Parallels, Paradoxes: Homeland Redefined Response

In Islam, a devout Muslim prays five times a day towards the direction of Mecca. Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said both come from different backgrounds that they would consider themselves to be home, but each in their own way connect to one another as friends like one does with their family. "Home is where the heart is," is a famous well known quote, but what does it really mean? In the case of two individuals that have very distinct but contrasting personalities, it is translated for them, through their orchestra. The West-Eastern Divan become the home for not only these two remarkable people, but for many others who cared just as passionately about the orchestra as they did. This became home, with new friends in the orchestra apart from their original homes in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, etc. On page 6 of Parallels and Paradoxes, a contrast between the minds of Daniel and Edward is realized in full. Daniel had his own goals while Edward had his initially. After watching the movie, I noticed they argue with each other incessantly about politics, government, and culture more than any best friends would. They became closer and closer with the more they interacted with one another and debated arguments as they said for hours on end at times. I can tell you that I have never had extensive periods of time where I argue about politics with any good friends of mine on a regular basis. This ultimately brought them to their similar ideology of wanting peace between Arabs and Israelis. And I think commonly, here in the United States, it is rare for best friends to come from such different backgrounds, but become so close over such controversial issues. Not only the orchestra showed that peace can weld between groups that dislike one another, but as clique as it sounds, a simple bond of friendship can gather a group of people with dislikes for each other, and bring them closer. Edward focused greatly on this on page 6 of the article when mentioning that Daniel's Oslo Peace Process was his goal, while he had another, but still combined together unconsciously to create that unique bond. I think most of all though, it shows that two individuals even with biased perspectives can negotiate and use educated opinions to reach a fair goal. Edward Said said per quote on page 11, "Music is transition too, I am happiest when I can be at peace with the idea of fluidity." What I found to be most important-Though this disconnects him from reality during a performance for a short time, he expressed from my understanding, that home is where one should not have a historic identity, but a feeling of diversity and ability to stand in with the others. I think this weighed heavily on his personal decision to take part in the orchestra. I think he wanted to create a home for the musicians that involved diversity, traveling from one location to another instead of staying at a single place.