle line:90% I have not done my work. 00:09:11.920 --> 00:09:15.220 align:middle line:90% 00:09:15.220 --> 00:09:19.960 align:middle line:84% Mo brings me coffee in the snow to the Upper West Side 00:09:19.960 --> 00:09:22.030 align:middle line:84% all the way from Brooklyn and says, 00:09:22.030 --> 00:09:24.420 align:middle line:84% baby, you weren't supposed to be there. 00:09:24.420 --> 00:09:28.270 align:middle line:84% You weren't supposed to be there and the ancestors saved you. 00:09:28.270 --> 00:09:30.280 align:middle line:84% A wooden bowl of unripe persimmons 00:09:30.280 --> 00:09:33.760 align:middle line:84% on my friend's coffee table, a ceramic bowl of yogurt 00:09:33.760 --> 00:09:35.770 align:middle line:90% with raw honey. 00:09:35.770 --> 00:09:37.780 align:middle line:84% V says see, if that accident had happened to me 00:09:37.780 --> 00:09:40.322 align:middle line:84% my mother would have been on the first plane out of Vancouver 00:09:40.322 --> 00:09:42.010 align:middle line:90% to be by my side. 00:09:42.010 --> 00:09:44.410 align:middle line:84% Morgan meets me for brunch so I can start getting 00:09:44.410 --> 00:09:45.880 align:middle line:90% back out into the world. 00:09:45.880 --> 00:09:50.470 align:middle line:84% Still in a neck brace, I look into her compassion. 00:09:50.470 --> 00:09:52.700 align:middle line:90% We both struggle. 00:09:52.700 --> 00:09:55.050 align:middle line:84% I found my old shrink from college and say, 00:09:55.050 --> 00:09:57.050 align:middle line:90% can you believe this shit? 00:09:57.050 --> 00:09:58.970 align:middle line:90% I almost can't. 00:09:58.970 --> 00:10:00.930 align:middle line:90% And we laugh. 00:10:00.930 --> 00:10:05.310 align:middle line:84% Mo says, you weren't supposed to be there, baby. 00:10:05.310 --> 00:10:10.270 align:middle line:84% And we post pics on Facebook to make our friends smile. 00:10:10.270 --> 00:10:13.870 align:middle line:84% Look, you did not listen to yourself. 00:10:13.870 --> 00:10:17.320 align:middle line:84% You did not want to go by which I mean the child inside you 00:10:17.320 --> 00:10:19.770 align:middle line:84% and I don't care how that sounds. 00:10:19.770 --> 00:10:23.520 align:middle line:84% I hit Reply to the email then X out of the draft. 00:10:23.520 --> 00:10:26.700 align:middle line:84% I hit Reply again, then go down the hall for tea. 00:10:26.700 --> 00:10:29.250 align:middle line:84% I mean the injury took you back to Zurich where 00:10:29.250 --> 00:10:31.890 align:middle line:84% you had tried to love a man into being your father, 00:10:31.890 --> 00:10:33.810 align:middle line:84% then to your childhood bedroom in the Bronx. 00:10:33.810 --> 00:10:36.100 align:middle line:90% You can't make that shit up. 00:10:36.100 --> 00:10:38.640 align:middle line:90% I carry my tea back to the desk. 00:10:38.640 --> 00:10:44.020 align:middle line:84% It goes cold before I take a sip. 00:10:44.020 --> 00:10:48.700 align:middle line:84% Dear one, another bed, flat on my back again, 00:10:48.700 --> 00:10:50.980 align:middle line:90% returned to the waiting. 00:10:50.980 --> 00:10:55.700 align:middle line:84% I am waiting for the neck to heal, to live. 00:10:55.700 --> 00:11:00.500 align:middle line:84% What generates this sensation that life is elsewhere 00:11:00.500 --> 00:11:02.750 align:middle line:90% or happening in the future? 00:11:02.750 --> 00:11:05.930 align:middle line:84% That it will begin once the neck has healed 00:11:05.930 --> 00:11:08.300 align:middle line:84% and I arrive in California, where 00:11:08.300 --> 00:11:10.820 align:middle line:84% it will begin once I am worthy of living, 00:11:10.820 --> 00:11:14.510 align:middle line:84% or once I feel comfortable more often than I do not, 00:11:14.510 --> 00:11:18.650 align:middle line:84% or once I can provide for myself in a two-bedroom apartment 00:11:18.650 --> 00:11:20.840 align:middle line:84% where it will begin once I no longer look 00:11:20.840 --> 00:11:24.380 align:middle line:84% outside myself for an answer, or once I no longer feel 00:11:24.380 --> 00:11:27.110 align:middle line:84% drawn to Morocco to our pain, or once 00:11:27.110 --> 00:11:31.730 align:middle line:84% where does the self hide when it hides? 00:11:31.730 --> 00:11:37.400 align:middle line:84% Where was I, if I didn't know why I was there? 00:11:37.400 --> 00:11:39.710 align:middle line:90% Where does the inquiry begin? 00:11:39.710 --> 00:11:43.970 align:middle line:84% Does it begin in my particular body and my particular mind? 00:11:43.970 --> 00:11:46.370 align:middle line:84% Does it begin centuries before me? 00:11:46.370 --> 00:11:47.540 align:middle line:90% Does it begin in my mother? 00:11:47.540 --> 00:11:49.610 align:middle line:84% Does it begin in all these places at once, 00:11:49.610 --> 00:11:51.980 align:middle line:90% once the market tries to close? 00:11:51.980 --> 00:11:55.290 align:middle line:84% Once the mother gives her son a face he can use? 00:11:55.290 --> 00:11:57.470 align:middle line:84% It's not the skin so much as it is 00:11:57.470 --> 00:11:59.390 align:middle line:84% the shape of the bones beneath it, 00:11:59.390 --> 00:12:02.270 align:middle line:84% the way they form a gestalt. Once the father says, 00:12:02.270 --> 00:12:05.160 align:middle line:90% come back, my boy, I see you? 00:12:05.160 --> 00:12:07.950 align:middle line:84% I want you to know that I see you. 00:12:07.950 --> 00:12:10.790 align:middle line:90% 00:12:10.790 --> 00:12:14.710 align:middle line:84% Listen, I have mulled this over ad nauseam, 00:12:14.710 --> 00:12:18.040 align:middle line:84% all obvious interpretations are trite, lacking, completely 00:12:18.040 --> 00:12:18.670 align:middle line:90% uncompelling. 00:12:18.670 --> 00:12:20.800 align:middle line:84% That my home is not there, that I 00:12:20.800 --> 00:12:24.520 align:middle line:84% needed to leave, that I had to care better for my body, 00:12:24.520 --> 00:12:26.800 align:middle line:84% that my body did not belong to me. 00:12:26.800 --> 00:12:28.120 align:middle line:90% Nothing is ordered. 00:12:28.120 --> 00:12:29.920 align:middle line:90% Everything is random. 00:12:29.920 --> 00:12:31.390 align:middle line:90% Everything is random. 00:12:31.390 --> 00:12:32.440 align:middle line:90% Nothing is ordered. 00:12:32.440 --> 00:12:35.310 align:middle line:84% If you will not use your voice to speak, 00:12:35.310 --> 00:12:37.880 align:middle line:90% your voice will be taken. 00:12:37.880 --> 00:12:41.910 align:middle line:90% It's not your work, silly boy. 00:12:41.910 --> 00:12:45.080 align:middle line:84% If you will not do it, your gifts 00:12:45.080 --> 00:12:46.280 align:middle line:90% will be passed to another. 00:12:46.280 --> 00:12:50.360 align:middle line:90% 00:12:50.360 --> 00:12:55.100 align:middle line:84% Thank you for driving slowly I say from the back seat. 00:12:55.100 --> 00:12:59.410 align:middle line:84% When I was last here three years ago now I was badly hurt. 00:12:59.410 --> 00:13:02.310 align:middle line:84% The road lines vacant, lots of dust, 00:13:02.310 --> 00:13:05.280 align:middle line:84% hot air cycling through the open windows. 00:13:05.280 --> 00:13:08.550 align:middle line:84% Yes, they told me at the riad he says, I'd like to show you 00:13:08.550 --> 00:13:09.630 align:middle line:90% something. 00:13:09.630 --> 00:13:12.210 align:middle line:84% He pulls down the neck of his t-shirt, 00:13:12.210 --> 00:13:16.170 align:middle line:84% a scar from his hairline down his spine. 00:13:16.170 --> 00:13:20.880 align:middle line:84% I exit my body then return so forcefully I shift in my seat. 00:13:20.880 --> 00:13:24.150 align:middle line:84% 18 years prior two thieves in his taxi, 00:13:24.150 --> 00:13:26.160 align:middle line:90% he explains, a struggle. 00:13:26.160 --> 00:13:29.220 align:middle line:84% The car splayed by a tree, a broken neck, 00:13:29.220 --> 00:13:32.410 align:middle line:84% two months in hospital, the scar. 00:13:32.410 --> 00:13:35.740 align:middle line:84% And so I think Allah sent me to you. 00:13:35.740 --> 00:13:38.890 align:middle line:90% What road is this, I ask? 00:13:38.890 --> 00:13:42.250 align:middle line:84% He turns, hands steady on the wheel. 00:13:42.250 --> 00:13:49.085 align:middle line:84% The A3, it runs North to South, from Casa to Agadir." 00:13:49.085 --> 00:13:53.300 align:middle line:90% 00:13:53.300 --> 00:13:57.050 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:13:57.050 --> 00:13:57.950 align:middle line:90% Thanks y'all. 00:13:57.950 --> 00:14:01.820 align:middle line:90% 00:14:01.820 --> 00:14:03.790 align:middle line:90% Thanks y'all.