I don’t know how to start my article and how to keep myself from being confused and hesitant since I had never been used to talk about myself or my parents and especially in this particular section.
And what to do if its specifically about the honoring of my father? Nevertheless, I will start by stating the highlights of the Lebanese media in early April:
“The Lebanese order of merit to Mr. Antoine Sayegh”
On April 3rd, president Michel Aoun represented by his Excellency the Minister of Agriculture Mr. Ghazi Zaiter awarded the Lebanese Order of Merit to Mr. Antoine Shukri Sayegh during a banquet lunch held at hotel Monroe in Beirut, attended by prominent figures and a number of relatives and friends and in the presence of a delegation of officials from the Ministry of Agriculture headed by the General Director Eng. Luis Lahoud, the Director of Animal Health Department Dr. Elias Ibrahim, the council of Ministers Secretary General Fouad Fleifel, the former Minister of Agriculture Dr. Adel Qurtas and head of Lebanese order of physicians Dr. Raymond Sayegh…
His excellency Minister of Agriculture delivered a speech in which he stated the major qualities of Eng. Antoine Sayegh before he confers him the medal…
I tried to deliver a speech in the occasion but rejoice emotions kept interrupting me.
Today, what can I say?
I write about the qualities of a man who spent all his life in the service of the poultry industry in all the Arab countries and since its beginnings in the early 1960’?
But does anyone ignore this fact?
Then what shall I write and he is my father, thus I can’t help myself but be biased.
No, I will not elaborate more but my thoughts take me through thousands of years back and I wonder: who had invented these orders and medals? And why? When? And for whom?
And what is the value of this bronze, silver or gold medal?
Its material value is of no account. But as far as its moral value- at least in the eyes of its holder- its priceless.
The highly acclaimed honors are very rare and that is what gives them their moral value exactly such as Nobel prizes or the French legions of honors or other honorable medals whose real value can only be perceived by their holders.
What was my father’s feeling then? Nobody knows except him and God…
As he already said: “No words would describe what I truly feel”, the same is the sense of pride mixed with happiness and flying high over the materialistic world, no one would feel it except its holder.
Maybe this is why it is called “The Order of Merit”, thus it is only rewarded to those who really merit it.
