Saira and Mona this one's for you guys... I got a little worried about your sense of "good writing" so I'm posting up some real good writing by someone else. He took what I wrote in my last post and changed it around. It is meant for you to appreciate good writing.
" The rustling of dried leaves clamoring at the feet of mighty trees, illustriously beautiful yet illusory at the time of death. A cycle finished, waiting to be renewed in a glorious metamorphosis – caterpillar to Monarch. Golden coins dancing to the tune of an ageless wind beckoning them to take heed of the ink of the Creator's pen.
The lonely songbird stands on its perch at the melding of trees and water, singing into open skies to no one in particular.
My pen, flowing with ink and adding to the gentle cacophony which pervades the senses. Lips murmuring silent whispers of nothing in particular to no one specific; wearied hands struggling to unleash the raging battles within. Not all who wander are lost.." - Muntaka Shah
" The rustling of dried leaves clamoring at the feet of mighty trees, illustriously beautiful yet illusory at the time of death. A cycle finished, waiting to be renewed in a glorious metamorphosis – caterpillar to Monarch. Golden coins dancing to the tune of an ageless wind beckoning them to take heed of the ink of the Creator's pen.
The lonely songbird stands on its perch at the melding of trees and water, singing into open skies to no one in particular.
My pen, flowing with ink and adding to the gentle cacophony which pervades the senses. Lips murmuring silent whispers of nothing in particular to no one specific; wearied hands struggling to unleash the raging battles within. Not all who wander are lost.." - Muntaka Shah
posted by Desert Rose at 1:15 AM
20 Comments:
That is good writing.
way way above my head- therefore it must be deep
:P
oh n i just noticed u referred to me as mona...so how much do u owe me now?
ima be dangin rich by the end of the yr, i wont even need student loans!
;)
muahahhhahh......
student loans are haram :|
lol
must i reiterate?
gr8 minds girl....gr8 minds
:D
People will often see something as too "deep" not because their souls (note that I say soul, not mind/brain) are incapable of comprehension but because they're scared of letting themselves to.
Every piece of writing is merely concomitant meanings reverberating through multiple readers. Beyond that, it doesn't really have too much power or sway. The author can claim it to be whatever he or she wishes but when it comes down to it, the writing is defined by the reader.
Um okay, that probably didn't make too much sense but hey I'm tired :P.
actually no- that does make sense...and i wasnt tryin to diss the writing, i think its beautifully written MashAllah, im just not used to reading things like that and hence my "soul" incapable of processing it.
if we have so many talented writers in our community- how come we have so few developing it? you- go into arts! you too saman!
The degree of a PhD (Poor Hungry Doctor) in the Humanities does not pay the bills nor does it get one married ;).
But yes, you've hit on a critical point. Very few in our community and our Ummah in general pursue the Arts. It's a type of backwards thinking in my opinion. "Doctors and engineers save lives and build things, what does someone in the Arts do!?"
The answer of course is that they build ideas and thus construct the reality perceived by much of the world. Who then has more power to influence the world?
But okay. I'm done my mini-rant. The books await.
I'm sure Salwa's glad she finally got out of Arts, right Salwa?
To add to the intellectual discussion (though it hurts my brain), I don't think that the souls that feel they're incapable of understanding the depth in the writing are scared to do so. Infact, (in my opinion) they're just being lazy (sorry, for not using high-quality words here). Everyone is capable of looking beyond the mere words to get to their essence...they just need to give it more than 2 secs of their time to perceive an interpretation. When ppl read, do they really think behind the words, or take it at face-value and say "now that's good writing"?
Anyhoos, alas, there be Poor Hungry Doctors in the Sciences too.
Ameen ameen to the insight about the efforts at perceiving using the soul..
(Keep in mind that I tend to assume different "voices" while writing and right now I'm assuming the voice of the normative masses in the community..)
Ah yes, there are Poor Hungry Doctors in the Sciences as well. The difference of course is that they're not wasting their lives away studying "bakwas" and making up things that aren't real in some random Humanities field. Instead, they're doing the human race a noble favour by putting together molecules in some different way or other. Eureka!
There are also those in the field of Medical research who benefit mankind by torturing rats in various ways ( ;) I'm just taking a low shot at you Mehreen lol ).
On a serious note though, although I haven't solidified my "stance" (does one always have to have solid stances on everything or can one assume different viewpoints and approach an issue from various eyes and keep everything in mind and mould decisions based on the context?) on "animal ethics", it's really interesting some of the things that they do in Psychological studies.
"24 mice from a Swiss breeding company were obtained and a furry white object was classically conditioned to become the conditional stimulus to the unconditioned stimulus: cocaine.
Subsequent observations showed that the mice showed strong cocaine-taking systoms whenever attempting to socialize with fellow white rats. The mice would also get freaked out in front of a mirror."
Okay, so I made that up and some of the details about the classical conditioning are just a *wee* off lol but you get the idea :D.
Hm, I was talking about something when I opened this box. Hm.
Well yes. Drugs are bad. Just Say No! (this message brought to you by D.A.R.E.)
LOL
Waka with those views you'll make a typical desi parent!
If I ever tried to suggest to my parents that I want to go into arts they would be oh so supportive!
They'd be like: haan haan beta go into any arts field you like, do whatever you want, don't go to university just go and get a normal artistic diploma BUT DON'T BOTHER COMING BACK HOME!
Remind me to come back sometime on the weekend and compose a nice long response for you.
Ameen to the Journalism bit. I think there is a whole group of young students who once had dreams of human rights activist/lawyer &/or journalist shining in their eyes but for many reasons they didn't pursue those dreams. Which is unfortunate really. I agree that things such as Journalism are really beneficial because they can open people's yes.
Yet at the same time, and I know this won't make much sense and I may get the usual cliched responses of "the Sky is the Limit" and "it's all in the mind" and all that jazz..
I think that hmm, sometimes people are often afraid of chasing those dreams because they're afraid. Afraid of many things. One of the primary things that they're afraid of perhaps is that their "belief in a just world" (yes, that's an actual term in sociology lol) will be threatened. That is, they will go into the field and work their butts off for justice and so on and.. find that perhaps the world truly doesn't like those who try to institute change or who strive for justice. Not just the world, or the "system", but nay, the people themselves who you're trying to liberate.
Also, there's the fear that perhaps you'll sacrifice yourself for a noble career and find out things about yourself that you don't wish to find. Perhaps you will learn that maybe all of those dreams you were talking about were just talk which you spoke of just to reassure yourself that you're a honourable human being. Perhaps, when it comes down to it, you're like everyone else. Prone to corruption, prone to giving up quickly, prone to not speaking the truth if the circumstances don't make it easy.
There's also the possible frustration of someone going into the "business" and getting swallowed up whole into the system. Just becoming another cog in the same despicable corrupt system which you threw yourself into to change.
In many ways, I think it’s analogous to “self-handicapping” (yes yes, that’s another actual term in Sociology lol).
We don’t pursue things such as Journalism but instead go into Medical school so we can fall back on arguments such as (and this is very generalized and paraphrased): “*sigh* I had the potential and the desire. No really I did. I was and I think I still am a young firecracker. I’m one who fights for justice and who’d like to see the world change. I could have done a lot of things. I have a lot of potential you know. I really really do. I’m not like the rest, I’m not just a face in the crowd. I don’t why I didn’t go into these things. I actually wrote about many of the reasons why maybe I was foolish enough not to go into these things on people’s blogs and whatnot. At the end of the day, alhamdulillah though, I mean, I’m still doing good things right? I’m helping people. I’m saving lives. I’m putting food on the table. Because of my career choice my kids have the best in Western University education. My eldest child is studying Medicine at Columbia U and the middle one is in Harvard Law.”
Never mind of course that one can save lives by being a poor relief worker for the Red Crescent while getting shot at mercilessly by Israeli snipers and written off as part of the “terrorist insurgency”. Or that one could just as well become a nurse, with far less prestige and less cash. It’s always interesting how so many of us actually truly believe and tell others so that we looveeee helping people, that’s just our inner nature, geez I just can’t help, I’m always giving, I’m never taking, sometimes I need to focus on myself too, it’s not health and that thus our most ideal career choice (because you know, someone’s gotta do it!) is one where the paychecks are fat and you become part of society’s elite and envied and uncles who couldn’t get into Medicine school sit in your terror as you walk into dawats.
Never mind too that your kids and wife/husband never see you since you’re on call every other weekend and work long hours operating on the next inner-city resident who managed to get stabbed after a drunken brawl.
Hmm, by the way, this isn’t directed at anyone or anything. Just a random rant. It’s more for myself than anyone. I know that there are actually people who genuinely know what they’re doing and have thought everything through and have decided to go into Medicine and those kinds of fields. And especially if it’s a Muslimah (although y’all have your problems and many pent-up issues I have to hand it to y’all that Muslimahs are more sincere than most other groups in society :)
Oh, and to the question about a sister with education marrying a brother with less education: I’m not one who would really give you a “representative” answer and give you an understanding of how most brothers see on these types of issues. Lol.
Okay, I really need to stop visiting Saman’s blog :|. This place is evil.
you make it sound as if working for your family and securing a furture for your kids is somehow inferior to helping others. yes there are people out there who need help, but are you going to neglect your spouses and children in order to serve them? are you gonna let your kids grow up never seeing their parents and be satisfied that youve made a difference in someones life? even if it means sacrificing the quality of life of your kids?
its important to go out there and help those less fortunate than ourselves- but how do you choose between duty to them and duty to yourself? for those that can and do- MashaAllah for them, its something everyone wishes they can do, and not simply to convince themselves that their good people, im betting if they're thinking it they ARE good people and ARE involved in giving charity and helping those around them, but if it isnt possible- which is usually the case- that doesnt make them horrible people, or any less important in they eyes of God.
Everything has to be taken in its context. I didn't call anyone "horrible" people or anything close to that. Just giving one side of the equation.
It's just nice sometimes to rant and let out some built-up random thoughts etc. to jumpstart people's thinking :p.
Khair insha'allah.
Sairaa!
I swear lol, I don't think I've had someone mirror those kind of insights in a loong time. The ones about not entering a career that you love becaues you would lose the love for it.
That's one of the main main main reasons for the choices that I've made personally.
Lol sorry, I got a bit giddy when I read that because most people don't see things that way and don't have that angle of insight. It's refreshing to see :P.
I agree with you 100% though because people ask why don't I enter a career about something that I love and my thinking is just that my career is sort of an obligation/duty/responsibility. It's merely a means to an end. The things that I love and want to achieve I want to do in my spare time. Untied to money or to obligations.
Mm and yay to your thing about the Medicine. I was cutting up Medicine before but what I tend to do is to take extreme positions (often contradictatory) just to explore an issue and try to get people rattled off their seats and thinking. I know that there are a lot of people (especially sisters like you) who have a natural inclination towards Medicine because that's true, there's nothing more marvelous than the human body. Some people find their delights in the vast expanses of the galaxy while others are just astounded at the miniature world which each of our bodies contains.
But yeh, the thing about not doing a career which you necessarily love. I love writing too.. but can you imagine that suddenly you're writing in a frantic attempt to put food on the table? And you're not necessarily writing what you love about, you have to write what the publishers want, you have to write what will sell (and what sells is often obscene. You know the saying: "sex sells").
And Law too, (again this is an oversimplification), but imagine that you went in with high hopes to fight for the poor.. Well guess what.. the poor clients can't really pay your legal fees. It's the white collar criminals and the crime bosses who will pay handsomely.. etc. etc.
Again, sorry for the random ramblingness.
Unfortunately, this comment blog has become much like Salwa's blog. With no direction really in sight :D loll.. (we love you Salwa, I'm just kiddin :P)
Saira... c, u do have a lot of "intellectual" stuff to say [i guess u just need waka to get u started]
So can u stop blogging here and update ur blog already!!
Waka... can u stop sounding like a girl? (refer to: "we love you Salwa, I'm just kiddin :P")
you make the assumption that I'm a male (which I'm not necessarily denying but still, you can never know for sure :)
You know what happens when you assume..
you make an ass out of u and me :D.
waka *rolls eyes*
EVERYONE knows who you are!!
waka: i hope u don't deny ur a male
(just teasing u, don't worry)
Well, I HAVE been wondering of late :S.
lol
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