like a fish needs a bicycle...

NEBY rocks my world!

ok, so yet another fantastic weekend. WOW. went to the north east bahai youth festival (aka NEBY fest) in stamford, connecticut. it was off tha chain, kids. bahai youth are so on fire. i'm continually inspired. and i always have so much smurfing fun with them it's ridiculous. ridonkulous, in fact.*

got to hear some incredible speakers and performers, got to give some cool workshops, got to spend time with some amazing people who i love dearly. we had a youth desk reunion and i met andrew for the first time! lacey, javad, richard, andrew, and i have a unique, mystical youth desk bond, as demonstrated by our indie rock picture above (notice the visible emotional depth). truly, it was an incredible weekend (minus ms. graves' unwelcome illness... you're such a trooper, lace!). so glad i got to go! by the way, i know that's a lotta pictures. there will be many more here.

so yeah... in general, i don't exactly know what i did to deserve being so blessed in life. all the time. it's really wonderful. and that's all from me for now...

* ridonkulous is a new hilarious word that has been adopted into the youth desk vernacular, courtesy of lacey's chance encounter with it last week, via a silly radio ad for an upcoming concert in chi-town, i.e. ryan cabrera saying "hey everyone, come see my show in chicago next week--it's gonna be ridonkulous!" how could we not whole-heartedly embrace such a useful and hysterical term?! you should too.

the weekends that make life good

wow, i love my friends. this was a good weekend. seeing as how i'm almost never in chicago on a weekend (because i travel so much), i thoroughly enjoyed taking advantage of being home this weekend. it was a really nice few days... on friday afternoon, some friends at the office conspired to help alissa surprise aaron for valentine's day.* lacey helped arrange the secret arrival, then nassim and michael and i distracted aaron. when he finally walked into the surprise, he was soooo shocked (see exhibits A and B above), and alissa had made brownies for everyone, and it was all so cute! yay for them. :)

friday night, a bunch of us went to see the neo-futurists. weird and totally hilarious. the pic of me and mojan with our glasses was taken in the funky theater we went to.

saturday night, i went to see my friend greg schweitz play in a basketball tournament, which was cool on many levels... schweitz played well, i got to watch an entertaining game, and there were several attractive basketball players around. definitely a good situation. then, we went to see talib kweli perform at northwestern, which was fun. talib is cool. finally, we met up with sarah and bushra and two of schweitz's friends to get some food. very nice evening.

and today, i volunteered at the house of worship for the interfaith prayer service dedicated to the victims of the tsunami. that was really nice. also, in an attempt to circumvent impending illness, i spent much of the weekend sleeping and lying around. what a welcome change. i must say that, every once in a while, i truly enjoy being a bum. yay for good weekends. :)

*i don't hate v-day. i really don't. i just resent that, whether single or taken, hallmark and their imposed constructs are trying to prescribe how the american populace is supposed to feel and act on a given day of the year. but i'm still happy for aaron and alissa and their enjoyable weekend. :)

on race, blogging, and other challenges

everyone,

i must say that i am floored. for about 2 days now, i've been trying to make sense of what just happened on my blog. the whole race issue caught me completely off-guard and i've been trying to process it. in my original "ghetto fabOlous" posting, as far as i could tell, i was making some humorous comments about what i perceive to be more of a youth/popular culture/MTV-style phenomenon than anything else. i was going for "ghetto-fab" in the young trendy sense, as distinct from "ghetto" as a descriptor of race, class, or anything else. i did not even intend to really touch the race issue.

i'm a person who has always had black friends (and friends of ever other shade and color), always wanted to marry a black man, never been perceived as "white" or as a societal oppressor (i'm actually often perceived as one of the oppressed). i took african-american studies courses in college, i routinely offered information to others about the real history of racial perceptions in america and the underyling misconceptions and stereoyptes that factor into so many things... while i know i'm not black and i'll never really know that experience, i wouldn't have considered myself ignorant or racist by any stretch of the imagination. and yet, if i've been insensitive, if i've offended others, despite my best intentions, then i'm truly sorry if i've come across as anything but aware and full of love.

it's hard to be totally honest about such things on the web, but...

...i'm quickly discovering that, at least in this case, personal honesty is inevitable. Abdul-Baha says, "Beware! Beware! lest ye offend any heart." He also says, "Let not your heart be offended with anyone." in all honesty, i'm still trying to find the balance. right now i feel like i've offended others... although, since God is my witness that i had no ill-will, maybe i've offended their minds or their sensibilities, and not so much their hearts. i'm also trying to not let my own heart be offended. that's hard if i feel like i've been misunderstood or that my speech--even casual, passing, or ligh-hearted speech--is limited to "safe" topics only because of my particular racial or socio-economic background.

when this whole topic exploded, i was truly shocked, and my tendency was to shy away from having this serious and significant of a dialogue on the internet... there is so much of communication that is lost in this medium, and i had only ever conceived of my blog as a fun and not-especially-deep way to express myself. it shocked me that people would come to my site, be offended by my unwitting treatment of a deep social issue, and express concern. seeeing that happen and thinking about dealing with it initially sparked in me such aversion to the whole situation.

but i guess this is part of my maturation in blogging. i feel like profundity and seriousness can't be avoided--especially not now that we've broached the subject. deep issues, especially racism, are everywhere. maybe we should go ahead and engage them on a more thoughtful level at every possible juncture, and maybe that includes blogs. so though i touched this issue completely unintentionally, i think we have no choice but to explore it now. i'm still trying to figure out how to navigate the world of blogging effectively, and i obviously still have much to learn. i would hate to think that indiscretions, even in my own personal medium of expression, would be a source of tension or disunity.

it almost makes me feel like i should just be quiet, forever--just so i don't hurt anyone. it almost makes me feel like i can't mention in passing or address in any depth any issue that concerns any group that i'm not obviously a member of, since i'll inevitably be perceived as ignorant and oppressive. it almost makes me feel like i have nothing to offer the world in terms of social struggle. and thus i just want to find safety in silence. but i think that silence is often times the natural ally of opression. so i say let's talk about it. (thank you negin for helping me understand the value of facing this dialogue, even in the blogosphere, and to understand that i actually do have something to contribute, despite how defeated i may feel sometimes).

so, seriously, how can we help one another here? how can we enlighten ourselves? should we talk about the evolution of the word "ghetto"? should we discuss analogs such as "retarded" or "gay" that also find their way into common speech? should we try to come up with guidelines for each of us about how the connotation and usage of words should affect our personal vernacular? which words are conscionable for each of us, and which aren't? race, gender, and class concern me deeply, and i feel like i have so much to lean from everyone about each and all of those topics. and racial prejudice, according to our national spiritual assembly, is the most challenging issue facing america today. i would love to see us address it with sensitivity, compassion, and hope. so please, accept my apology if you feel it is due, understand my love and my intentions if you have not yet heard them explicitly expressed to you, and help me begin to explore.

among the redwoods

so i went to bosch bahai school in california this past weekend for a bahai conference. it was my first time there and it was soooo amazing! beautiful, spiritual, peaceful experience... learned a lot, saw old friends, had some good conversation with God. it was niiiiiiiiice. :)

ghetto-fab

ok, kids... it's been a busy and exhausting week for me. so... time for some useless amusement. here's a random list i compiled sometime in the last year (probably during finals), just to put a smile on my face. props go to my girl mona for some help with the list. anyway, hope it puts a smile on your face too... keep in mind that i know it's generalizing and silly in many respects, and that i created it only out of love for my people (hence, many of these actually apply to me). y'all enjoy... :)

Top 10 Signs You're Ghetto- FabOlous

10. the word "yeah" has 2 syllables
9. "axing" has nothing to do with chopping wood
8. you actually look better with a piece of black cloth covering half your head
7. inside your mouth is your first choice of location for precious metals on your body
6. your '82 corolla has a set of $2000 rims on it
5. the word "boo" is not used to scare people, but as a term of endearment
4. you think your mama is the most perfect woman ever created and whoever disrespects her gets their ass kicked
3. any random word or phrase you make up becomes the new lingo within a week
2. when you break up with someone, you throw their belongings out a window and/or off a balcony
1. as far as you're concerned, the booty as a body part is as important as the heart or the brain