Caitlyn King - In College, Dreaming of Not

 Maybe it's too long since the start of the semester to talk about one of the first readings we went over. But also, it's only been four months, and four is a very small number, numerically.

So, "In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo; In Cairo, Dreaming of Baghdad," a poem detailing a person's journey to find what he is looking for in Cairo, only to find out that he could have found it in Baghdad where he was all along, and that through the journey his eyes had been opened. The person who made him realize this was a soldier who had the same dream, but his had told him to go to Baghdad.

And it's sorta that type of story where it's like "Oh, the grass is always greener on the other side."

I've been thinking about it a lot. Growing up in a first world country, we get told of how lucky we are to be even getting an education. It's our version of 'Baghdad' and then we dream of 'Cairo,' where we don't have the stress of college. Most students long for that, for somewhere college doesn't matter.

But then there are people in this 'Cairo' who don't have access to a higher education, and long for our 'Baghdad', and it can be hard to remember that. I have to think about this poem almost every week. I wrote parts of it in my journal to remind myself that the journey is worth it; that in order to find what I need, I need to go through this journey, conscious that others have not travelled. And I have to remind myself to be grateful for the opportunity, no matter the state it puts me in.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kip Redick Example of a Blog Post

 Page 4 Michael Taussig would suggest Juan's understanding of the meaning of a place emerges out of the process of an imitation of all the “differences” that we discern there. We mimic (in language and action) the full range of sounds, movements, and other sensory perceptions that come to us from the more than human world.” It’s hard to put a place that strikes us as sublime into mere words; we can try to describe it as a feeling and try to put language to that feeling, but sometimes the feeling of the beauty of nature or the power of a sacred space is too big to try to translate or make sense of. Would every place and experience be subjective, and would the discourse be the same? Would the mountain top make me feel the same as another? Or does my personal experience with the natural world and divine keep it intimate/ unique, or would my experience be relatable enough? The author uses the messiness, ambiguity, and mystery of people's deeply personal experience of ...
Read more

Rose Baker - Herbert's "Dune" and Martyrs

  In class, we talked about Jesus and Christianity as an example of myth. Myths and martyrs are dangerous to systems of control because even if they’re suppressed, they can survive and grow stronger. They last because they’re tied to belief, memory, and emotion---things you can’t fully erase. That’s what makes them more powerful than systems built on forced order or control. Even though much of the early church died gruesome deaths, and were consistently ordered to stop spreading the gospel, the "myth" of Jesus has continued for over 2000 years.      In Frank Herbert's  Dune , we see something similar. The Bene Gesserit know how powerful myths can be, and instead of waiting for one to form naturally, they build one on purpose. Through the Missionaria Protectiva , they plant stories and prophecies across different cultures, preparing the world for someone to fulfill the one part they can't fabricate, the living, breathing "savior" who must be visible and prov...
Read more

Joanah Eresechima - Blue Lock's Exploration of Flow

In the sixth chapter of American Camino , the concept of flow is extensively explained in the context of spiritual walking. It is described as unification of action and awareness to create a state in which thoughts are non-existent. The hiker just moves through the world, extremely aware and focused on the wilderness around them but unable to thoroughly reflect on it in that moment. It is only afterwards that the hiker is able to recall the memories from their flow state. Flow can occur in different types of people like artists, scientists and athletes (Redick 249). I was actually very surprised to see this term in the book because it becomes one of the central components in a manga I read called Blue Lock. The story followed a boy named Isagi Yoichi, a high school soccer player who got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join a soccer program called Blue Lock meant to create the greatest striker in the world. Out of 300 players, he was ranked 299 th , making him one of the weakest p...
Read more