Joanah Eresechima - Turns out being proactive works

 I wanted to write about what I got out of the story, “In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo; In Cairo, Dreaming of Baghdad”. The first line interested me the most, with it saying, “Strange how all who ask questions are sent to Cairo”. Later in the story, we are introduced to a man who inherited a lot of wealth and squandered it, so he calls out to God to help him. While God does want to help him, he knows that immediately satisfying him with new riches will only enable him to live passively. This loss of riches acts as a catalyst for him to be proactive in finding himself rather than relying on his wealth to support him. His first action of praying to God for assistance is done with passion because now he is “empty”. Most people do not want to admit they need help but once they reach rock bottom, they no longer have anything else to lose. This same concept goes for this man from Baghdad as once he had nothing to turn to, “The tears came. The habitual stubbornness dissolved”. Now that everything has been stripped away from him, all previous inhibitions melted away and he is left to call out in desperation. As a result, he is not given a direct answer but instead a guide in the right direction through a dream. This, again, allows the man to take an active role in his fate. At the end of his journey, he meets a night patrolman who also had a dream about riches in Baghdad, but he had decided not to go. The night patrolman mocks him for actually listening to the dream, but it turns out that the treasures were at the man’s house in Baghdad the whole time. This means that if he had not decided to take on this adventure, he would never have been able to find his treasure. Circling back to the first line, it seems that one moral that can be taken from the story is that taking the initiative in your growth can allow you to actively lead yourself in the right direction. This is because the man’s cry for help is what ultimately lead him to find what he was looking for.

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