Change is coming... (not just of the Obama-kind)

Okay, for the record, in case some historian in the far future stumbles upon my blog and writes up a thesis based on my political preferences: I very much support Obama. So there, say bye bye to your PhD research :P (instead you can now start debating if I am serious -for the second record: yes I am-)

Not that it matters.
Me no american.
Me no vote.
Go and write some history about that.

Now that's settled (with some minor distractions) let's talk about real change.

Of the 'yesterday-I-quit-my-job-to-go-fulltime-freelancing' kind...
Of the 'my-italian-girlfriend-is-moving-to-NL-at-the-same-time' kind...
Of the 'oh-my-god-what-the-f&?k-am-I-doing' kind...

Yay for the fabulous journeys!
The world belongs to adventurers :)

:Goes of adventuring:

Jacques Brel (R.I.P October 9, 1978)

Great artists seem to have a habit of dying in October. Today it is thirty years ago Jacques Brel died of lungcancer. Horrible disease.

Edgar Allan Poe (R.I.P October 7, 1849)

Thy soul shall find itself alone
'Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone;
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.

Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness- for then
The spirits of the dead, who stood
In life before thee, are again
In death around thee, and their will
Shall overshadow thee; be still.

The night, though clear, shall frown,
And the stars shall not look down
From their high thrones in the Heaven
With light like hope to mortals given,
But their red orbs, without beam,
To thy weariness shall seem
As a burning and a fever
Which would cling to thee for ever.

Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,
Now are visions ne'er to vanish;
From thy spirit shall they pass
No more, like dew-drop from the grass.

The breeze, the breath of God, is still,
And the mist upon the hill
Shadowy, shadowy, yet unbroken,
Is a symbol and a token.
How it hangs upon the trees,
A mystery of mysteries!

Edgar Allan Poe died 159 years ago on October 7th. October is that romantic month of fall, ending in All Hallow's Eve. It was a good month for Poe to die in.

Happy Eid! Happy Rosh Hashanah!

*munchmunchmunchmunch*

As a true liberal westerner I, of course, don't participate in any fast. Consuming must go on, especially with these highly interesting economic times - the Wallstreet crash on monday was the biggest in history, including 1929 -

Anyways, not fasting does not mean that I won't celebrate Eid! Especially not when an islamic colleague started bringing in all kinds of maroccan sweets :) Call me opportunist, call me unbeliever, I don't care as long as you feed me ...

We had a nice chat on the essence of Islam. He said that you should differentiate between pure Islam and cultural Islam. Islam has fused with local customs over the centuries. Customs that many people associate with being islamic while they in fact have much older maroccan or african tradition. He mentioned female circumcision, this is nowhere taught in Islam. The few Islamic countries practicing it are under a lot of pressure from deeply islamic countries to bannish it. Simply because it is *not* taught in Islam.

Now this sounds familiar, I mean look at christian aureoles or the dating of christmas! I wrote a whole thesis on the fusion between christian and pagan traditions and values in Norway in the 10th century. Anyways, he very much believes in this pure form of Islam. So I asked him how he would define "pure Islam". Not surprisingly he answered that this was limited to the teachings of Muhammad as written down in the Quran and the Hadith. Okay, I said, but these teachings are very much part of a fourteen centuries old middle-eastern culture. You are right, he answered, if you approach it from a scientific point-of-view. I confess, he got me there, and I could do little other than agreeing with him.

Still I stressed my point, how do you define what is 'pure' based on cultural ideas of the 7th century AD. He agreed that this was very difficult and that he was not qualified to interpret these texts. He did offer an example though, the Quran teaches polygamy and combines this with property rights for women. In his view this was an incredibly progressive idea in 7th century Araby - and I agree with that, polygamy was born from the idea that women are protected in marriage and as such hold legal rights - in his point of view this should now be put in a modern context. Had the prophet lived in the 21st century he would have taught full equal rights for men and women, because that's what the :idea: meant. So pure Islam is about the idea not about the literal text.

A very liberal thought indeed! And one that I can fully subscribe to. I mean, that is exactly how I read ancient texts, including the Bible. It also illustrates the real issue: any religion based on a fixed unchanging text, and no that's not limited to Islam, needs a constant interpretation based on current culture.

I enjoyed talking with him. As did he, because this was the first in a very long time that he was not attacked over his religion by the UIWAO (Uninformed-Idiot-With-An-Opinion).

So now, if anything we concluded that I am not a UIWAO :)
Yay.

With that, again, happy Eid.

Now this makes me think. Bear with me a little bit more... I mean we make a huge problem of making Eid a national holiday. We strictly observe the Christian days and be done with it. When, in the end, islamic observance of Eid is in general much more deeply religious than the consumerfest that Christmas has become. Isn't it a very liberal and progressive idea to just give everyone a limited number of flexible holidays for religious festivals? In that way, employees can observe whatever festival they personally enjoy/believe in. Everybody happy! No more idiotic discussions of cancelling Pentecost in favour of Eid. You believe, you choose.

Ah well. Who knows. Someday.

And yes in the title it also mentions Happy Rosh Hashanah. As everyone of course knows, today is Jewish new years as well. So welcome to the year 5769. And if I had had a jewish colleague I am sure I would be nicely chatting with him or her as well. Pity.