today, I.. (or rather, yesterday)
1. celebrated my first sader (Jewish passover) organized by my neighbour, E, downstairs in the common room. Around 30 of us - different nationalities, religions and ethnicity - reclined on our cushioned sofas while reciting and reminiscing the psalms, songs and stories of how the Eternal One delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt. It was quite the experience.. especially the part where we poured a cup of wine for Elijah and stood up to welcome him in. :) Oh, one more thing.. great food. :) nothing much can beat chocoloate coated macaroons and braised beef.. eaten separately of course. :D
2. wrote the introduction to my 3000-word assessed essay on poverty and it is lookin good. :D I'm starting with shakespeare and ending with harun al-rashid, with a bit of einstein in the middle. God, help me, help me.
3. got engrossed in edward said's book "reflections of exile" today at the library. Good stuff i ordered myself a copy from amazon.co.uk. A quote that he quoted:
"The man who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land. The tender soul has fixed his love on one spot in the world; the strong man has extended his love to all places; the perfect man has extinguished his."
Hugo of St. Victory, a twelfth-century monk from Saxony.
What he meant by the perfect man estinguishing his love, was that he now looks at every new place in a fresh way full of possibilities, without carrying with him the baggage of some nostalgic dream of "home" to compare and contrast his new land with. :) cool eh.
said is da bomb. and he writes so clearly as well! just too bad he's dead.
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