Our neurology professor in medical school used to diagnose Parkinson’s by just listening to the patient’s footsteps next door; if we couldn’t do the same, he would fail us. Those were the days before high-tech medicine and MRI.

— The Tell-Tale Brain

((قَالَتْ يَا لَيْتَنِي مِتُّ قَبْلَ هَٰذَا وَكُنتُ نَسْيًا مَّنسِيًّا))

[سورة مريم]

تُنسى، كأنَّكَ لم تَكُنْ
تُنْسَى كمصرع طائرٍ
ككنيسةٍ مهجورةٍ تُنْسَى،
كحبّ عابرٍ
وكوردةٍ في الليل ... تُنْسَى
أَنا للطريق ... هناك مَنْ تمشي خُطَاهُ
على خُطَايَ، وَمَنْ سيتبعني إلى رؤيايَ.
مَنْ سيقول شعرًا في مديح حدائقِ المنفى،
أمامَ البيت، حرًا من عبادَةِ أمسِ،
حرًا من كناياتي ومن لغتي،
فأشهد أَنني حيُّ، وحرُّ
حين أُنْسَى!

— محمود درويش

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,
Thus unlamented let me die,
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.

— Alexander Pope, Ode to Solitude.

Human affairs entangle you in their complexity up to the point of paralysis. They ensnare and shackle you to the point of nausea; what Nietzsche called Kettenkrankheit (chain-sickness). The hermetic sensibility stems from the need to cure oneself of this nausea, to free oneself of the shackles of responsibility, desire, dependability, and indulgence in the human affair.

Thereby, to be forgotten is to be hidden from the human world. To be hidden from the human world is to be free, yet alone. True freedom comes at the very high cost of loneliness. It is no wonder why so few of us are truly free.

الحريّة—أنْ يَنساك العالَم وتُعتَق مِن ذاكرةِ الناس

But then, to be this much free also entails becoming utterly inconsequential

Rhea فديت ربها

One is tempted to suggest—tongue in cheek—that our predilection for oral sex may also be an evolutionary throwback to our ancestors’ days as frugivores (fruit eaters). It is an ironic thought that our enjoyment of a Monet or a Van Gogh or of Romeo’s savoring Juliet’s kiss may ultimately trace back to an ancient attraction to ripe fruits and rumps. (This is what makes evolutionary psychology so much fun: You can come up with an outlandishly satirical theory and get away with it.)

He was basically saying that our love for plump, red lips may be because they resemble ripe fruits.

— The Tell-Tale Brain

When asked by the Washington Post about the Saudi-funded spread of Wahhabism, the austere faith that is dominant in the kingdom and that some have accused of being a source of global terrorism,
The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman said that investments in mosques and madrassas overseas were rooted in the Cold War, when allies asked Saudi Arabia to use its resources to prevent inroads in Muslim countries by the Soviet Union.

Sheikh Yassin, a crippled, semi-blind Islamic cleric, founded Hamas and was its spiritual leader until his assassination in 2004. He was originally approached by Israel with an offer of help and the promise of a license to expand. The Israelis hoped that, through his charity and educational work, this charismatic leader would counterbalance the power of the secular Fatah in the Gaza Strip and beyond. It is noteworthy that in the late 1970s Israel, like the United States and Britain, saw secular national movements (whose absence today they lament) as the worst enemy of the West.

Hamas captured the hearts and minds of many Muslims (who make up the majority in the occupied territories) due the failure of secular modernity to find solutions to the daily hardships of life under occupation. As with other political Islamic groups around the Arab world, the failure of secular movements to provide employment, welfare, and economic security drove many people back into religion, which offered solace as well as established charity and solidarity networks. In the Middle East as a whole, as in the world at large, modernization and secularization benefited the few but left many unhappy, poor, and bitter. Religion seemed a panacea—and at times even a political option.

— Ilan Pappé

Iraq, 2003, An Iraqi man comforts his 4-year-old son at a U.S. Army holding center for prisoners of war. By Jean-Marc Bouju