All the trauma lived out loud, all the kindness, all the love, all the current geopolitics, and all the billionaires and white American dream left out

Mo, the Netflix series - what's not to like?

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‘Human rights belong to everyone, or they belong to noone’
Francesca Albanese

I’ve been savouring the episodes of Mo one at a time, very deliberately resisting the urge to binge the lot in an all-nighter. Here are some the things I love about it, in no particular order:

every time things seem to be sorting out, something else comes along to mess it up again, because that’s how life is, particularly for vulnerable people of all kinds

• the close up shots of shoes being slipped off at the door

• the threading through of Palestine and the depiction of the bloody apartheid state imposed by Israel, as seen through Yusra’s obsession, which I happen to share, which you may share, too, though not nearly as viscerally as she does - unless you are Palestinian, of course

• the family’s olive oil

• Mo’s lovely and hopeless love for Maria and how he manages to mess that up too, because that’s what real people do, even when it’s the thing they least want to do

• Buddy’s fiddle playing

• Maria’s love for Mo, and her clarity that love is not quite enough when there’s so much trauma intruding on the relationship

  Yusra’s endless love.

• the hummus and how to scoop it

• Sameer’s innocent bewilderment, because so many families have a Sameer of one kind or another, and we don’t talk enough about it

• Hameed’s sincere love for and misguided interventions to make Mo happy

• Mo’s nightmares!!

• Hameed’s love for Dallas

  the endless blessings wished upon each other in Mo’s family

• Nadia’s intervention for Sameer

• Yusra’s pain at and then acceptance of the fact of Sameer’s therapy

• the loving exposition of culture

• Mo tearing through the desert on a frankly runaway m.c. as though not only his life, but the entire USA, or maybe the world depended on it

• the stories told by the domestic interiors - damn!

• the multi-culturalism

• the laugh out loud funniness

• the unsentimental tear-making pieces founded in real life situations

• the sparring immigration lawyers

• the joyous family reunion and olive harvest in Palestine, up to the bit where the settlers started chopping trees down, pepper sprayed Mo, while armed IDF soldiers stood by

  Mo. He’s wild, hurt, angry, hopeful, critical, loving, kind, thoughtful, resourceful, jealous, desperate, romantic, skilful, afraid, swims in shark infested waters where he rescues other tender beings (the boxing ring scene with Dante, walking the mute Jewish child back to the settlement), master salesman, capable muezzin, and more.

And that’s real life. Messy. The set up bestows major trauma on millions of people. You might be thinking, so what? And usually I make links with systemic constellations work but I believe this series speaks loudly enough, so that’s all, except to say, if you haven’t watched Mo, start now, and free free Palestine!

Copyright Karen Sole

I facilitate constellation circles and private sessions for you, wherever you are in the world.

www.manawafamilyconstellations.com Chat, book sessions

manawa = heart breath emotion

karensole@manawafamilyconstellations.com drop a line to arrange a workable time

Karen Sole is a member of the International Institute for Complementary Therapists, and of the International Systemic Constellations Association (isca-network.org), and a member of ANZCI, the Aotearoa New Zealand Constellation Incorporated. She took her first training from Yildiz Sethi yildizsethi.com of familyconstellations.com.au. Karen's profile can be found on the above organisational sites. She participates in monthly professional supervision, facilitator member constellations of ANZCI, ISCA, and informal international groups of experienced credentialed facilitators.