eudaimonia & anagnorisis

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."

Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor and exquisite philosopher, has long held a special place in my psyche for that quote alone, but after delving into some of his other tidbits this evening i am driven to share:

Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.

Men exist for the sake of one another.

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.

The sexual embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer.

Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.

This weekend reminded me of Thanksgiving. Usually during Thanksgiving break all my friends scatter off to be with family and I stay in the District to enjoy a few responsibility-free days of unplanned pleasure to catch up on school work and simply feel time pass. That is exactly what I’ve been doing. Thursday night I went to my friend Amirah’s house for iftar and enjoyed grilled, stuffed pigeons for the second time. While I was waiting for 3li to pick me up for Taraweeh I was sitting outside her building and an old man with an apartment on the 1^st floor leaned out his window and offered me tea. After a little persuasion and broken conversation in arabic I agreed, he disappeared into his house, returned a few minutes later and handed me a cup of well-sugared tea, wished me a happy Ramadan and disappeared back into his home. Before I left he introduced his beautiful grandchildren to me and took back the cup. It is moments like this that make me really, really love Egypt and its quirky people....

Friday I spent all day in bed flipping thru travel guides between naps. And then in the evening met up with Sameh and we chilled felucca-style on the Nile with Noura and their friend Yasser.

Today’s challenge was supposed to finding a new apartment but I failed at that. It's stressing me out, but weather is too nice and the city's atmosphere too joyful for me to genuinely feel discouraged. Perhaps after 'Eid I'll have a refreshed perspective and will to find something. On a happier note: I’ve gotten all my post-midterm textbooks and am enthusiastically nusring the academic flame that was rekindled last week. Perhaps I won't taint my transcript with mediocrity afterall, inshaAllah.

Tomorrow I leave for Dahab, in the Sinai across the gulf of Aqaba from Saudia Arabia, and I couldn't be happier. I have to work in the evening, so I won't be able to take the bus with the other divers *feigned innocent disappointment* and instead I get to be co-pilot and drive with Sameh. Hopefully a detour to Sharm elSheik or St. Catherine's Monastary will decorate the drive?