Bad Hair and Writer’s Block

Posted by Ms Understand on

A little story that came from insomnia

 

“Touch Wood”

 

She had bad hair. Not bad-bad hair, but good-bad hair. Only it had taken her over 30 years to suddenly realise that she’d spent all that time being annoyed at something quirky & cool, which is what she’d wanted in the first place. Nothing had changed but one neurone connecting to another in her head, and her hair had gone from being her enemy to her friend, it also seemed to have a personality that matched her own.

 

She wondered what else she’d discover about herself that day. Life had been quite weird recently, in her mind at least, since her long anticipated, yet shocking separation from her husband and giant leap into the unknown. Sometimes you can have life changing realisations, where something just clicks in your mind and you get a shift in understanding and a completely new perspective on a lifetime problem. What a shame, she thought, her mind had made such a giant leap and chose something as mundane as her hair, when her current problems  were of a more profound nature. But, still, it made her happy & she was grateful still for having, both awesome hair & a moment of positivity, which hadn’t been as forthcoming as they could be. But, she thought, when it rains, it pours. She touched wood (more for the comfort of ritual than any kind of superstition).

 

Sometimes, she though, you can’t see what’s there. What else was she missing? Had she been thinking of personality in the same way as her hair? Would she wake up one morning, bleary-eyed,  , look in the mirror, have a personality epiphany and see herself in an entirely new way? What was she missing? She knew, though, these thoughts were a slippery slope and if she started to look for something invisible to her, she’d end up trapped in a hall of mirrors of the mind; lost and not knowing what she was looking for.

 

Another, bigger, surprise had happened without her noticing. A huge mental block had been lifted. Whilst pondering the mundanity of the shift in understanding she’d had this morning, she’d picked up a pen without thinking and started to scribble away, amused at the thoughts coming out of her pen.

 

But! Something else was afoot! She’d unblocked the writing block, shifted the thinking. Opened a door that she’d lost the key for. All whilst looking for something else. Maybe, life is what happens when you’re searching for other things, she remembered, again, as you do at moments like this. Wow, such a big thing to happen and she hadn’t noticed.

 

It really was pouring now and she would embrace it, because, she could. Even when she wasn’t thinking about it, which was nice.

 

Perhaps, she realised, it was the thinking about it too much that had caused it, or she’d known it all along. Time to stop thinking, she thought, time to let that happen, somehow. With the ironic enormity of that thought echoing in her head, she sat back, rolled her eyes and smiled, just after finishing this sentence.

Bad Hair and Writer’s Block

Posted by Ms Understand on

 

 

 

“Touch Wood”

 

She had bad hair. Not bad-bad hair, but good-bad hair. Only it had taken her over 30 years to suddenly realise that she’d spent all that time being annoyed at something quirky & cool, which is what she’d wanted in the first place. Nothing had changed but one neurone connecting to another in her head, and her hair had gone from being her enemy to her friend, it also seemed to have a personality that matched her own.

 

She wondered what else she’d discover about herself that day. Life had been quite weird recently, in her mind at least, since her long anticipated, yet shocking separation from her husband and giant leap into the unknown. Sometimes you can have life changing realisations, where something just clicks in your mind and you get a shift in understanding and a completely new perspective on a lifetime problem. What a shame, she thought, her mind had made such a giant leap and chose something as mundane as her hair, when her current problems  were of a more profound nature. But, still, it made her happy & she was grateful still for having, both awesome hair & a moment of positivity, which hadn’t been as forthcoming as they could be. But, she thought, when it rains, it pours. She touched wood (more for the comfort of ritual than any kind of superstition).

 

Sometimes, she though, you can’t see what’s there. What else was she missing? Had she been thinking of personality in the same way as her hair? Would she wake up one morning, bleary-eyed,  , look in the mirror, have a personality epiphany and see herself in an entirely new way? What was she missing? She knew, though, these thoughts were a slippery slope and if she started to look for something invisible to her, she’d end up trapped in a hall of mirrors of the mind; lost and not knowing what she was looking for.

 

Another, bigger, surprise had happened without her noticing. A huge mental block had been lifted. Whilst pondering the mundanity of the shift in understanding she’d had this morning, she’d picked up a pen without thinking and started to scribble away, amused at the thoughts coming out of her pen.

 

But! Something else was afoot! She’d unblocked the writing block, shifted the thinking. Opened a door that she’d lost the key for. All whilst looking for something else. Maybe, life is what happens when you’re searching for other things, she remembered, again, as you do at moments like this. Wow, such a big thing to happen and she hadn’t noticed.

 

It really was pouring now and she would embrace it, because, she could. Even when she wasn’t thinking about it, which was nice.

 

Perhaps, she realised, it was the thinking about it too much that had caused it, or she’d known it all along. Time to stop thinking, she thought, time to let that happen, somehow. With the ironic enormity of that thought echoing in her head, she sat back, rolled her eyes and smiled, just after finishing this sentence.

Bad Hair and Writer’s Block

Posted by Ms Understand on

 

 

 

“Touch Wood”

 

She had bad hair. Not bad-bad hair, but good-bad hair. Only it had taken her over 30 years to suddenly realise that she’d spent all that time being annoyed at something quirky & cool, which is what she’d wanted in the first place. Nothing had changed but one neurone connecting to another in her head, and her hair had gone from being her enemy to her friend, it also seemed to have a personality that matched her own.

 

She wondered what else she’d discover about herself that day. Life had been quite weird recently, in her mind at least, since her long anticipated, yet shocking separation from her husband and giant leap into the unknown. Sometimes you can have life changing realisations, where something just clicks in your mind and you get a shift in understanding and a completely new perspective on a lifetime problem. What a shame, she thought, her mind had made such a giant leap and chose something as mundane as her hair, when her current problems  were of a more profound nature. But, still, it made her happy & she was grateful still for having, both awesome hair & a moment of positivity, which hadn’t been as forthcoming as they could be. But, she thought, when it rains, it pours. She touched wood (more for the comfort of ritual than any kind of superstition).

 

Sometimes, she though, you can’t see what’s there. What else was she missing? Had she been thinking of personality in the same way as her hair? Would she wake up one morning, bleary-eyed,  , look in the mirror, have a personality epiphany and see herself in an entirely new way? What was she missing? She knew, though, these thoughts were a slippery slope and if she started to look for something invisible to her, she’d end up trapped in a hall of mirrors of the mind; lost and not knowing what she was looking for.

 

Another, bigger, surprise had happened without her noticing. A huge mental block had been lifted. Whilst pondering the mundanity of the shift in understanding she’d had this morning, she’d picked up a pen without thinking and started to scribble away, amused at the thoughts coming out of her pen.

 

But! Something else was afoot! She’d unblocked the writing block, shifted the thinking. Opened a door that she’d lost the key for. All whilst looking for something else. Maybe, life is what happens when you’re searching for other things, she remembered, again, as you do at moments like this. Wow, such a big thing to happen and she hadn’t noticed.

 

It really was pouring now and she would embrace it, because, she could. Even when she wasn’t thinking about it, which was nice.

 

Perhaps, she realised, it was the thinking about it too much that had caused it, or she’d known it all along. Time to stop thinking, she thought, time to let that happen, somehow. With the ironic enormity of that thought echoing in her head, she sat back, rolled her eyes and smiled, just after finishing this sentence.

Bad Hair and Writer’s Block

Posted by Ms Understand on

 

 

 

“Touch Wood”

 

She had bad hair. Not bad-bad hair, but good-bad hair. Only it had taken her over 30 years to suddenly realise that she’d spent all that time being annoyed at something quirky & cool, which is what she’d wanted in the first place. Nothing had changed but one neurone connecting to another in her head, and her hair had gone from being her enemy to her friend, it also seemed to have a personality that matched her own.

 

She wondered what else she’d discover about herself that day. Life had been quite weird recently, in her mind at least, since her long anticipated, yet shocking separation from her husband and giant leap into the unknown. Sometimes you can have life changing realisations, where something just clicks in your mind and you get a shift in understanding and a completely new perspective on a lifetime problem. What a shame, she thought, her mind had made such a giant leap and chose something as mundane as her hair, when her current problems  were of a more profound nature. But, still, it made her happy & she was grateful still for having, both awesome hair & a moment of positivity, which hadn’t been as forthcoming as they could be. But, she thought, when it rains, it pours. She touched wood (more for the comfort of ritual than any kind of superstition).

 

Sometimes, she though, you can’t see what’s there. What else was she missing? Had she been thinking of personality in the same way as her hair? Would she wake up one morning, bleary-eyed,  , look in the mirror, have a personality epiphany and see herself in an entirely new way? What was she missing? She knew, though, these thoughts were a slippery slope and if she started to look for something invisible to her, she’d end up trapped in a hall of mirrors of the mind; lost and not knowing what she was looking for.

 

Another, bigger, surprise had happened without her noticing. A huge mental block had been lifted. Whilst pondering the mundanity of the shift in understanding she’d had this morning, she’d picked up a pen without thinking and started to scribble away, amused at the thoughts coming out of her pen.

 

But! Something else was afoot! She’d unblocked the writing block, shifted the thinking. Opened a door that she’d lost the key for. All whilst looking for something else. Maybe, life is what happens when you’re searching for other things, she remembered, again, as you do at moments like this. Wow, such a big thing to happen and she hadn’t noticed.

 

It really was pouring now and she would embrace it, because, she could. Even when she wasn’t thinking about it, which was nice.

 

Perhaps, she realised, it was the thinking about it too much that had caused it, or she’d known it all along. Time to stop thinking, she thought, time to let that happen, somehow. With the ironic enormity of that thought echoing in her head, she sat back, rolled her eyes and smiled, just after finishing this sentence.

Bring ON a Feminist Revolution in Egypt!

Posted by Ms Understand on

Reblogged from msunderstand:

I love my country. I want to carry on loving my country and I want it to be a society of equals. The feelings of disappointment and disenfranchisement rising within me as I witness the ‘transitioton democracy’ are  unnecessary and avoidable. Women have been at the forefront of this revolution since the start, laying down their.lives and risking everything in the search for democracy.

Read more… 222 more words

A year has passed since I wrote this. I feel so sad that what has transpired since the uprising was even worse than I had predicted/envisaged. What has changed for the better? What will happen to the women of Egypt. We can't trust those men in charge to whom we are but a collection of body parts, belonging to them & society, rather than autonomous human beings with rights and legitimate demands. So once again, we need an uprising, a revolution. We can't let those Mubaraks with beards control our futures.

Egyptians in London protesting AGAIN at LSE, this time Selim El-Awwa

Posted by Ms Understand on

So, LSE doesn’t seem to learn from its lessons, which should be odd for a place of education.

After the Boutros-Ghali debacle but a few weeks ago. They invited the ire of Egyptians in London, who descended on LSE again & this time protested Selim El-Awwa. Best friend of SCAF & sectarian agitator.

You can watch this bunch of very pissed off Egyptians here. I wonder who LSE will invite next?

Deja vu

Posted by Ms Understand on

deja vu.

This time last year I was doing what I’m doing now, rushing around & being late for a rally in Trafalgar Sq. Last time the day ended with Mubarak’s downfall & the beginning of the new dictatorship, SCAF. There’s a little part of me that hopes that tonight I’ll be celebrating their downfall too. I doubt it, the chances are miniscule, but a girl can dream.

Two Tales from Egyptian Parliament yesterday.

Posted by Ms Understand on

I read two stories yesterday, both probably happened around the same time. When reading the first story, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The second story makes me never want to stop crying.

The second story is much more important, but I want to get the first out of the way. This story was one that was dominating my timeline, both on Twitter & Facebook & for good reason too. Take a moment to watch these hijacking Islamist MP caterwauling in Parliament. The ‘religious’ (faux) equivalent of willy-waggling. Goodness knows, there are enough mosques in Cairo. There is nowhere to hide from the Azaan & I don’t believe it is incumbent on any Muslim to suddenly break into the Azaan, no matter what the circumstances. That is what the Mu’zen (person whose actual JOB it is to do the Azaan (call to prayer)) in the mosque is for. Some people can’t help making a spectacle of themselves.

Meanwhile, outside Parliament, what was happening? I saw this on only one person’s wall on Facebook & was filled with horror & shame that the desperation of those who have nothing is still so palpable & crying out for attention in these times of news overload. The same people that were being overlooked before are being overlooked now. This poor man, whose name I don’t even know, had set fire to himself outside Parliament, after losing his job there. Perhaps, even while the Azaan fiasco was ongoing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI-u8_8hwj4

I believe that many in Parliament, especially those elected on a moral/religious ticket are following in the same footsteps and falling into the same traps as their prior secular ruling tormentors. Where’s the outrage & discussions of important matters for the citizens who are most deserving of it? What are the priorities?

Shame on them!

Candlelit Vigil in London for those Massacred in #PortSaid #Egypt

Posted by Ms Understand on

You would have thought that those evil dictators in SCAF wouldn’t have been able to shock us Egyptians anymore. But this week, they’ve outdone themselves again.

The massacre at Port Said was not about football, but once again, an orchestrated State-sponsored attack on those who would stand against their corruption and oppression.

The Ultras (Ahly fans) who were killed have been instrumental in many of the revolutionary protests and this was revenge,  a warning, and incitement – pure & simple. An act of war & they’ve made it personal to so many Egyptians now, even those who were unconvinced by the revolutionaries & uninvolved in politics. Their blood was cheap only to SCAF.

I could see the shock & sadness so palpable in the faces of those at the vigil. Many of them knew people who had died. I’ve seen many of those people at the protests for over a year now and there seemed to be a different quality of sadness that day. The senselessness & unexpectedness was in spite of everthing, still a shock. It’s clear that SCAF have a psychopathic & sociopathic sense of impunity as there reaction to the international condemnation clearly shows.

For now, we remember the dead. Then, we must honour them by bringing their demands of freedom to life.

Please watch the video & share it. Please also come to the protest in Trafalgar Sq, London on Saturday 11th February if you can make it. Down with the military regime!