Ramadhan - Creativity Three

Three Day

An e-mail and a response

I want to talk technically for a second, so indulge me... Concerning my response, firstly I have taken one or two obvious steps to ensure that the anonymity of the sister who e-mailed me is preserved. Secondly, I made two or three small adjustments to certain words for the sake of those unfamiliar with basic Islamic language (writing 'Mosque' where I had originally written 'Masjid' for example) and by adding 'grocery store' after I had originally just written 'the Taj'... 'The Taj' being a well known grocery store to nearly all Brighton-ians, but obviously not as much to out of towners. Other than these two points, my response is entirely unedited, and needless to say the original e-mail is also entirely unedited.

My response to this lovely e-mail is today's piece of creativity. Check below the e-mails for further commentary and ramblings.

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: *********
Date: Sep 26, 2006 2:51 PM

Salamualaikom akhi,InshAllah hope ur Ramadan is goin well...O.k, this might sound weird, but i just wanted to ask if u have any sisters? Because, i know u live in brighton, n the thing is, for some time now ive been trying to set some sisters circle up, but the thing is, i dont know many muslim sisters around here, and brighton is suppose to have had lots of muslims! But i was just wondering...Peace

-------------------------Reply---------------------------

alaikum asalaam sister,

i think thats a very good idea for you to have, getting a circle together etc.. Sadly I dont have any (real!) sisters, wish I did, and yeah- i dont know that many young sisters personally, but there are thousands, as u know and see everyday on the streets! You go to University? If so that's the best place to start, the university of sussex campus (where I used to go to university) has its own mosque and a small little community of good sisters who are all nice open minded and kind to one another, from my memory anyway hehe. Not enough women come to the downtown Medina mosque though.I hope you do find more sisters though, thru contacts of your family and so on it shouldn't be that hard to get some together, get a plan or an idea firmly in place too, before you contact people- there's no time like the present to come up with some kind of actionplan- whilst everyones feeling so great in Ramadhan. Something I always thought would build a lot of bridges is this- it's a real simple idea- get some people together, and everyone bake or cook some small dish , like an appetizer type thing not a proper meal, something small you can eat in pieces (men can do this too of course, but for the general public i think its more important to see womens faces, sisters) and then just set up a stall, maybe outside the Taj grocery store, and just give out free food, bits of fruit, or whatever, to all the non-Muslims passing by. And have a message above you saying somethiing along the lines of.. ''We're not terrorists! Don't let the government & the media brainwash you! Muslims are your friends! Love thy neighbour..." etc... u know? To really improve relations, these kinds of things are very important thesedays...Very important.

So that's an idea I think someone should do, for sure...
Let me know what u think of that eh?
alaikum asalaam sis,
Y Misdaq.

In my e-mail I seem to indicate that the idea is something I've thought about for some time, however this is not the case, and I'm not sure why I made it seem like it was. I often do things like this when talking to people I don't know well, perhaps as a way of giving the idea more credability. Yes, that's it. I assume (from experience) that I'll scare people off if I don't slightly moderate the power of my spontanaiety (and my belief and faith in that power) upon first meeting someone. I've seen that it can be offputting to some, overpowering. The truth is that I came up with this idea whilst I was writing the e-mail, it hit me in mid-sentence and next thing I knew I was typing it in a new sentence. I expanded upon it as I wrote more. Most of my ideas are like this, but as I say, when dealing with strangers, and also when talking somewhat persuasively (in this case I was trying to support the implementation of my idea) I suppose this is something I do, I try to make my idea seem more credible by feigning that it's something I've thought about for a long time. The subjective truth is however, that the power of the idea is still just as strong if its spontaneous (and of course you may ask, 'what is truly spontanous? For everything at one point had an origin'). I assume that others won't see it the way I do probably because others are not artists. Maybe it's snobby, but I've been right many times.

Perhaps this behaviour of mine is partially related to musicians and book publishers all over the world having to make things like the typical 'press release' when releasing an album or book. It is linked, because if everyone was like me, then I could just send out this music of mine, or my books, without having to sell them by playing up on popular themes which I know certain morons need to hear about. For example, when I'm in America and talking to someone about my work, I'm far more likely to be mentioning the word 'Afghan' because being a creative AFGHAN has all kinds of benefits in America, they love to hear about success stories from the Afghan community- white people in more powerful positions will suddenly smile at you and be more attentive to what you say. It's obviously traced back to guilt over the fact that they've taken part in invading and colonising Afghanistan, or even more sadly, arrogance at the fact (as they believe) that they've liberated us, and now here's the proof that they were right to liberate us after all! Anway, I'm going on a tangent, the point is, my idea (from the e-mail, if you can remember it by now!) had definite merit in itself, but I cheapened myself by lying (albeit not a huge lie) about how 'new' that idea was. I felt that I had to dress it up, just like artists have to dress themselves up every time they submit their work for public consumption or recognition..press releases etc... How wonderful it would be to just be, to send what you've created out there, naked, as we all truly are, send it as it is, without any more damn colour!

For those that don't know, a press release is basically a review, the very first review, of the album or book- written by the artists representative, or if the artist has no representative then they'll write it themselves and then they'll either pretend like it was someone else writing for them by writing in third person (tacky, but understandible) or they'll write something much more honest and classy. Sometimes a press release is neccessary, to give infomation that the reviewer will need to know, but in my opinion, all too often it's just for the benefit of very lazy writers/reviewers, who often end up copying what's on the press release in 'their' review! Perhaps because they don't have much to say, or more likely because they lack the conviction on a given subject or issue to risk sticking their necks out (as artists do), and so they play it safe by saying what's already been said (on the press release.) In a way cowardliness like that sickens you, and yet in a bigger way, you have to realise that this is how it is, and those who do it often don't even know that they're being cowardly. You can't hate someone for acting cowardly if you discover that his/her parents and parents-parents were also quite cowardly. Thus it is with the systems that we find ourselves in. When a particular system dictates that man doesn't have to stretch himself too much mentally, then man won't, because man is lazy. That's how it is, people can't help being what they are, you have to be patient and live with them as they are. There's a time for tactful re-education, and a time to say 'this is how the person is, they're not going to change, just leave it alone and don't get too involved!'

Patience has rewards which extend beyond anything you could imagine or picture in your silly human brains made of clay. Hush now, don't feel bad, I'm silly too, I can't imagine it either, and I'm also made out of clay. (And water.)

Deep breath, let it in, hold it, let it out.

How funny we all are sometimes, with these little subtle games we play with ourselves and others. I have subsequently received a further e-mail from the sister, and reading between the lines, it doesn't look like my idea is going to be implemented by her. Which I suppose is not a suprise considering it was my idea. When I have an idea that I presume I would never have the time for, or the capacity to undertake, then I might give it to someone else, donate it to someone. I am, however, very greedy with most of my ideas. I mistakenly believe my brain to be a treasure chest, and I foolishly cling to the ideas I have like a poor man clings to smoked salmon... or a lottery ticket. A lottery ticket is a better example. So what's the moral of this writing? Is there one? I don't know. But the funniest vision I have is me outside the Taj (grocery store!) implementing this idea myself, standing behind a cheap wooden stall, a smiling face, surrounded by huge hand-made signs and giving out chunks of watermelon on cocktail sticks. I'd never do it of course, but then, it's fun to imagine it. It's like dipping food in sweet chilli sauce, or some other nice new sauce... Only I'm not dipping food, I'm dipping my everyday brain, and not in sauce, but in a vision of myself existing in a totally different and unexpected context. If I actually did more of my ideas instead of merely hoarding them in my mind, keeping them for the future, then perhaps I wouldn't feel as though I were being greedy with them.

Peace.

Y.Misdaq, Ramadhan 03, 1427