Past & Future – What Else?

We have all gone through tough times. But we have also had our many laughs and good times. I have seen my nephews being born and raised to be great men of the future. But I have also seen people leaving me. Walking at a distance while turning their backs at me. Some of them cared but others didn’t. I only wonder if they ever did.

You know what? I don’t blame them. They probably didn’t know me enough. Or wait a minute. Maybe it was my fault. Maybe I didn’t introduce myself well enough. Yes. I tend to be kind hearted sometimes and always claim responsibility for the mistakes of others.

Anyway. It just happens! We were all born to live through such situations. The more you experience them, the more tough you become. But being tough is tough. People around you have to live with it. If some of you out there are living with it, please excuse me. It was never my intention to be an unpleasant company.

Let us all get over our bad past. Let us just assume that the past is a foreign country. Where things are done differently. I have left that country and landed on a new one. A country called “Future”. A country where new things are going to happen. Whether good or bad, we just know that things are going to happen. Years later, we will decide whether we should stay or yet leave to another country.

I’m not trying to be pessimistic, but I truly think that we will be visiting every country of the world.

Don’t escape from your bad moments. They will follow you. They will stalk you. They will hit wherever you go. Any time of the day. It will come. So try to laugh about it. It will come smoother. Sometimes sweet. Expect it and it will sound nicer.

On the other end, try to act surprised when good things happen to you. Even when you’re expecting it. It will look nicer. A great surprise! What a beautiful sentence that is!

My dear OtherEnders,

Driving your future while trying to control your past is a tough ride. Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life.

What is it you would let go of today?

Try to do this exercise. It really helps.

I will end this with another contradictory argument and let you make the judging.

Why should we look to the past in order to prepare for the future?

Because there is nowhere else to look.

Good Luck Mr. President

Years ago, while at the American University of Beirut, I had the chance to be a member of the Student Representative Council. An honor which was given to me by the students themselves. Those that saw in me the person who could represent them the most.

A great experience indeed. One of those that boost your confidence. But surely one of those that freak you out. Knowing that you have to do your best to prove your initial intentions.

It starts with the simple fact that you need to challenge yourselves and the other nominees. Then comes the positive goal of making it into the Council. Then comes the work and the responsibilities. Then comes the politics and the headache.

Henry Kissinger once said that university politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small. Imagine that even such a high ranked politician spoke about this kind of politics. Then you could say to yourselves:

How crucial it is!

This subject came to my mind knowing that now it is election season around the universities based in Lebanon. While politicians are battling each other in their offices and on television, students are taking it to their university halls and classes. They want to prove that their leaders are there. Even around the smallest fields.

Who is going to win? Not the one who sticks to his beliefs and relies on the followers of his beliefs.

Take it from me. When I ran for a seat in the Student Representative Council of the American University of Beirut I had no beliefs. What I had was a program which only concerns the students in their university. And that is what elections should be all about.

But, I guess I was diplomatic enough to win votes from all around. Even from parties involved in historic conflicts. I remember the midnight calls I used to get from activists from all sides telling me that they were going to include me on their lists. Was it wrong to accept? Almost ten years later ... I don’t think so. I had been supported and elected by all parties. The ones with whom I share some beliefs and the ones with whom I share nothing at all.

But when does the headache hit? Later during the SRC meetings when those same parties are fighting over some new laws. Most of the time, a blank paper was there. Mine! Playing it safe to say that I’m with everyone and against no one, but I’m rather there for someone: for the students.

That wasn’t easy in practice. Not easy at all.

I fear that this might happen in my country on a bigger scale. The next President. Different parties are working on agreeing on one person for all. I assume this person will have, in a way, the same characteristics I had when I was still in university. But once elected, what will he do? Serve the people?

Unfortunately serving the people for one party is acting against the people for another.

Good luck,

Mr. President!

I'm On Earth

I have had my share of disappointments in this life. I have loved and lost. Like many of you out there. My OtherEnders.

And many other disappointments are yet to come. This makes me realize that some of what I have today is to be lost tomorrow. I am happy today but am to be disappointed tomorrow.

But still, I shouldn’t give up. I am to be happy again after tomorrow. Apparently that’s how it goes. Twenty nine years have taught me. A lot actually.

I guess life is like an economics theory. The simple rule of supply and demand applies to it. Some people demand happiness because their lives lack some of it and others supply happiness because they have so much of it. The two curves intersect at the equilibrium point where we stand today. Our social status. The only point that we share together. But which we can’t see.

I imagine myself in front of a beautiful sight. There are green mountains, calm rivers, flying birds and a clear blue sky. But I also see myself in this portrait. Then I realize that it’s just a mirror I’m looking at. I see my own reflection and this whole gorgeous sight behind it.

That could be my past. My yesterday. My today is not in the mirror. It’s what’s around me now. Which might not be as beautiful. But my tomorrow might be even more.

Let’s see.

Sometimes I guess my words make me sound serious and sucked by another parallel world. The reality is that I’m still the guy next door. The guy that likes to have many laughs. Many drinks and much other unhealthy stuff. The guy that likes to surround himself with funny people and that throws himself in weird situations. The guy that thinks the sky is blue because it’s blue and the sun is a ball of fire because it’s a ball of fire.

Some of you might say that the sun is a ball of fire created by God to give us light. I would still say that it’s a ball of fire. I see things as they are and never see things as “why they are”. Why go into deep thinking when deep thinking is not required. Why live your day with ten deep thoughts when you could survive just fine with three simple thoughts.

Don’t say I’m naïve. Say I’m on earth …

… not two feet above.