Valentines's Day 02/14/2010.......by Jamil Shawwa

The feast of love, Valentine’s Day. We in the USA will celebrate it tomorrow. We will celebrate not only love but will celebrate life with all its components. Tomorrow we will invite that special- or just family- one to lunch or dinner, or maybe just coffee, we will look in the eyes and say, happy Valentine’s Day, thank you for being with me, thank you for sharing this moment with me and thank you for allowing me to love you. I am amazed, trying to be polite here, at some authorities specifically in some Arab Gulf countries who are citing religious reasons for preventing its people from celebrating love. Show me one religion that bans such celebrations. Enough extremism and manipulation in the name of Islam, or any other religion. Religions brought to earth to spread love and humanity and not fanaticism, terrorism and extremism. I am shocked at these backward, no brains that set in their Ivory towers telling people what is right and what is wrong. It is time as we celebrate love, to ignore those Ivory towers, back rooms, voices of darkness and despair, and go out and celebrate love, all kinds of love. It is not for me or anyone else on earth to tell you how you should celebrate or if you should celebrate, as long as it is your choice. Happy Valentine’s Day.

A Voice From The Past.......by Jamil Shawwa

It all of sudden came to me when I heard some people talking about their past in a very emotional way as if the past is everything and as if life stopped and parked at that age, or event, or year. We can learn a lot from the kids, they live and enjoy every moment and they move on, life does not stop for them but it keep going. I read the papers and hear people on TVs, Internet saying this boring over used statement - the good old days- I do not get it, what does that mean. For them, maybe, it means that they were happier, richer, not married- or maybe it means that there were no responsibilities or fewer responsibilities. I hear governments teaching the kids about past civilizations and how everything was great and then these governments stop short from addressing the future. History, what is history, it is life, it connects the past with the present and the future, and it does not stop. Every passing moment is history, and every coming moment is the future. Life is a cycle, a continuation, it does not stop at a station, but it passes by stations, it might park a little but it never stops, it stops only in our minds and hearts. Some people just get off the train of life by choice, set aside and watch the train goes by. They have the talents to make a change, but they do not have the guts to make it happen. I am not sure why I am talking about all these things now, maybe I did not have anything better to write on or maybe I am having a dry spell or something. Maybe I just stopped and decided that it is enough, but enough of what, I just started, I may started late but I know that I started. I also might be fooling myself, but who cares, I am moving, I am in motion, and that all it matters.