Norms, belief

            Collaboration is powerful because I alone am limited in my own norms and beliefs. The way I was brought up, when and where I was, and countless other things have contributed to my personal normalcy. So without the willingness in my heart to be open and curious instead of evaluative or prejudiced, I will be limited in experiencing the present through the narrow lens of my past.  

            It triggers me to try to understand the co-existence of contrasting ideas or values. I don’t like to be wrong. It’s challenging to accept that what I believe is wrong can be right. If I go to far with this train of thought I sometimes experience a mini existential crisis. If everything has equal weight, if there is no right or wrong, nothing matters!

            But I know that isn’t true, and I pull myself out of that vicious cycle by reminding myself of the preciousness of humanity. For pretty selfish reasons, I continue to battle with opening my heart, so I can experience life fully.

            The first chapters of the Politics of Piety triggered my sense of protection acceptance and non-judgment. The opening chapter describes “the strong responses from feminists.” “Women Islamist supporters are pawns in a grand patriarchical plan, who, if freed from their bondage, would naturally express their instinctual abhorrence for the traditional Islamic mores used to enchain them.” This kind of argument, which I am not surprised by, completely corrupts the integrity and autonomy of these Muslim women, for the sake of satisfying a mere “Western-savior” complex.