I like to think about how, in my blog, I begin to practise creativity, how I find my voice, and how ideas and thoughts start to flow.
It becomes my favourite place in my city of writing.
By the way, I have another favourite place in my imaginative city—books.
You can’t write without reading, can you?
Books are not only for reading with your eyes but also for imagining with your mind.
You imagine characters, and you also imagine their places, their cities, and their era.
Or you may prefer science, philosophy, or even politics, and there too, you’ll find yourself as if you were in your favourite place.
So, wherever you live, in a small or big city, if you pick up a book and really enjoy it, your reading will turn into a visit, short or long, to a special, imaginative spot in your imaginative city.
Just imagine: step out for a moment from the real world, from the actual city.
Isn’t ”Pioneer” a great word filled with imagination, courage, and perseverance? Of course it is. A pioneer is a risk-taker, driven by promises of abundant profits. That’s all wonderful. Right?
By the way, I’ve just finished O Pinoneers! novel by Willa Cather. The title is really intriguing and summarises all the story. If you want to know a bit about it, you’re more than welcome to check my post on my book review blog.
But not all pioneers are the same, wouldn’t you agree?
Some claim the title but not the honour. Some deserve both the title and the honour, yet are, sometimes, denied them by the first category of pioneers who care more about status than substance. And then… there are those quiet pioneers, living the pioneer life without even knowing they really are.
Confused?
But why?
That’s so obvious, especially when it comes to the first two categories. It’s not hard to find them. They are everywhere, bragging about their “great” achievements and unlimited wealth and power as if that’s what a pioneer should mean.
As for the third, those are the ones who mind their own business. They are wise enough to change themselves before marching out loudly to change the world. They watch the madness around the world, yet go on working, writing, and appreciating life. And… they ask, quietly: what good comes of being a pioneer without self-respect, without inner peace, or without humane compassion?
In case no one’s told you this before: if your imagination, courage, and risk-loving spirit drive you away or back or forward, out of the madness and straight into a simple, quiet life then you are a special pioneer in this “chaotic” world.
I don’t really know if it is a saying or a quote, but I’m pretty sure I came across somewhere.
But don’t you agree?
Don’t you respect those who can say ‘yes’ or ‘no’? Those who can choose to go on, to pause, or to withdraw? Those who know that ‘better’doesn’t necessarily mean ‘perfect’? And those who believe that ‘to run for your life’ is the only excuse to exceed the limits.
And you know what? Even imagination knows its own limits because, in the end, it doesn’t deny the fact that everything it creates is imaginary.
Dreams are different because the more limitless they are, the more destructive and selfish they become. People say, ‘Look ahead and follow your dreams.’ And some follow the advice as if it were a holy command. They look only ahead and follow one route — either straight or by taking shortcuts. Like competitive drivers, they floor the gas pedal, exceed speed limits, ignore traffic lights, overtake any priorities, and make every space as their own free parking zone.
To know and respect your own limits is not a weakness, not a sacrifice, and certainly not a defeat. It’s something like making a peace deal with yourself, a quiet agreement, not to overburden, torture, or destroy what’s already carrying enough.
Everything in life seems to have its own limits. Privacy, for example, is supposed to be all about knowing and respecting limits. There’s also genius, this rare, precious quality, which often understands the significance of limits better than anyone else. But, unfortunately, in some case, its main aim is to only challenge and destroy them.
The beauty of all this is that we have different limits, and they change even throughout our lives. Everyone can create their own heroic saga. What matters is crafting it within your own limits. And, if you choose to exceed the limits, don’t scapegoate others, don’t envy them, and don’t torture your poor soul anymore.
Now doesn’t “Blessed are those who know their own limits” make perfect sense?
I have just finished the book I was reading, and I really enjoyed it. It took me longer to finish this book than it usually takes with others. But, I made up my mind not to write anything – not to post on my blog – until I had finished it. And finally, I did.
Honestly, switching from reading classics to philosophy felt like jumping from one building to another. Both are skyscrapers, but their constructions are totally different. If you’re curious and want to know more about this book, here’s the link.
By the way, have you ever jumped from a building to another nearby?
One day, many many years ago, I was with my cousins at my grandparents house in the countryside. The houses were so close that mainly an alley separating them. My cousins, one after another, jumped from the window to the roof of the other house. I watched their numbers decrease until no one was left but me. One of my cousins was waiting for me – encouraging, extending her hand, and begging me to hurry up as we had to catch up and continue the game with the others. On the other side, I stood, glued to the big window, looking down at the gap between the two houses, and felt it like a deep dark well. My heart stopped beating, almost.
‘You won’t fall down, trust me,’ said my cousin. ‘No’, I said, shaking my head.
She left and ran to catch up with the others. I burst into tears and ran out of the door just like a frightened cat to follow them, but by using the stairs. There, downstairs, I found them all, not waiting for me, but hurrying inside as the mothers were calling us to have the afternoon meal. People say that when you’re hungry and there is food, you think of nothing but eating. That was exactly what happened. We all ate our meal and then hurried outside to play again.
A few years later, after this incident, Cairo was struck by the worst earthquake in its history. I still remember how our ten – floor building was shacking like a rattle in a kid’s hand. My parents had just left to upper Egypt where my grandparents lived after receiving the news about my grandmother’s death. So, it was just my older sister, my brother, and me. I was doing my homework when the walls started shaking suddenly and violently. My heart pounded hard, and my whole body shook like everything around me. I ran to my older siblings, and we all stood in the hallway, looking to one another in panic. We believed the building was collapsing, as it never crossed our minds that it was an earthquake. Then, we heard the neighbours, people on the road, all screaming and wailing, “It’s an earthquake”. As the three of us ran to get out, everything stopped. The following day, or two days later, I went to see my friend, who was also my neighbour, living in the ground floor. Her leg was in a cast.
‘How?’ I asked. ‘I jumped out of the window.’
I burst out laughing. She lived on the ground floor, and all she had to do was open the door and ran out of the building. Instead, she took the shortcut, which wasn’t that dangerous, but it seemed that, instead of jumping, she threw her full body out of the window.
It’s hard to jump, both physically and mentally, into something different, new, or unexpected. But isn’t that also normal? There are people who jump without giving it a second thought, and, there are people who take their time – to jump, to enjoy reading a book, or even to write a new post.
If you had the power to change one law, what would it be and why?
Isn’t it incenrdible that space scientists or astrophysicists are working hard, really hard to create life and build new world on other planets? Or is it Not?
If I had the opportunity to have the power to issue one new law, I wouldn’t let it pass without submitting my proposal on this issue.
But first, since it’s all imaginative, I’d like to also have the opportunity to imagine a different me, in a different setting. I am Her Majesty the Queen, or His Excellency Mrs President. I’m sitting at my famous desk, with the formal legal document of my new law in front of me. Journalists, interviewers, small and big cameras, assistants, ministers, mayors, and others whom I don’t know and wouldn’t wish to know, are just a few meters away. They are surounded by bodyguards or supe – powerful gurads, or whatever. I’m actually trying hard to stifle a laugh, wondering what the point of all this gathering. My law is going to be signed whether they like it or not.
Before reading my law out loud, the flashing and clicking of cameras makes me blink and feel ill at ease. No one is allowed to talk or even whisper before I reveal the new law. I choke and cough, and my voice sounds muffled in my ears. Am I catching a cold? I wonder, and find a crystal glass of water in my hand as if by magic. I sip some water and it tastes so cold and sweet that I am tempted to drain it in one gulp. But, I can’t. Her Highness would never do that. What do I have to do with Her Majesty? Oh, that’s me. I have to sign my new law. The gathering and people both online and offline, are waiting to hear it.
I look down at the document and read: Astronomers and astrophysicists can go to whatever plantes, to the moon, and even to the sun on their own cost, using their own expenses. As for us, normal people we’re amazed with our own planet, and we’ll never give it up.
Pure and Simple 