%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |
 Well, not so much fun and leisure as...get some damn writing done, you fool! |
|
A while ago, I attended a writers' workshop and the lady who hosted it told us all to go away with this bit of advice - to write for just ten minutes a day. I was determined to go ahead with it and I did...for two days. So today I remembered that I'd resolved to do so and I whipped out my journal and wrote for fifteen minutes. I'm typing out pretty much the same thing that I wrote earlier, with some differences. I find I can go a lot more in-depth when I'm typing than when I'm writing by hand. Writing by hand is such a chore! I've struggled with loneliness a lot throughout my twenty-nine years. I struggled with it when I was the only one home with my mum when I was a teen and everybody else had other places to be. I struggled with it after marriage and when we moved into our own house for the first time. I struggled with it after my son was born and I felt torn between pursuing my writing and being a good mum, because my culture seems to indicate that a woman has absolutely no chance of living her own life - or at least, she has no chance of attaining any goals she hasn't already attained - once she has children. I feel it occasionally still, even though I get so little time to myself nowadays that any alone time is simply awesome. I've tried to come to terms with the idea that being alone isn't a bad thing - and a lot of the time, it isn't. My friends don't live nearby so I don't get to see them often, and even when I do, I feel like there isn't much depth to our conversations. I'm surrounded by people who do not think like me, who do not share any of my interests and hobbies. I feel like I've become desensitised to isolation. Loneliness is my preferred way to be. I walked into my college cafeteria at lunch today and it was the usual hubbub of activity. Youngsters walking around, chatting animatedly, shouting across the room, laughing, eating, socialising. I could recall how that clamour wouldn't have bothered me ten-twelve years ago, when I would have been one of the youngsters talking excitedly with her friends. But, as this moment, I just found an out-of-the-way little table and sat down. I watched the crowds for a while, wondering why it was only at moments like these that the sense of isolation became so strong. In the middle of a crowd, I feel most alone. |
| 21:46 The prompt today is quite bizarre. "In your entry today, write about superstitions, legends, and curses. Are there any legends in your culture that you take to heart? Are you superstitious? Do you believe in Pele’s Curse?" Legends from my culture? No, I don't really know any so I can't say. As for superstitions...I am by no means well versed in this topic but my people hold to this idea that one can be...bewitched. I don't know if that's the right word for it but it's the only one that came to mind. Anyway, this bewitching happens via black magic or with the aid of jinn (or djinn, but they're certainly not the blue-dude-in-lamp kind of djinn). These jinn are beings of smoke who exist on a plane of reality that is similar to ours, but we don't see them. Mostly, they go about their business and we go about our own. But sometimes, petty people with a bone to pick with others (for anything from "How dare you deny my son your daughter's hand in marriage!" to "Your family shall never enjoy success in any way, shape, or form! MUAHAHAHAHA!") call on beings from this other plane and they cross over to where we live and then...things get messy. This is where demonic possession and stuff like that comes in for us. Satan was a jinn too, once upon a time. The bit about the jinn is from Islam, but I'd wager it doesn't happen all too often the way it seems to in culture. I mean, how often would you see someone running off down the street laughing like a hyena because they're about to unleash ruin upon some undeserving innocent family? But the thing is, in my culture, people use this almost as a means of saving face. Someone's behaviour has recently changed? They must be possessed! Someone's depressed? A jinn made her that way! Someone's got some kind of skin condition or health problem that's destroyed their beauty or body? A jinn did it! A marriage broke? A jinn. Did. It! Whatever it is that the "jinn" is doing through the individual, it's usually something the family in question perceives to be wrong, so they do the easy thing and stick a label on that person, I suppose expecting that that will halt the rumour mill. So Ayesha's been diagnosed with a mental illness. What does the family do? Why, placate the neighbours of course! "It must be someone's evil intent to bring her down! She is such a good girl...why would she get this out of the blue?" But this is definitely something from the previous generation. I'm hopeful that for my generation and above, it won't be a means of saving face or finding an easy answer for something inexplicable. As knowledge becomes more easily accessible, I pray that people can accept things for what they are and not try to stick labels on them, especially when those "things" are living, breathing people experiencing uncertainty about themselves and their place in the world around them. And no, I don't believe in Pele's Curse. It kind of defeats the purpose of being a Muslim if I suddenly said I believe in the existence of another deity. It's the ultimate sin to put someone else on the same level as God. This has been fun! I must go and do my prayers now. Cheerio! 22:10 ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
)
