Is this right, living here with you and loving it?
Is there anywhere else you prefer to be?
Isn't there any other place I'm supposed to be? Kids my age are busy doing other things, like climbing a career ladders or making money or just getting married and stuff...
Like the kids in Saudi? Your mother would've loved you moving back there.
Yes, sir, she would.
Hmm...Saudi is such a small place compared to this village.
Sir?
The buildings there are bigger and prettier compared to the ones we have here. But it's still such a "small place". You might busy yourself with your job, and shopping and friends, but it's still such a small community and selection of things to do.
Whereas here…
You don't have a lot of things or conveniences, you don't validate your existence by being proactive...but you have the world. You have the entire world to respond to.
And it's enough?
Don't you think you have more than enough?
I just don't feel that I deserve it so soon.
"The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment."
Other posts about not living in Saudi:
21 afterthinkers:
Hey Hning!
You are indeed angry at Saudi, eh?
Anyway, I understand why you wouldn't go there (by what this text is saying) - the rest of the world is yours and is ready for you too.
We have this thing of comparing ourselves with others (if they are married, if they do this and that)...but does it really matter? No, it doesn't...because my life is not your life, and my goals differs from others' as well...so, it's useful to make comparisons.
Cheers
darling, i'll proly be moving in with you. well, dont think i can anytime soon but a girl can dream, cant she.
Max,
Anger? Whoops! That was not in my emotional palette as I wrote the post. Consciously, at least. Now that you've mentioned it, maybe I should reassess my attitudes about Saudi.
Or is it really just about Saudi?
But you're absolutely right about the tendency to compare lives. I keep forgetting that nobody's life is better or worse than anyone. We all got our canvasses; and it isn't about the color of the grass.
Thanks for the reminder.
Souma,
I have a bed made for you to crash anytime you wanna book the tickets. Should I start designing your retirement plans too?
Hmm I've lived in Saudi before and yet there's something I miss---- the peace and quiet!
Never been to Saudi. :( I wish I had the money to go there; just to help convince myself that the Prophet, whether he was in reality divinely inspired or not in dictating the Qur'an to his followers, did exist. Despite all the controversies surrounding the man, the Qur'an is to me a great work impossibly written by an ordinary man. His story began in Saudi, right?
But I don't want to live there, of course. :D
What if, Gentole, there is no Prophet? What if there is no God? What difference does a 15 centuries-old story make on your current life, whether or not it is true?
One thing for sure, Saudi didn't exist at the time of the prophecy.
4get tht place! c'mon over to my side of town, kick it for a bit! favorite quote "The more I travel, the more I see... the less I know"
Uhm, you wanna do the "telling-big-daddy-that-his-oversized-little-girl-is-kicking-Iowa" part? I already did that once, and getting a huge, silent sulk for breakfast, lunch and dinner wasn't the greatest days I had to spend with him in this minuscule world.
Besides, I'm weekend shopping in Jakarta, starting tomorrow. Wanna kick there?
What difference does it make? Well, not much. My life will still suck and be miserable, with or without the Prophet. :D
But I was born Muslim, and learned about Muhammad -- a trader living in the Arabian peninsula some 15 centuries ago -- since I was perhaps four or five. Atleast, I'll be excited to know that the man whom I had believed to have visited heaven and hell and dictated the Words of God really existed.
*
I miss Jakarta. Things look quite artificial here. I almost believe that the only thing that goes wrong here is that nothing goes wrong here. :D
Gentole, I have something brewing for you in the writer's kitchenette. But it'll have to wait until I can find some good sit-down time, and a Toshiba laptop charger.
[That's why we're going to Jkt this weekend. So that I can get my writing gear back on.]
In the meantime, how can you stand commonwealth sterility so much? I can't stand that as much as I can't stand prolonged cognitive passivity. Both seem to dull the senses, you know? Crazy, man.
So get your ass moving and have yourself a good Jakartanese fix once in a while. Like I do.
outrageously prejudgmental! I will get over there eventually, no worries!
Saudi Arabia is my everlasting home although I wanna try living in another country. Not far from Saudi Arabia =]
Ahmed,
Anywhere other than Saudi has the potential to give the same culture shock effect. The important this is that you dare to step out.
And, btw, you wanna invite me to read your blog or not?
*important THING...sorry, low on caffeine..
Hning, you are the strongest saudi girl i v ever met in my life, do you know why? because you are the only one who could live in the way she wants.
Tamo
Love you too.
you don't validate your existence by being proactive...
Yes,
Care to teach me how I could validate it?
Wait, was that a compliment?
Hning somehow my comment vanished or got dropped. I asked you a question are you still living in indonesia and how did you make the transition from living in Saudi to moving to indonesia? Is freedom what you are seeking or exactly what?
Eid Mubarak Hning. What strkes you in Saudi is the gap between the haves and the have nots. This gap is getting wider every day and some people get fatter and fatter each day. These are the fews who own everything in the country. The other day someone died and the CNN reported that the deceased estate worth 250 billion dollars. Imagine what all this money will do to improve the standard of living in Saudi. This money will wipe out poverty once and for all and improve living conditions. This money will create jobs for the unemployed if invested wisely. They say we are an Islamic ountry, will that is what they say. You have no choice, do you? I guess it is the same story in Indonesia probably on a much smaller scale. There you see the very rich and the very poor but with a difference, can you tell? I would like to hear. Are people in Indonesia more happy wih their lives than Saudis? Is there an index where you can measure happiness?
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