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Archive Number 3536 | ||
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Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 22:14:17 EST
MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Greetings All! I find myself wondering why this list, which used to be so dynamic, has become so listless and unconversational....? When I got to pick up HEALINGSTORY mail these days, mainly what I find is ads for viagra. Heck, I know there are MANY listmembers who are doing fascinating things and thinking fascinating thoughts. What's happened? Is everyone simply too busy with other important, extraverted pursuits? Or maybe it's just that everyone is experiencing cyber burn-out and "taking back their time" .... Well, I know it's important to set priorities and also to have quiet, reflective time, but we all have so much to learn from each other... ButI wish folks would step forward and share their experiences, their concerns, their ideas. And I am also a firm believer that what is put out there in the spirit of the gift comes back tenfold. To get the ball rolling, I would also like to recommend a book. This is THE STORYTELLERS DAUGHTER by Saira Shah. She is the daughter of the reknown collector of Sufi tales (and stories generally), Indries Shah, and also in her own right a journalist and documentary film-maker living in London. The book interweaves Sufi tales and Rumi quotes with her own personal, very courageous journeys into Afghanistan (often disguised as a boy), partly in search of an illusionary myth about Afghanistan, partly in search of material for a documentary on the plight of Afghan women. It was a fasinating read. Here is a quote, early on in the book (p. 7) , of a conversation she had with her father while the two of them were ccooking together a pilau, a traditional Afghan meal... (father) "I've given you stories to replace community. They are your community." (Saira) "But surely stories can't replace experience." He picked up a packet of dehydrated onion. "Stories are like these onions--like dried experience. They aren't the original experiences but they are more than nothing at all. You think about a story, you turn it over in your mind, and it becomes something else." He added hot water to the onion. "It's not fresh onion--fresh experience--but it is something that can help you to recognize experience when you come across it. Experiences follow patterns, which repeat themselves again and again. In our tradition, stories can help you recognize the shape of an expereince, to make sense of and to deal with it. So, you see, what you may take for mere snippets of myth and legend encapsulate what you need to know to guide you on your way anywhere among Afghan...." If you read the book, you will find out to what extent this idea is (or isn't) true! Cristy Cristy West Washington, DC In any case, I would like recommend a book ------------------------------- To Unsubscribe from Healingstory send the message: unsubscribe healingstory to: listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu ------------------------------- | ||