Communication is not for losers...

Anyone who has spent even one hour in my house with my parents home has probably heard the age old line "communication is for loooosers." Imagine a mysteriously thick desi accent that comes out exceptionally well in the accentuation of loser.

As I have been so strongly advocating since I declared "communication" as my major of choice 4 years ago, the recent week has only perpetuated my belief that there really needs to be better communication in this world, and really proper communication can solve everything--and by communication i mean hearing and listening as well. SubhanAllah, even Islamically, one of the key aspects that make Islam so unique is how the faith has been communicated out and passed along. The history of the Quran and narration of hadith, how they have been documented and the accuracy of what we read today vs. what the sahaba knew during the Prophet SAW is amazing. Our religion has been communicated out perfectly--it's just a matter of following it.

This past weekend I was given the opportunity to see a premiere of Prince Among Slaves, the story of a Muslim African prince brought into America under slavery. It amazed me to see the most common reaction from people afterwards was--I can't believe I never knew that story. How did we not know? The other take away from this event was prior to the showing, one of the co producers introduced the film. As part of his introduction, he told an old joke which I had heard before but struck a different chord with me this time. The joke was about a silent debate between 2 esteemed religious officials, one Jewish, one Christian. They both did various actions with their own intent in mind and afterwards were asked about it. The Christian figure was like, the Jew won the debate fair and square--I held up 3 fingers to symbolize the Trinity, he held up one for one God, I pointed to the sky and he pointed to the ground, I brought out my bread and wine and then he brought out an apple to symbolize the start of humanity etcetc. (there's more and I'm probably wrong but this is what I remember...). The Jew in response was like wow, how did I win? He was holding up three fingers so I was holding up one questioning what the fingers was all about. He pointed to the sky so I pointed to the earth, and well he took out his lunch-so I took out mine. So I probably butchered this joke but the point is, two people can answer and do the same thing that can be interpreted completely different, based on their own perceptions shaped by their own personal experiences and mentality. Good food for thought, considering the arguments and disagreements I keep seeing occur seem to question that.

On a complete different note--my current read has been Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy. So while the title was definitely eye catching--the actual book itself from an academic and gender communication perspective was even more thought provoking. Since I don't want to spoil the book itself for anyone who will actually check it out, here's an excerpt from the back that gives a good synopsis:

"Meet the Female Chauvinist Pig--the new brand of "empowered" woman" who embraces "raunch culture" wherever she finds it. In her groundbreaking book, New York magazine writer Ariel Levy argues that, if male chauvinist pigs of years past thought of women as pieces of meat, Female Chauvinist Pigs of today are doing them one better, making sex objects of other women--and of themselves."

Needless to say, the class discussion this was one of the best we've had so far and afterwards I got into awesome dialogue about muslim women with one of the few males in the class.

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“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
--Albert Einstein