5 minutes of YOUR time

I'm not sure what this picture has to do with the post

For one reason, or another, I have been growing out my beard. I tend to go in cycles of facial hair. There usually isn't much of a pattern or reason behind the hair on my face. I just wear what feels good. Right now, I have a beard. It's not quite the length of George MacDonald, but definitely longer than the Russell Crowe Gladiator stubble.
Oddly enough, this beard makes me very out of place in northern Iraq. I have hardly seen anyone with a beard at all. Almost everyone is clean shaven with closely cropped hair, and this especially goes for the young men. So when I walk around the city, I tend to turn heads. Apparently I walk like an American, but have a beard reminiscent of a wahhabi.
I was hanging out with some friends the other day. We were at a "ranch" outside of the city sitting on the only patch of watered grass I have seen all summer. We had met a man earlier in the day that called me Mamareesha. They told me it meant Uncle Beard. Obviously I was as confused as you are now. Number one: I'm not their uncle. Number two: Do I even need a two?
Apparently, Mamareesha was a Kurdish resistance fighter from the late 1980s, who vowed not to cut his beard until Kurdistan was free from greater Iraq. That sounds pretty epic, right? I thought it sounded lagit, but soon I began to put it into the context of the very real conflict between Arabs and Kurds. This isn't a movie where the enemy is evil and killing is an automatic service to the good.
As an outsider, an American, only getting a brief look into the confusing muddle of the conflict between Iraqi Kurds and Arabs, I cannot begin to see a political solution or lend my voice to "this side" or "that side." In fact, as appealing as it is to target the evils of a single side, all have transgressed, and all need to be reconciled.
So here I am writing a blog post from the office of an organization that exists to pursue peace between communities at odds. The Preemptive Love Coalition unites Arabs and Kurds, they unite Sunni and Shia Muslims, they unite Kurds and Turks, they unite Muslims and Christians under the banner of saving the lives of children deemed unhelpable.
Right now PLC is nominated for an award by what is being called the "Grammys" of the nonprofit world. Winning this award would significantly raise awareness and provide opportunities on a level we have yet to see.
I say all this because you can help.
You can vote by clicking here. Click "the South" tab, then scroll to find Preemptive Love Coalition, click it, then find the submit button. The voting ends with the sunset in California on July 26, but the sooner the better, right?
They tell me that war is hard. So is restoration. Help PLC seek to bring peace and healing to the children of war.