I’d Rather Be Poor

Bob: Its only 9:36 AM and wifey just called me from a store and wants to buy 2 patio lounge chairs. $120 Dollars . done .

7aki: Hahahaha

Bob: Who the eff goes to the store this early. The staff are probably saying what the eff!

7aki : She’s on a mission. You should buy that BMW you always wanted before your wife spends all your money.

Bob: You are right!

After a short pause..

Bob: Also, we have a complete patio set. We don’t need more shit!

7aki: You know what you should do? For every amount she spends on shit you don’t need take an equal amount and put it in a savings acount; call it “car fund”.

After another short pause..

7aki:  But, why don’t you just say: NO, don’t buy it.

Bob: Then l have to deal with an unhappy person; I’d rather be poor.

7aki: Words of wisdom my friend; the shit you say needs to be quoted somewhere!

Little 7aki: A Philosophical Question

There are under water statues in cancoon! Google it, so amazing.

I took the girls swimming this weekend. Little 7aki was drying herself after we got out of the water.

Little 7aki: Mama?

7aki: Yes.

Little 7aki: Are we wet when we are underwater?

7aki: haaaaa?

Little 7aki: I mean, when we come out of the water we are wet; but are we wet under water? I don’t think we are wet underwater.

7aki: Hmmmmm.

Little 7aki: Yeah, we are not wet because we are (while motioning all around her body with her hands)  surrounded by water but are not wet. But when you get out of the water you get wet!

7aki: Ah.. um … hmmmmm, that’s really interesting!

________________________________________

If a tree falls and no one hears it; did the tree really fall?

I am amazed that little 7aki was even thinking of this question and I had no clue what the answer was! So I went to my best friend google and  googled  it  and  you  would not believe how many ADULT people are asking this question.

The funniest answers I read:

holy shizzzcake i never thought of it that way.
dudeee!!
your like a genius O_o

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. That one really made me laugh out loud!

Yes you are wet…*bangs head on wall*…what drugs are you on? Can I have some?

Can I have some too?

WTF? are you stupid or something?

But IS the poster stupid?

Philosophically I would say , depends, the answer could be a yes or a no I quote one of the answers:

Wetness is only felt when there is an outer state of dryness to distinguish the presence of liquid on oneself.

You can’t distinguish dryness from wetness underwater not because the state of wetness does not exist but because the state of dryness does not exist. Take an analogy of the state of dreaming, when you are in a deep dream you sometimes can’t distinguish it from reality. That does not mean you are not dreaming. Similarly just because when you are underwater and the sensation is not the same when you get out of the water does not mean you were not wet underwater.

But scientifically I have no clue!

What do YOU think?

 

His Dark Materials

I watched the  movie “The golden compass” when it first came out, although  I haven’t had read the book at the time, and was very disappointed in it.  I thought it could have been much more. So I was hesitant to read the books.

A year ago as I was browsing in one of those cheap books stores I found the whole trilogy for a very good price and I could not resist buying it.  Forward one year , I was low on reading material so I grabbed it and I was pleasantly surprised! I was kicking myself for not reading them sooner.

I just have finished reading His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass).

The trilogy is geared towards children but I have to say that it needs a level of maturity to be read. I belive that maybe the kids should be at least 11- 13 to read it since it does contain some information that could be hard to process.

In the books we get to know the 11 year old brave girl Lyra Belacqua and her daemon  Pantalaimon who live in a parallel world to ours in Oxford. Lyra takes us with her on her adventure were we get to meet many interesting beings who become her closest friends and allies.

What I found surprising (and I truly did not expect in the books) was  the religious (or anti religious as some people would say) aspect of it. It talks about how religion corrupts and how it could turn people into evil beings. It talks about angles and death. It talks about how the soul occupies not only us, but the whole world. It talks about God and the idea of God .

All of these things existence and purpose are questioned and searched.

Truly a thought-provoking trilogy, surprisingly philosophical. The author is truly talented when it comes to creating all these fantasy parallel worlds to ours.

Wether you are a person of faith or not I encourage you to read it. The trilogy is very well written and very thought-provoking.

Next review: The Blind Assassin by Margarete Atwood

Click here for more reviews.

Little 7aki izms

Little 7aki: Mama, who taught God things?

Me: Nobody sweetie.

Little 7aki: But who made God?

Me: Nobody made God.

Little 7aki: Where is God?

Me: I don’t know really.

Little 7aki: I think we should go ask the computer. The computer knows EVERYTHING, right?

Me: HAHAHAHAHAHA. Yup it does, but I am willing to bet you are going to get MILLIONS of different answers to these questions.

Such is instinct, we really don’t discuss religion much at our household and my little monkey is already wondering about these things. I am sure that as soon as she can “google it” she is going to be “on it”.

Technology, eh!

Will Goodness Win?

Goodness [good-nis] : integrity, honesty, uprightness, probity. Goodness, morality, virtue refer to qualities of character or conduct that entitle the possessor to approval and esteem. Goodness is the simple word for the general quality recognized in character or conduct

I was reading “The lion, the witch and the wardrobe”  to little 7aki the other day. We got to the part when the white witch was chaining Aslan to the stone table. It was midway through the book and it appeared as if the white witch was defeating Aslan.

After a thoughful moment little 7aki asked me: ” Do good people always win?” .

I said: ” Yes sweety, good people always win”.

Little 7aki said: ” But Aslan didn’t win, the white witch won”

I told her: ” Aslan did not win now, but he will win at the end, good people ALWAYS win.”

But in my heart I was sad because I told a lie. Good people don’t always win and bad people win many times.

Will little 7aki grow up and try to be good only to get hurt? Will it break her heart? Should I prepare her or should I let the world teach her?

She will know, pretty fast, that no, good people don’t always win.  Badness wins most of the time.

I guess for now I like her to live in her little beautiful perfect world where being good is rewarded and good people always win and bad people lose.

Why? Some Pointless Questions

1) When we store eggs why do we have to put the pointy side down?

2) How are diapers made? And what’s that super absorbent gel?

3) Why does baby breath smell soooo good? I swear it smells like vanilla or like sweetness and yummyness. I think we should bottle that smell, it could make any woman swoon. I think it’s the baby’s gums that add to the OMGodness, OMG the gums are soooooooooooooooooooooooooo awesome!!!!!! I love the gums, I can’t say enough about how much I LOVE THE TOOTHLESS GUMS. So help me God.

4) Why do I torture myself and stay up late after the kids go to sleep at night and suffer in the morning? I HATE ME …. sometimes.

5) Why are you reading this post?

6) Why is the sky blue? I always forget this piece of information, no matter how many times I look it up, I forget.

7) Why do bloggers say goodbye and say I am done with blogging forever and blah blah and then they come back? These people bore me, I mean, if you want to stop blogging you just do that, you stop. Like Hani, he just stopped, Hani, we miss you come back

8 ) Will I ever be able to live in an Arab country again? Especially Jordan?

9) Seriously. Why are you reading this post?

10) Why do I want to have another baby when my baby is only five months old? Peoples, I have the “I want to have a baby” fever and I HAVE A BABY already!!!! Maybe I’m a quintuplet Mom in the making?
But peanut is sooooooooo good peoples, and did I tell you her breath smells sweet and delicious?

11) Who is the MOFO who said women have to remove the hair on their bodies? Who started this MOFO trend? Well, if you find that person AKA MOFO tell them I said EF YOU, MOFO!!!!

12) Why do people, when they travel to a different country, go shopping although the place they live has the exact same stuff? It’s like vacation makes the money you have seem like monopoly money. So, why?

13) Why are we on this earth?
I think we are on this earth to smell babies sweet breath. Cos peoples, I tell you, it’s worth it. I am going to start a new religion. I’ll call it BSB HAHAHAHA

14) Is funk dead?

15) What is funk?

16) How do they sell liquid milk that is not refrigerated? How is it made? Does is scare you that it does not spoil outside of the fridge? Is it made of alien milk?

17) Why is cabin fever called cabin fever?

18) Why?

Wisdom

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.

- Bertrand Russell

How true is that????

A Dose of Philosophy: Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy

I just finished reading Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder.

This book is sooooo insightful and so amazing it will blow your mind away.

It’s like Philosophy for dummies, gives you the ideas behind each school of thought and explains it quite well.

It’s starts with the Garden of Eden, the natural philosophers, Fate, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and keeps going until it reaches Marx , Darwin, Freud and finally ending with the big bang.

What I loved about the book is that it tells philosophy in novel format, mixing the story of a 14 year old, Sophie, who starts receiving mysterious letters in the mail asking her very hard questions like: What is Philosophy? Who are you? And Where does the world come from?

The sender of these letters is an old man called Alberto Knox. With his letters Alberto and Sophie start exploring the intriguing world of Philosophy.

This Novel is fantasy colliding with reality where you are forced to think about Religion, Science the Universe , God and way more important things than what you usually think about, unless of course, you are a philosopher.

A page turner, didn’t want to put it down. Might be difficult in some spots but definitely an extraordinary book to read.

I rarely read a book twice but I will definitely read this one again because its going on the list of my favorite books of all time. It even might be number one.

Go read it. Especially you Observer, you would really love it.

Currently Reading: Notes From the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Next in line: The Lucifer Effect: Understanding how good people turn Evil by Philip Zimbardo.

For more reviews click here

Flies?

Me: Drink your chocolate milk, some people have nothing to eat like in Africa and it’s not good to waste food.

Little 7aki: So will flies come out of my eyes if I don’t drink it like in Africa? 

Me: No, flies won’t come out of your eyes if you don’t drink it.

Little 7aki: Why do the children in Africa have flies in their eyes?

Me: Because they don’t have any food and because they have no rain and they don’t have any money to buy food because they are poor.

Little 7aki: And in Canada if we don’t eat and if we don’t have money will we get flies in our eyes?

Me: Sweetie in Canada there is no famine, we have money and people are not as poor as they are in Africa.

A bit later …

Little 7aki:  Mamaaaaaaaaa, I have an idea! Why don’t we share our money with Africa and then they won’t have flies in their eyes. But not ALL our money because we don’t want to have flies in our eyes either.

Me: Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, FA3ES.

Children are so innocent. See it’s simple; Africa has no money, we have money, we share our money with Africa, and voila, problem solved!

If life was that simple my little philosopher.

You blow it and you die

Little 7aki opened the garage door looked at her dad and said : Baba, I want to stay outside with you.

Baba 7aki who was smoking outside: No no sweetie go inside.

Little 7aki: Don’t smoke.

Baba 7aki: …. (silence).

Little 7aki: I hate smoking, throw it away.

Baba 7aki: Go inside sweetie go inside

Little 7aki: You blow it and you die. I hate it, don’t ever smoke again!

Me: Come on sweetie lets go inside.

Little 7aki when we were inside: Is Baba going to die?

My daughter is very inquisitive about death and dying and health in general.

She asks me: Where are Cinderella’s Mom and Dad, where are Snow whites parents? Did they die? Where do they go when they die?

I tell her they go to heaven because honestly, this is the easiest thing I can tell her. So one time there was a cartoon and a dinosaur died in it and she asked me: Where does the dinosaur go when it dies? I told her that it goes to heaven and she looked alarmed and said: but Cinderella’s Mommy is in heaven and the dinosaur will eat her ! So I told her that most probably there is a heaven for people and a heaven for animals.

Then she once asked me: Why do people die? Why did your Daddy die?

I told her that when people are old and when people are not healthy they die and that my fathers heart was sick.

The first question she asked me was: Are you and Baba old?

She broke my heart.

Then she asked me: Are you and Baba healthy? Is Baba’s heart sick?

I explained that yes we are healthy and we eat good food and we eat our vegetables and we eat no fat that’s why our heart is healthy. And she said , yes Baba is healthy and I am healthy right? My heart is healthy because I don’t eat fat right? I said right.

The first time Little 7aki learned about smoking is in one of the older cartoon movies (101 Dalmatians) Cruela Davil was smoking (In old movies almost all villains smoked!) and she asked me, what is this coming out of her mouth, I said, smoke, she is smoking and smoking is very very bad for you and it is not healthy then she said: But Baba smokes. And that’s when she started noticing her dad smoking .

So she knows smoking is not healthy and she cannot get over the fact that her dad smokes and she hates it and is vocal to her dad about it.

Even now when I ask her: Where is your dad she says: He’s outside. I ask her what is he doing outside she says: He is smoking . I hate smoking right mama? It’s not good.

No, It’s not good at all my little philosopher.

Stand well back of the yellow line

The yellow line stops me from quiting

The yellow line stops me from leaving everything behind

The yellow line stands between me and betrayal

The yellow line wants me to conform

The yellow line wants me to cry, to scream

The yellow line makes me want to rebel

But I stand well back of the yellow line

I am 2 feet behind the yellow line

I don’t cross the yellow line

I don’t know what awaits me if I cross the yellow line

I don’t know. I just don’t know

I want to know

 Why do you tell me to stay behind the yellow line?

I want to wipe it out, change it, erase it, repaint it

I want to experiment with it and test it and cross it and come back if I want to

I never want to see it again

But they say, just stand well back of the yellow line or ….

The yellow line stands between me and happiness

But is it happier across the yellow line?

A conversation with little 7aki

little 7aki: I love you mama

Me: Awwwwwwww … I love you more than the sky

little 7aki: I love you more than my juice

Me: I love you more than my eyes

little 7aki: I love you more than backpack

me: I love you more than my soul

little 7aki: Mamaaaaaaaa? Do you have a soul?

Me: Yes I do

little 7aki: I don’t have a soul? Do I have a soul?

me: of course you do, we all have a soul.

little 7aki: where is it?

me: hmmm, I don’t know, I think it’s inside you

little 7aki: but it’s not in my belly! I didn’t swallow it. There’s only food in my belly

me: lol

And then I proceeded to af3asha fa3es … hehehe

My Right!

….”But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”

“In fact,” said Mustapha Mond, “you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.”

“All right then,” said the Savage defiantly, “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.”

“Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind.” There was a long silence.

“I claim them all,” said the Savage at last.

Mustapha Mond shrugged his shoulders. “You’re welcome,” he said…..

From Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’

The Garden of The Prophet

These words have moved with me from office to office , from cubicle to cubicle form building to building ,hanging on the wall, for the past 5 years; I hope you enjoy them like I do.

“ Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave, eats a bread it does not harvest, and drinks a wine that flows not from its winepress.

“ Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero, and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.

“ Pity the nation that despises a passion in its dream, yet submits in its awakening.

“Pity the nation that raises not its voice save when it walks in a funeral, boasts not except among its ruins, and will rebel not save when its neck is laid between the sword and the block.

“Pity the nation that whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.

“Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting and farewells him with hooting, only to welcome another with trumpeting once again.

“Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle.

“Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation”

Gibran Khalil Gibran
The Garden of The Prophet

One of my favorite quotes

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