3/22 in the belly of the fish
it's been the longest month... but we march on... scroll to the bottom of this post for a warm reflection on figs, mosquitos, and God 🦟
I haven’t done much article reading this month. I did read 6 whole books though, so that’s an accomplishment. I am barely staying on top of my rather ambitious yearly reading goal on Goodreads but no complaints. Let’s start with my absolute favorite:
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce — Truly a perfect book. Easily one of my favorites. Kind of like Tuesdays with Morrie if you are into that genre of slow, contemplative, and unassuming fiction which takes you by surprise. I recommend audiobook for this, and long walks in parks.
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell — An entertaining non-fiction book that tackles the unifying factors between Scientology, Peleton, and the suicide-murder cults of a few decades ago. The moral of the story is, don’t let anyone tell you that language is not important.
The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton — A great albeit tragic starting place for those who are on the fence about the death penalty (like myself). Hinton’s story is touching and infuriating at the same time. I felt inspired by his drive, his faith, his friendships, his forgiving nature. I also felt enraged that he was behind bars for three decades because our system is not designed to protect men who look like him, who make easy targets, who are seen as disposable.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi — Another great yet tragic memoir by another amazing personality. Kalanithi is not only a hard-working genius, but also a philosopher and a seeker of Truth. We get to see how his search for meaning changes over the course of his life as he gets diagnosed with a terminal illness at the peak of his academic and professional trajectory.
The Batman? Great stuff. I watched it with Gozde, and I will tell you that had I not watched it with my best friend I would not have had the same amount of fun. We talked and joked through the whole movie. Which is 3 hours long by the way. But it’s great. It’s brooding and dark and takes itself so seriously. Refreshing after being so used to Marvel superheroes whose inability to go 10 mins without a smart-ass quip is well beyond notorious at this point.
Turning Red — Also fun. Surprisingly fun. It has a few embarrassing, mainstream-social-justice-tidbits sprinkled in, but still cool because it has four teen girls who are developing crushes, acting awkwardly, and facing the imminence of menstruation. Gave me nostalgia for how dedicated I was to my fandoms and celebrity crushes a mere decade ago. (Not that I have changed much since then…) But still. A delight.
I also binge watched all of Bridgerton (S1 and S2). It’s like Pride and Prejudice on steroids and also if it was made for HBO… but it’s on Netflix. It’s not family friendly, be warned, but it did rekindle my little romantic heart.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have Abbott Elementary. The show itself is cute, wholesome, kind of like Ted Lasso but not as deep. I did like this interview with the lead actor and writer. She says that when people are watching sitcoms they don’t want to see an extension or regurgitation of their Twitter timelines, and she is right. It’s a good observation and a fair testament to what she has done with Abbott.
Kerem (my brother) has a blog now. I am managing it but it’s just stuff he’s working on that’s more bite-sized. Here’s a link. Three chapters of his murder mystery are up and ready for everyone’s enjoyment. 🔪
Ramadan starts on Saturday. Let’s pray I emerge as a slightly better person after these 30 blessed days.
On that note, my favorite spiritual lesson this month —
As the Quran was being revealed to Prophet Muhammad, there were verses where God would invoke (swear by for emphasis) on things like the moon, the sun, the sky etc. But God also invoked smaller and less apparently grand things like figs, olives, spiders, and flies. Opponents of the Prophet at the time came to him and said that it was absurd and lowly for this so-called Creator to invoke such trivial things. So a new verse was revealed in response:
Surely God is not ashamed to set forth an example of a mosquito, or even what is above it. (Quran, 2:26)
The beauty of creation is that it must be absolute. In an elementary logic class, they will teach you that Aquinas’s cosmological proof for the existence of God is an example of the quantifier shift fallacy or maybe the fallacy of composition. I am speaking from experience.
But, as I said above, the beauty of creation is that it must be absolute. John Locke is right in this quote (which I cannot trace anywhere outside of this out-of-print logic textbook) that “Everything is caused by something, so there must be some (one) thing that caused everything.” Because the One who can create the mosquito can only be the One to create the whole universe, and the One to create the whole universe can only be the One who can create the mosquito. You can’t have partial creator powers! You can’t have delegated creation, regional creation, temporally separated creation. No sir! Creation must be absolute means that you cannot create a lowly, and seemingly insignificant mosquito if you cannot also create the entire universe in which that mosquito exists! If you cannot create galaxies, and planets, and flora and fauna, and life and death, and time, and space — you cannot create a mere mosquito. There is no scale when it comes to creation. You are either the Creator of everything or you are a part of the created everything. That is the unwavering truth of it. The undeniable reality of it. The absolute BEAUTY OF IT!
SubhanAllah indeed, glory be to God, and God alone. The One who creates us and sustains us out of love. Happy April friends! Let us rejoice 🌺