Philately

I have been in the entire world. I have traveled to each and every city, met all famous and ingenious people, interviewed historians, politicians, musicians, scientists, and poets. I have witnessed all epochs, and lived in all eras. I have watched monarchs filling their countries’ thrones, and watched kings getting detached from their kingdoms. I have went up to Eiffel Tower, dined in the hollow head of Liberty’s Statue, roamed in Louvre’s Museum, measured the inclination of Pisa’s Tower, heard the ticking of Big Ben’s clock, helped in the manufacture of Titanic, announced Georgina Rizk the Queen of the Universe in a Beauty contest, awarded Naguieb Mahfouz a Noble prize for his literary masterpiece: Awlad Haritna, shared in the Iranian Revolution against the monarchy, signed the tuition of Independence for Lebanon and announced it a republic. I have been there when Beethoven has completed his 5th symphony, when Schubert first composed the notes of Death and the Maiden for the first time, when Fairuz celebrated the Holy Friday in Downtown of Beirut, when Gibran Khalil Gibran died, and when Lebanese martyrs sacrificed their souls for their causes. I have studied kinds of plants with botanists, excavated for fossils and dinosaurs’ relics with paleontologists, classified animal species and types of butterflies and other insects with zoologists, and examined the strange habits of birds and the reasons behind their migration and the secrets behind their mating. I have governed Olympic Games, directed chess championships, and guided water sports, epees, and skiing tournaments. I have conducted festivals in Hollywood, Caan, Petra, Jarash, Baalbeck, Beiteldein, and the historical Tyre. And surely, I have written the epitaphs upon the tombs of the epoch-makers: the President Rafic AlHariri, Gibran Twaini, Samir Kasir, Basel Flayhan, and Pierre Jmayyel.

I have been to all via a very simple way: Stamps.
Stamps that are small in size are distinctive marks or impressions made upon an object, for instance those made on a piece of paper and used to indicate the prepayment of a fee or tax. Types of stamps include:
Postage stamps, used on mail
Revenue stamps, often used on documents; they are superficially similar to postage stamps, but may have very high denominations (also called: Stamp Act or Stamp Duty)
Rubber stamps, devices used to apply inked markings to objects.

(wikipedia)

Stamps that psychologists deem as a silly hobby: both waste of the time and money, and are considered as a non-beneficial luxury, are my my favorite friends in times of distress, happiness, loneliness, excitement, .... and on. They shared with me much .. and I have shared with them the same, as well. This great exchange of knowledge and time has profoundly profited me and enriched my scopes, widening my imagination and watering my dreams!