While on the plane, on my way from Bahrain to Dubai, I was reading the book "The Poison Tree Planted and Grown in Egypt" by Marwa Rakha when I stopped at a part where she explained her experience with a silk worm in her childhood.
I first met Marwa in the mid nineties when she was my student at the American University in the School of Continuing Education, previously known as the Center of Adult and Continuing Education, she later became a colleague instructor, trying to share her experience and knowledge with her students as we all try our best to.
I have known Marwa for quite a long time; I have seen her move from one job to another, from Sheraton Soma bay, to Ritz Carlton Sharm El Sheikh to Fairmont Towers, with additional side activities as writing in some magazines, being a TV presenter at OTV and a blogger. I was regular reader of her blog, from which she generated the book.
Going back to the part that stopped me Marwa wrote on page 109:
"One day my father got me a silk worm -as a pet. With lots of love, I watched my worm transform into a cocoon and I waited for the colorful butterfly to come out of its silk hiding. I woke up one morning to find a small opening in my cocoon. I watched the butterfly trying to get out, then I decided to help her; I proudly yet lovingly, cut the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily but something was wrong with my pet; it had an engorged body and small wings. I waited for the moment when she would fly. It never happened! My baby pet spent the rest of her life crawling. My dad then explained to me that the butterfly's struggle to get through the tiny opening was nature's way of strengthening my pet so that it would be ready for flying once it was free from the cocoon.
Today as I watch many of the young men and women that I come across at work or in my classes and workshops, the image of my poor pet comes to my mind….in their attempt to protect their kids crippled them…..like my butterfly, they face the world with shriveled wings, limp bodies, porous bones, and hollow heads.
They are neither equipped to deal with the heavy blows of fate nor the daily challenges of life"
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