Stop, Do Not Go Any Further!

Friday, 13 March 2009

I had been going non-stop all week and had been walking just as much – considering I am still the same Los Angelean who, just one week ago (give or take a few hours), relied on driving to get anywhere and everywhere. So, I heeded my body’s protest this morning and decided that it was more important for the long-haul for me to be as strong as possible, rather than ignore the signs and go to London. During a “free” weekend in the near future, I will sojourn to London on my own and try to recount the steps of my class today.

I felt the same way on Wednesday; however, I was able to override it to attend class. This morning was different; it was not a “YIELD” sign; it was a “STOP, DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER” sign. I think I am undergoing a delayed jet lag. I have a pretty strong mind, and generally, I abide by the mind-over-matter rule to get me through life, but I woke up with a slight fever, complete exhaustion, and a feeling that my body wouldn’t get me through the day. While I could not miss class on Wednesday, the field trip unfortunately had to be sacrificed. It is too bad because I really enjoyed our tour guide, Brian. I had a million questions for him, but lucky for him, I was nowhere to be found.

I allowed my body to do its mandatory catching up and as a result, I slept until 2:30 p.m. It was so devastating to have missed the field trip. While I take pride in not being a morning person, I certainly take even more pride in being present and punctual. Sometimes the body has to win though… Just like Professor Miller says: the mind and body are one and both needed to be treated with respect. Honestly, I scare myself sometimes with the things I remember. She called me this afternoon and told me that they had been walking senselessly up and down hundreds of stairs and all over the place, and wished me well. I will go on my own.

Last night, in the spirit of Oxford academia, Professor Branzburg, Joe, and I went to Blackwell Bookstore to sit in on a lecture. The speaker’s name was Tariq Ramadan, and he spoke passionately about the past, present, and future of Islam, as well as the Muslim condition that exists in the 21st century. He made so much sense, and I could see the parallels between some their trajectories and that of some of the fundamental Christians who have narrowed their view of the world into “us and them” terms. He is no longer allowed into several countries, including Saudi Arabia because of his controversial views, even though on a personal level, he elicits positive responses from those on high in those very countries. I had never concretely realized that Islam is the state, and that there is no separation between church and state. It was a lot to absorb, and I took profuse notes which were mostly universal morsels of wisdom for all of humanity and not just one targeted group.

We went to a small Parisian coffee shop afterwards for pastries and talked about the lecture, incorporating into it this morning’s lecture on Othello. Three views arose out of our coffee shop rendezvous. First, it is impossible and too idealistic to believe that freedom would result in unity – instead, it would result in chaos, or a lackadaisical response. No one would be able to agree on anything, and it would result in complete mayhem within their organization. Another view was more diplomatic – it was that religion is not really where the answers exist, but that we are responsible for our actions towards a better future and understanding of the life. I waffled somewhere in the middle trying to piece all the information together and knit the various logics being passed back and forth. Had I been less tired, I might have forthright in addressing the “but” bubbling to the surface within me in response to the other two. My third relatively unexpressed view I had was that what Mr. Ramadan proposes is far deeper that his ideas suggest, and it will require a great deal commitment to face down some serious problems that exist; it will not happen in a vacuum. It demands that risks be taken and that we, as a human race, must never stop trying to become a functional community on the global arena, as well as in our local places of residence. Change is here to stay, and one can get caught up in trying to keep old things new, or one can move forward and adjust to it in the context within which one exists. Both are valuable sides of a single coin, and must be reconciled in order for the larger mass to thrive.

Peace.