three words

Writers tend to have a bad habit of always searching for the exact right word for something--especially screenwriters, who have to be rigorously concise.  I've recently come across three right words in three different languages and thought I would share them with you.

1. Foreigners doing support work in the Occupied Territories are universally referred to as "internationals," to distinguish them from Palestinians, who live there, and Israelis, who are directly going against their own government by working in solidarity with the Palestinians.

I like this term a lot.  I would be happy to be called an international instead of an American any day.  I like that, in return for our solidarity with an oppressed group, we citizens of oppressor nations get the option to put aside our nationality a bit and be global citizens, if only in name.

2. I was searching for the correct parting salutation for a note I was leaving for the author of tales to tell (who, sadly, is leaving Gaza shortly to return to the UK) and the Spanish imperative cuidate popped into my head.  Usually translated as "be careful," it more literally means "take care of yourself," which can have all kinds of different interpretations and seems a very apt benediction for situations in which phrases like "be careful" and "be safe" have little meaning.

3. I recently went home to Baltimore to attend the funeral of the father of a close friend.  I kept trying to find the correct term to describe my relationship with this friend, who knows more about me than probably anyone in the world, including most of my own blood relatives.  It wasn't until a few days ago that I thought of the Arabic word habibi (or habibti for a woman), which means "beloved," but doesn't necessarily carry any romantic or sexual connotations, as being appropriate.