Tahrir Square

Freedom is heady. It is hard fought. It shimmers and slips between our hands at times. The whole world has watched the past 18 days as two visions of Egypt clashed. Yesterday the resoluteness of those occupying Tahrir Square in Cairo ended 30 years of Mubharak-rule.

What will the upshot of it all be? Can anyone predict? Can any one of us even turn one of our hairs white (or vice versa - without hair-colouring of course)?

But take look at the vast hive of activity that went on in the square. The good boffins at the BBC site have made an interactive map where we can click on different parts of this vast assemblage and get 'street level' pictures of the drama there. You can access their site by clicking on the picture above.

What fascinates me in this particular drama is the apparent orderliness and self-organisation that took place. Who called the shots for those there in the square? How were decisions made? Who took initiatives to set up different parts of it? What were the relations between the protesters and the military?

Much has been made of the communication tools people used. The BBC picture includes a 'Bloggers Park' section. But more than the tools - is the way that people shared thoughts and ideas - where people came together for a purpose - where strangers took on shared responsibilities.

It is an awesome sight to see people working together. The Tahrir Square experience may not be a true utopia. For all its positives and soul-stirring courage and self-organisation - it is pretty ragged in many ways - a community that may end up being ephemeral. But beyond the immediate flames of freedom that gladden all of us I would argue that there is something else, something very specific about Tahrir Square that twinges at our hearts. The beautiful picture of people - so many of them - living together. That twinge is precisely because we have a road map to a place where we are to live in community. I believe, and I know that we each have a secret - and sacred geography of a place we have not experienced yet - but for which our hearts beat a bit faster - our pulses twitch that tiny bit more.

Tahrir Square. 11.02.2011. One small glimpse, a fractional glance of eternity.