A Chat Transcript

Which I will post in place of an actual blogpost, because even though I Tumblr'd it, it deserves to be its own post. It came on the heels of a discussion about my posts on parental cruelty, but took a religious turn:

Tariq: yeah 
I keep feeling that "accept", which is a word people use a lot in that context, is exactly the wrong word to use 
I mean... are you saying that it's right? 
Jaymee: yeah, exactly 
i think they more tolerate it 
Tariq: what does one mean when one tells another person to "accept" things the way things are? 
Jaymee: usually? 
i get the feeling of 
"Just give it up, it wont change and you'll only make yourself more unhappy by thinking about changing things" 
Tariq: except that if you think it, and you explore it, the entire premise of existence is pain. it doesn't make the pain and the injustice right. 
it means that you can't do anything about it. 
Jaymee: oh, shut up, i just came out of 10 years of telling myself that life is pain and suffering 
that's one of those things which sickened me about buddhism XD 
Tariq: yeah, well, it's not just pain and suffering! 
I mean, come on! 
if life is all about pain and suffering suicide's a best bet. 
Jaymee: yeah 
Tariq: I mean, this is my upbringing as a Muslim, yeah. you're going to get pain and suffering and injustice. 
but then there's pleasure and joy and happiness. 
Jaymee: yeah, we dont get that in buddhism 
not theravadan buddhism anyway 
Tariq: and in any case 
there's this metaphor about how life is a golden bridge 
for Muslims anyway 
a bridge linking the alam azali and alam barzakh 
and all the commentators are going, "Oh, life is transition, it isn't permanent." 
and I'm like, "HELLO. GOLDEN FUCKING BRIDGE." 
Jaymee: XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD 
Tariq: Yeah, it's not gonna be there forever! 
yeah, it's not all fun and games, and you get no rest! 
but\ 
Jaymee: STILL 
Tariq: HELLO, this is your only chance to make a difference to where you go in the end. 
Jaymee: BRIDGE 
OF MOTHERFUCKIN GOLD 
YA'LL 
Tariq: DO YOU KNOW HOW VALUABLE IT IS? 
in any case. 
Jaymee: this is tumblr'd 
Tariq: ...what? 
oh yeah 
before you do that 
there's another saying from Muhammad 
"Live like you will live for a thousand years, worship like you will die tomorrow." 
commentators are all "Oh, you know, take it easy with life, worship like a loon." 
and I'm like 
Jaymee: gah! 
Tariq: PLEASE IF I KNOW I WAS GONNA LIVE FOR A 1000 YEARS I'M GONNA LIVE LIKE A FUCKING SUPERSTAR 
BECAUSE DUDE 
1000 FUCKING YEARS 
Jaymee: OH 
Tariq: ALSO, LONG-TERM PLANNING WILL BE AWESOME 
Jaymee: i thought 'cos you know, if you live 1000 years sure you can make a difference 
so live like you can make a difference 
XD 
Tariq: EXACTLY 
YOU'D BE LIKE A MOTHER FUCKING HERO 
the Muslims get all these awesome aphorisms 
and WE FUCK IT ALL UP 
and WE FUCK IT ALL UP 
Jaymee: well, not all of you 
Tariq: yes well. 
still. 
I mean granted our metaphysics leaks holes like nobody's business 
I mean come on, Neoplatonism? Don't make me laugh, dude! 
aaanyway. 
feel free to strip out the context and tumblr the shit out of this XD 
Jaymee: clearly this conversation must become the basis of a Steampunk Nusantara entry

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Race in Cartoons

So I was moseying on to work this morning when I started hearing the theme song to 6teen in my head, and I was reminiscing on the time I used to have cable TV and I watched cartoons and the SciFi channel just about incessantly (okay, I also watched TLC). 6teen was an interesting show to me. The basic premise is that of six teens who hang out at a fancy lemonade stall one of them works at, and it follows their trials and travails as they figure out how to get by on their own, holding their jobs (or not) and how they work through their problems. It also happens to follow a very smart comedy formula, with multiple storyarcs within a single episode. The creators did a good job realizing that yes, a younger audience could indeed appreciate smart shows. The characters, being cartoon characters in themselves, are not exactly what one might call nuanced, but the creators certainly did try to explore different aspects of their characters. Jen, for example, works in the sporting goods store. She...
Read more

My Pidgin Does Not Signify Lack Of Intellect

I recently received in my inbox an email from my father, who likes to forward me a lot of things that he thinks will interest me. Except of course, he never really realizes just how easily antsy I can get, and how willing I am to pick apart an article. (I used to hit Reply to All whenever he'd send me an email to let all and sundry know what I thought and all the problems with whatever he sent me, so now he wisely BCCs people instead.) This article was about Miss Singapore, and I can't find the original article, but hree's another one about the same issue . While at the Miss World pageant in South Africa, she inadvertently slipped into speaking Singlish, the Singaporean creole that mixes English, Malay, Chinese and god knows what else. And this was a huge fucking deal because apparently, all beauty queens must be able to speak perfect English, the standard of which is probably set by the English-speaking world that is the UK and North America, I guess. And because Miss S...
Read more

May 13 Blogswarm Links Post

This is where all Malaysians and residents of Malaysia are welcome to leave links to their participation in the May 13 Blogswarm. For more information, check out LiveJournal and Facebook . Comments Policy:  Please note that moderation is turned on for comments older than 7 days. I try to check in regularly, but this may be hard as I will be traveling. Do not use this place to debate what others have said. If you do and you crash my site in due process, I'll get very irritated at you. That shit is rude. Don't do it. 
Read more