So... Umm... What's a Rumi?!

Oi! Who is this wierd looking character??!

...

Not some kinda terrorist is he??!

!

Not so much. Allow me to tell a short story:

So I'm hanging out with an older cousin the other day. We're out walking the dog of course, and meander onto the top of a small hill in the neighbourhood. We sit down on it and gaze up at the stars. Being a couple of sciency geeks we find ourselves talking about how can we know the distances between 2 stars in space. He should know really, he's the one who knows how to use an astrolabe! But alas we're not too sure. I tell him, well in ancient times in Arabia they used the stars to navigate the oceans, so they probably knew about these things... I sighed, wondering why, in our super-fantastisch technological age we didn't know the answer! I thought to myself, "Common dude, think! We've got Hubble now, all kinds of fancy schmancy satellites and giant observatories peppering our blue-green spere... How can I now know the answer to this seemingly basic question?!" Alas. We had no internet access, no wikipedia, no tools and indeed, no answer to this obviously not-so-simple question. So I turn to him and tell him: "Well, dude... If anyone living in those ancient Arabian sea-faring days knew the answer to that, I'll bet Rumi knew!".

It was then that he asked me: "Umm, ok... Who's Rumi?!"

[headAsplode]

Wow. Here we were, gazing at the stars in the spring of the 2007 UNESCO Rumi year, and this cat hadn't the first freakin clue who the dude was!

*sigh* Anyway, although I can't really explain him in words properly... I mean I'm not sure anybody really can, but I have started to read his works recently, and I'll say just this: He was basically the Sufi poet.

With that said, I've been getting some unexpected and interesting responses to the question I posed in my previous entry, about sentimentality... And I scrawled some of my apparently random thoughts on the matter. Had I never read Rumi, there is simply no way I could think along these lines....

Warning! All hands on deck.

[AK] is about pull a Rumi:

"We keep ourselves locked into these silly little boxes.

We cling to them for no apparent reason, and seem to take pleasure in keeping them hidden in deep underground crypts.

We do that in the hopes that the eggs that are our most secret dreams will not hatch.

What do we fear? Ourselves, clearly.

Why are we so afraid of our own reflections?

Because when we slowly open our eyes and allow our deepest thoughts to discreetly flow out from our fingertips...

We slowly begin to assemble the little bits and pieces of the ultimate future that is our collective and inevitable destiny.

It is ours to build, and awaits us around the next bend in our future.

Who are we? What are we?

...

WE

Are that terrorless generation that has no choice but to ignore those worthless and decietful patterns our parents once held on to so dearly.

Paranoia and careless hatred will achieve only that which has already gone before.

Comrades... The time to stand united is upon us...

And rapidly passing us by.

We no longer have the imaginary luxury of ignoring those silent voices of truth that echo from within our souls...

Allow that uncertain stream of combined effort to slay those foolish, cheating, laughing hyenas that have been trying to show up in our hearts ;)

Let 'em be!

Let us BE.

We must simply and nimbly rise.

Rise.

Rise above.

Above all the fears that exist, and run towards what we have always felt is our destiny."