10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife

Right.

When one is Hurting, one can get into irrational Rages.

There is beautiful word in Malay that captures it. Terbakar. Note that, Sharifah Amani.

Ok enough nastiness.

Being in Rage is an awful thing.

So, the best thing to do for oneself is: Rise Above it.

So it my attempt, I am reading this gorgeous book called Warrriors of God by James Reston Jr. Its about Richard the Lionheart and Saladin during the Third Crusade. Loaned and recommended by the Boss.

Am simultaneously reading about the present-day conflicts in the Middle East and it is such an adventure reading the past into the present, with startling realisation of how little has changed through the passage of time -

religious zealotry and fanaticism, killings in the name of God, symbolism and rhetoric,

promises of Heaven post butchering of innocents

battles in the same geographic space - Tyre, Sidon, Ramalla and of course, the Bride - Jerusalem

Same religions, Different Balance of Powers

God help us all.

When seen in this perspective, the Hurt becomes Tiny. Not diminshed, but tiny. Inshallah

Am writing a paper on the above, and admittedly it is hard to shake oneself away from the images of .......

'The Franks shed their woolens and donned the burnoose and turban, the kaffiyeh and upturned soft slippers of the East. In the absence of wood for furniture and architecture, they sat cross-legged on patterned carpets and feathered divans, decorated their stone villas with silk and damask, perfumed their ladies with cosmetics and their rooms with incense, veiled them and took them shopping in open air bazaars, bathed in deep tubs and discovered the joy of soap, cultivated exotic flowers in their gardens, became conversant in Arabic, spiced their rice with saffron and their tea with sugar and lemon, finished off their meals with melons and dates and entertained themselves with Arabic lutes and native dancing girls. Life was good in this exotic garden of delight'