I’m getting older (oh yes!), and with getting older comes realizing I am a lot more like my parents than I thought I was. I say ‘uh huh’ during conversations, exactly like my mother does when she’s listening to someone, and I catch myself making remarks about my husband’s after-shave exactly like my father does about my mother’s perfume.
All in all it’s not so bad, but apparently it’s not just my parents who’ve managed to impress their behavior on me. I realized this last week when I called out a student’s name in class.
“But I wasn’t even doing anything!” she exclaimed.
“And that is EXACTLY the problem,” I heard myself say.
I’m also becoming my teachers.
The past few days have had me watch with awe, horror and hope the revolution in Egypt. A country I have never visited, and of whom I only know very few citizens personally, yet what's happening now evokes stronger feelings than whatever else is going on at the moment.
I've been in awe at the strength of the demonstrators gathered in Tahrir square. I have been horrified by the international (political) reactions, which seem as ready as always to sacrifice the Egyptian people in the name of 'stability'. And time and again, watching the people come back to that square, giving me hope that something else is possible.
It's not time to look back yet, because it's not over. May the Egyptian people be strong enough to get their country back. TaHya Masr [long live Egypt]!
For a closer look, I recommend visiting Sarah Carr's blog Inanities.
And there was me — a non-Muslim, who has publicly criticized certain Islamic practices — flaccidly battling for Muslims worldwide. It got to the point that I was telling people I didn’t even know that their opinions were making my life downright “unlivable.”
Moving piece in the New York Times by Porochista Khakpour.
