Ozymandias: Nothing beside remains
This is one of my favorite poems. I learned it as a child, and didn’t understand it, but liked the exotic loneliness it evoked. I could hear the wind whistling across the empty sands, feel the grains on my cheek – so very different from my home in Alaska, and yet – not so different. In Alaska, the wind blew cold, and the grit against my cheek was snow! The memory of these ironic words lives in my heart.
The words come back to me, now and again as we stand amidst remains of complex, abundant civilizations that are now lifeless stone and rubble.
Ozymandias
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
If you read through the entire poem, you are challenged to tell us about a poem that YOU still remember, and why. 😉
Blessings of Eid and Eidiyya
(*Note for non-Muslim, non-Kuwaitis – Eidiyya is money given for Eid, mostly to young children, but I have a few grown up women friends who tell me their Daddy still gives them money for Eid, the big holiday at the end of Ramadan.)
We had a yen for French food last night, and were at the restaurant, finishing up a fairly mediocre meal. We were enjoying watching all the couples and families, all dressed in Eid finery. Many of the women literally sparkled – gold threads woven into scarf or hijab, clothing beaded or glittering. . . we were like plain little quail, surrounded by swans, but that was fine with us, kept us below the radar as we ate our dinner.
As we came in, we had been warned that the credit card machines were not working, but that wasn’t a problem for us, we tend to carry cash, just keeps things simpler.
So we are waiting for our change, when a very good looking family comes in and sits at a table near us. The husband and wife are dressed beautifully, not glam, but well tailored, well fitted, expensive clothing, and they have five beautiful children with them, youngest maybe 10, up to maybe college age. As they are about to order, the waiter reminds them that the charge machines are out of order and the restaurant will accept only cash tonight.
The distinguished looking man sits in a stunned and embarrassed silence. The faces of his family are all turned to him as sunflowers to the sun, waiting. Then his wife says “Don’t worry, I have 10KD here, you can have it.” (10KD would not have taken care of this family!) The oldest girl jumps in: “Dad, I have my Eidiyya with me! You can have it!” and each of the children start digging in their pockets and purses for money to help their Dad out.
Our change came back and we were leaving. I don’t know if they stayed, if the Dad accepted any of the money as a loan, but my own heart was warmed – as I am betting his was – that his family would jump to help him out, so that he would not be embarrassed and so that the family could have the meal they planned. How proud he must be of his beautiful family, and their beautiful hearts. How blessed he must feel!
I have seen in my own life how God can take the most awful circumstances, even trivial events, and use them for great good. We’re all cash-strapped now and then, but God used this embarrassment to demonstrate to this man where his greatest blessings abide – in his own home.
Directions to Northgate Mosque, Seattle (Idriss)
Today I have had many hits – over 20 – on a post I wrote a year ago about the Northgate Mosque. I am guessing that people in Seattle are looking for directions to the mosque, to celebrate the Eid. Here is a map:
I must be doing something wrong, but if you click on the blue print, it will take you to a Google Map that shows you how to get to the Idriss Mosque in the Northgate Area of Seattle.
Eid Mubarak!
I was totally caught by surprise! I thought we were going to have a very very quiet Friday, last day of Ramadan, but awoke to hear an unusual and continuous amount of traffic in the middle of the night.
“I think the Eid started,” Adventure Man said groggily. “I got an Eid message.”
“I don’t think so, ” I said, based on absolutely nothing, “it’s not supposed to start until Saturday.”
In all our years living in the Middle East, I have never known an Eid to come early. I have known Eids to wait a day – even two – while the fasting seemed endless, and people dragged themselves to get through one more day, and then one more. But this totally caught me by surprise!
(This photo from a fabulous blog: Astropix.
Blessings of Eid to all my Muslim friends! Blessings! Blessings! May you always have enough! May you be surrounded by friends and family who love you! May your hearts be full of gratitude to God, for all these blessings, known and unknown!
Special Occasions: Cream Puffs and Profiteroles
Cream Puffs
Cream Puffs got me through a lot of guest dinners. They look so amazing, they taste so good, and they are really easy to make. So give it a try, and have fun.
The secret is taking the top off while they are still hot, and pulling out the filiments of excess dough so it doesn’t steam the puff from within and wilt it. They are so easy, we even taught them to kids in a summer fun program when we lived in Tunisia. They loved putting the whipped cream in (I think more got in the kids than in the creme puffs)
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
4 eggs
Heat oven to 400°F/ 200°C. Heat water and butter to strong rolling boil. Stir in flour, stir vigorously over low heat about one minute or until mixture forms a ball. (You’ll know it when you see it.)
Remove from heat, beat in eggs, all at one time, continue beating and beating until smooth. Drop dough by Tablespoons 3” apart onto UNGREASED baking sheet. Bake 35 – 40 minutes or until puffed and golden. Cool away from drafts. Cut off tops, pull out filaments of dough inside.
When ready to serve, fill with Creme Chantilly, put the top on, and drizzle chocolate syrup over top and down the sides. Gorgeous!
Creme Chantilly
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sifted powdered (sometimes called confectioners) sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Whip the whipping cream until just stiff, quickly fold in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract.
Chocolate Syrup
3 Tablespoons Hershey’s cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 Tablespoon(s) HOT water
Mix together cocoa powder and butter, and melt over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 Tablespoon hot water. Beat until smooth. Only add more hot water if it is too thick; needs to be “drizzle-able”.
Profiteroles
Profiteroles are very small cream puffs, just smaller balls, same dough, cooked, covered with the same chocolate syrup. Instead of serving one cream puff, you serve maybe six small profiteroles.
Travel Dilemma
We love Syria. I used to take trips around Syria with a group of archaeologists; we stayed weird places and saw the most remote and obscure places just to see them, just to see what we could see. It was so much fun; Syria is so beautiful. We most often went there in winter, and I remember how COLD it could be, even into April.
We requested visas weeks ago. No visas. This week we got a state department advisory saying travel in Syria was not advisable because of the embassy incident that happened in September 2006 – like over a year ago. Yeh, right. It couldn’t be that travel there is riskier because of the recent Israeli incursion?
Adventure Man suggested maybe we go to Paris, thinking Paris would make it all better. Then Morocco, knowing I also love Morocco. I am thinking maybe Larnaca, maybe Salalah, maybe Beirut. There is a part of me that is still hoping the visas will come through and I don’t want to commit to anything else. Aaaarrrrrgggghhhhhhhh!
The Qatteri Cat Loves Ramadan
We could hear the Qatteri Cat up last night, roaming around. He would “miaow” loudly, greeting our neighbors as they returned from the night-long prayers in the mosque. We can hear QC eating suhoor (before sunrise meal). When we got up, he looked as us groggily as if to say “you guys are crazy.”
The last days of Ramadan are tough, what with social events, feasting, and nightly prayers. Many are suffering from over-eating, lack of sleep, and unbalanced blood sugars during the day.
The Qatteri Cat’s got it made. This is his strategy for the last few days of Ramadan:
Ride Home Wreckage
I found myself driving home from a meeting during prime traffic time today, and it was all very mellow. Mellow until I got near my home, and saw a huge wreck by the side of the road. I don’t know how many times you need to turn over to land on the top with so much damage, but I think it must be a lot.
And on my other side is a man with his hazard lights on. I’m in the middle lane, there is traffic on the right, and this guy, in his late 50’s – 60’s maybe, on my left has his hazard lights on and is drifting all over the road. He moves into me suddenly, I quickly turn the wheel, so fast my rear wheels skid on the oil slick road and my rear end jumps, which sends bolts of adrenelin pumping through my system as I am trying to control my car, honk at him to say “pay attention” (zero reaction) and I try to stay out of the way of the guy on my left and not cause any problems for traffic on my right.
I honk again at the guy on the left, and honestly, this guy is so out of it, he is drifting three lanes across the road, my honk doesn’t even phase him. I don’t know if he is so sleepy he can’t control the car, he is on drugs or he is drunk out of his mind, but he just drifts from lane to lane with his hazard lights on – as if that is enough: “Hey, you guys, I have my hazard lights on – stay out of my way.” He wasn’t driving fast, just all over the road. It might have been comical if there wasn’t so much traffic.
Safely home, I intend to stay here!
Idiot Custom Paint Job
I couldn’t resist. I carry my camera with me, and this was too good to pass up.
Just a car? Look again. You may not be able to see all the pink sparkles sprayed on, but they twinkle and sparkle in the sun. And this is a GUY driving a pink sparkly car.
But whoever he hired to do this – or did he do it himself? – was a genius. He also sprayed the tail lights and the back windsheild – did you see that?
Idiots!
Fireman Threatened
This morning, Adventure Man said “is this for me?” as he came across one of the scraps of newspaper left lying around in the living room. Sometimes they are – an exhibit at the Dar al Funoon, the opening of the new Tarek Rajeb Calligraphy Museum – but this time, it isn’t for him, not directly, it is for you.
From yesterday’s (October 8, 2007) Kuwait Times:
Fireman Threatened
A car caught on fire in Ardiya and firemen rushed tothe scene to put the fire out. When they finished their job and began writing their report, they saw liquor bottles inside the car. Shortly thereafter, detectives came by and told the firemen to forget about what they saw.
When the firemen said they wouldn’t and that they would report the matter, the detectives threatened the firemen at gunpoint.
Comment: Even Adventure Man had to laugh at that one, and said “it’s the Wild West out there, cowboys running around everywhere.”
Firemen and policemen are heroes in my book. And Kuwait has some good ones, true heroes. The bad ones, using their power for selfish gain – seem to be multiplying. Will the new face of the police force – bringing in non-Kuwaitis – make the force better, i.e. impartial enforcers of the law – or worse?
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