Words from Kahlil Gibran

-
In your aloneness you have watched with our days, and in your wakefulness you have listened to the weeping and the laughter of our sleep.

Now therefore disclose us to ourselves, and tell us all that has been shown you of that which is between birth and death. 

- Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (10)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Light in the Piazza

-
Image
"Nobody with a dream should come to Italy. No matter how dead and buried you think it is, in Italy, it will rise and walk again" - Margaret Johnson, the mother in The Light in the Piazza . This was her most memorable and striking quote from the theatrical musical , based on the 1960 novella by Elizabeth Spencer. Victoria Clark as Margaret Johnson (L) Katie Rose Clarke as Clara Johnson (R) What are our dreams? And what is their significance to us? And how do they change over time and with our experiences? I came to Italy for the sole goal of studying, but my old dreams arose: romance, a trip for my mother and me to visit Tuscany. As soon as they began, life's cruelty crushed them. No more romance, no more dreams - even if that wasn't what I was originally looking for. Just like Clara's mother, Margaret Johnson (the musical's protagonist), she felt that her bloom for love had entered winter while her daughter Clara's chance for love was in spring...
Read more

In the Time of Mid-Terms, Back to High School

-
I am currently in the midst of midterms, and I am thankful that I only have two.   Half of my classes are Arabic, one in the formal Arabic and another in the colloquial Arabic, and the other half are two elective classes: one on Islam and the other that focuses on international relations and diplomacy in the Middle East.   Yet, even as I attempt to study, there are several adjustments that I have to make. First, because I am living with a host family, I must re-learn to study in the midst of small children and others’ living spaces.   I grew up in a large family with three siblings, and I had my own desk in the quiet basement where I could do most of my work.   When it came to college, I found that I best studied in the library, where silence was mandatory, or in my room, which was quiet even if I had roommates.   Now, I am in the midst of a one year-old and a four year old who do not quite understand the necessity of silence and non-int...
Read more

"To Give Life is to Live": A Critique of Schindler's List - Part 1

-
Image
Image from Google Images Life is full of pain, but “A man who saves one saves the world entire,” according to the Talmud. Schindler’s List is the story of that one man, who known to many as a war profiteer, womanizer and Nazi party member became the saving force for 1,100 Polish Jews during the Holocaust. Oskar Schindler was his name, and this film was about his acts that saved generations of people. So, from what began as an independent historical fiction film series evolved into a film series about genocide, which plays such a larger role in recent wars of the last and current centuries. The themes most present in this film were the good versus evil complex, power, equality and dehumanization. In a detailed foil analysis of Amon Goeth and Oskar Schindler and the director’s constant use of cinematography to depict different interpretations of the humanization of Jews, Schindler’s List contained the essence of the Holocaust in its many horrors yet its human...
Read more