Beauty

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are a hundred ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

---

Again, Rumi

With That Moon Language

Admit something:

Everyone you see, you say to them, "Love me."

Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise someone would call the cops.

Still, though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect.

Why not become the one who lives with a full moon in each eye

that is always saying,

with that sweet moon language,

what every other eye in this world is dying to hear?

~Hafiz

I Saw You

I saw you dancing last night
on the roof of your house

all alone.

I felt your heart longing for the Friend.

I saw you whirling

beneath the soft bright rose

that hung from an invisible stem in the sky.

So I began to change into my best clothes

in hopes of joining you,

even though I live a thousand miles away.

And if you had spun like an immaculate sphere

just two more times,

then bowed again so sweetly to the east,

you would have found God and me

standing so near

and lifting you into our arms.

I saw you dancing last night

near the roof of this world

~Hafiz

My Eyes so Soft

Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly
let it cut more deep.
Let it ferment and season you
as few human or even divine ingredients can.
Something missing in my heart tonight
has made my eyes so soft
my voice so tender
my need of god
absolutely clear.

~Hafiz

Guest House

This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

~Rumi

Joy and Sorrow chapter VIII

Then a woman said, "Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow."

And he answered:

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was often times filled with your tears.

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

~Khalil Gibran

Pain

And a woman spoke, saying, 'Tell us of Pain.'

And he said:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.

It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:

For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,

And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.

~Khalil Gibran

Saving the World's Women

New York Times does not usually disappoint me. But this article is just ridiculous in how it spoke about empowering women in such a condescending, disjointed, unsupported way. Why is the series titled "Saving the World's Women" when you propose to say in women lie the solution to saving the world? And what are you trying to advocate Kristof? Microfinance, iodine, Heifer International? A magazine article is where you pick one theme and elaborate on it. Instead, you just put a bunch of news articles together. Lastly, where is your support for how these programs help women, data that is in addition to the emotional appeal of the 2 anecdotes?

These are the worst.

But it’s sometimes said in poor countries that the only thing worse than being exploited in a sweatshop is not being exploited in a sweatshop... Strange as it may seem, sweatshops in Asia had the effect of empowering women. One hundred years ago, many women in China were still having their feet bound. Today, while discrimination and inequality and harassment persist, the culture has been transformed. In the major cities, we’ve found that Chinese men often do more domestic chores than American men typically do. And urban parents are often not only happy with an only daughter; they may even prefer one, under the belief that daughters are better than sons at looking after aging parents.

WTF?! No, being exploited in a sweatshop where many women are sexually harrassed, unpaid, put in unliveable living conditions, etc. is like being exploited at home, in the sex or drug industry. It's EXPLOITATION!

Yes, a lot of things have changed in the last 100 years in China, and you hold sweatshop exploitation as the source of women's empowerment?!

The major city husbands and urban parents are not the ones with daughters in sweatshops.

How did you think it was a good idea to put 5 separate ideas into one paragraph?

Likewise, there’s growing evidence that a cheap way to help keep high-school girls in school is to help them manage menstruation. For fear of embarrassing leaks and stains, girls sometimes stay home during their periods, and the absenteeism puts them behind and eventually leads them to drop out. Aid workers are experimenting with giving African teenage girls sanitary pads, along with access to a toilet where they can change them.

No, the most recent research, including those my PhD friend is currently studying show no correlation between giving girls sanitary pads and increased attendance in Kenya or Nepal. The campaigns are more about Tampax and other companies expanding their businesses through getting into these deals.

For all the legitimate concerns about how well humanitarian aid is spent, investments in education, iodizing salt and maternal health all have a proven record of success.

What do you mean by "a proven record of success"? What are the strings attached to this aid? How are their negative impacts: strings attached (no large donor ever just want to "help people"), US corporations expanding their markets at the expense of distorting and eliminating local ones, 'proven record of' paternalistic / condescending / self-interest driven foreign policy effective?

Yes, women need to be empowered and talked about. But when you take an issue rampant with power imbalance, economic distortions, conflicting interests, geographical and historical legacies, etc. and address only the superficial issues, you are misleading readers Kristof. You make them think it is a naive, simple problem. If they are persuaded (I don't see how any thinking person would be), they may undertake actions that not only do not help, but exacerbate the problem. The end result is likely a worsened problem, and those who could have been reformers turned disilusioned and ineffective.

I suggest you rewrite this 8 page article focusing on one silver-bullet Kristof. Take your pick on how to realistically realize iodinized salt, obstetric fistula. Microfinance, sanitary pads, sweatshops, Heifer are out. What do you want us to get out of it? If you want us to write our congresspeople or pick up the Do-It-Yourself Foreign Aid kit that you advocate, say so. If you just want us to know about the issue, say that and don't present it in this naive, misleading way.

Special Issue - Saving the World's Women: The Women's Crusade