One Lucky Soul: OLS Reflections Seventy Six

OLS Reflections Seventy Six by Omar Cherif, One Lucky Soul

In art, as in life, playing safe rarely ever propels you forward.

It is not a lack of intelligence that holds people back the most. It is fear, often initially caused by repressed traumatic experiences they had gone through when younger. Without bringing these ancient traumas — embodied in their ‘shadow’ — from the darkness to the light, healing remains but a wishful thinking. The “poor little me” mindset manages to hijack their inner beings, rendering them unable to face their own perceived boundaries and limitations, which naturally also makes them unable to transcend them. Fear, you see, remains the driving force behind many harmful behaviours in life. “Let go or be dragged” as the Zen proverb reminds us.

Be it a praying rug, a yoga mat, or a flying carpet, there are countless ways through which we can be One with the Soul of Mankind.

It is often said that if you decide to devote your life to art — as in fully, authentically, and wholeheartedly — it would be almost impossible to also share it with another human being. At least not for extended periods of time. When art is your muse it becomes your raison d’être. No earthly presence can ever replace such a fierce, liberating creative force or realm. As such, a great artist can rarely make a great husband or wife. Simply because you cannot own the life of the true artist or poet. They are married to their arts. Hence cannot belong or be confined to a specific time or space. They remain vagabonding through life — like refugees who do not belong anywhere.

People with inferiority complex often get into relationships with those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds just to maintain a certain perceived egoic superiority.

What we call intelligence is usually curiosity and wonder channelled into the right direction.

When we constantly look for significance in life we cannot help but overlook the fact that we are the ones who give it significance. We give meaning to our own life simply by being alive in the truest, fullest, wholest way possible; it is only found when we go beyond meaning. The existential magic lies in making sense out of the meaninglessness. Just like the Zen life, which is about being rather than meaning. For one prime essence of the Human Condition lies in realising the significance of our insignificance. Being nothing and everything simultaneously then becomes the greatest poetry there is.

If one is seeking to lead a truthful life, some people’s lines must be crossed. It is why people-pleasers make terrible “writers”.

When immersed in Nature our heartbeat tends to match the beat of the universe. We become one and the same. While there never was a separation between the macrocosm and the microcosm to begin with — as it is a mere illusion — we allow life to distract us, so we forget this ethereal connection. Reconnecting with Nature is how our every nerve ending remembers its home. Make sure you always find time for Mother Nature. For she is the real Guru — who likes to be appreciated every once in a while. Disconnect II Reconnect.

Being thought of as a foreigner in one’s own home country ever since I was a child — due to my different and somewhat ‘exotic’ looks — contributed greatly to my feelings of alienation. It made me question my identity, leaving me feeling that somehow I do not belong to this population. Until today in Egypt, perhaps especially today, I am often first spoken to in English. Then comes the shocking surprise whenever I utter that first Arabic word(s) — with no funny accents.

So over the years I began to marvel on what the opening word(s) would be. Oftentimes I go for basic regional salutation, but with a local twist: “Samo Aleikom” as opposed to the full phase: “Al Salamo Alaykom”, which is basically “Peace be upon you”. Then before they get a chance to verbally respond, their eyes and, dare we say, their entire body language have already recognised me as “friend” rather than “stranger foe”, as “one of us”. In spite of the outer appearance.

Minus the full decade spent in North America so far, I’ve had almost 44 years to experiment and perfect such social interactions. Looking back, you see, I guess that despite the alienation, the love of solitude, the need to be authentically myself, and the distaste for conformity to the established norms, there still seemed to be a small part deep within me that was seeking connection and interaction with my fellow men; perhaps even subconsciously wanting to be accepted by society... just as I truly am and, yet, without showing it much. For contrary to what we sometimes exhibit, “No man is an island entire of itself.”

Even lone wolves can sometimes join an existing pack. Or they may start their own. Or, they could possibly integrate both.