I read extensively, the reading is not limited to the Islamic faith although that my major concentration. A source of, shall we shall call, more earthly ‘delights,’ is The New Yorker, the magazine edition is delivered weekly to my Canadian mail box. Do not read the magazine from cover to cover because I no longer read, nor concern myself with, USA politics. Such news and views are irrelevant to my life, not only my life but increasingly the lives of those from all over the world. The USA had their chance, they had me for fifty years, not only that, they were considered the leader of the free world in the decades following WWII. But such mismanagement, they ‘blew it’. It was going down hill for years – Trump escalated the process – he was merely the final nail in the coffin.
“Blew it” means to spoil, botch, or bungle something, It is an idiom, to fail at something; to mess up, to make a mistake. Used in a sentence: Alexis blew it and forgot to start the spaghetti, so she had plenty of sauce and no pasta. Now that had minor consequences, however, think of the major consequences of the USA’s botching, bungling, messing up. Some of it when I was living there – Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan etc etc etc. Blew it is the very best expression of what happened because when something blows up, it is destroyed. The Us made a big mistake damaging any opportunities – particularly to the countries it temporarily vanquished.
Final nail in the coffin is another idiom describing something that is ultimately responsible for a previously prospective demise or failure. The expression has been around for a long time: The idea was first expressed in an ode by Pindar (the pseudonym of John Wolcot) in 1792: “Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt.”
I am laughing at myself, at my spontaneous writing style coupled with an adroit analysis. Alexis’ Idiomatic Explanation of the Rise and Fall of the United States. The United States blew it, but it was a long time coming – Trump just the final nail in the coffin. If you saw me in person, not just my written words you would view my utterance of those words, laughing, shrugging my shoulders and either changing the subject or walking off. Rarely, if ever, do I beg for agreement or concurrence.
My word count is not 479 and I have not even begun to talk about the subject at hand. Here we go.
Women’s rights, Feminism is a topic of abiding interest as stated in the About Me section of this blog. Quoting myself, quoting Maya Angelo.“Each time a woman stands up for herself without knowing it, possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women. Maya Angelo.” This is continues to appear in About Me because it is my motto and the underlying motto and inspiration of this blog.” Therefore, a New Yorker article, reviewing a television adaptation of a novel, “Fleishman Is In Trouble.” The article caught my attention and held it.
My interest began with the description of the Rachael, who was divorcing Toby Fleishman. “Rachael, the least solipsistic of the trio, would say that she can’t possibly squeeze another crisis into her schedule.”
Me: What is that word? I do not know the meaning of it?
Alter Ego: Look it up!
Me: Good plan. I shall. Solipsistic with is the view or theory that the self is all that can be known to exist. The origins of the word: late 19th century: from Latin solus ‘alone’ + ipse ‘self’
That kept me reading, it is a fascinating topic because recently I have begun to think that there is more than self.
Author, Inkoo Kang, the went on to explore the essential question: Which Fleishman is in trouble? The fast answer: Western society is in trouble, but this is explored step by step.
The first step is this sentence” “Toby has been an unreliable narrator of his marriage, and that, while his years with Rachael were disappointing, hers were harrowing.” This is explained.
“That we must first consider is Toby’s grievances are a part of Brodesser-Akner’s prolonger gender critique.” “Hmm”, thought I, “what is that?” “The show, is set in 2016, and the ubiquitous Hilary signs in the background allude to the leniency the society tends to grant men at the expense of women.”
Me: What is leniency?
Alter Ego: Look it up!
Me: Okay! Okay! Leniency is the the fact or quality of being more merciful or tolerant than expected; clemency. Synonyms are: mercy, clemency, lenity, forgiveness; tolerance, forbearance, moderateness, lack of severity, moderation, humanity, charity, gentleness, mildness, sufferance, acceptance; pity, sympathy, compassion, understanding, concern, consideration, kind-heartedness, benevolence.
I so now understand. Society forgives, tolerates. Indulges, sympathizes with men at the expense of women. “The series misses the opportunity to interrogate where this ‘himpathy” – the reflexive sympathizing with men in heterosexual disputes – comes from, especially as it pertains to Libby, the character most suspicious of women.”
I began to empathize with Rachael and her “accumulated trauma”. “
The series’ freshest observations – and emotional wallops- center on the accrual of the sometimes unrecognizable breaches that women are expected to quietly endure and the isolation that results when loved ones don’t acknowledge their pain.”
“Danes……wrenchingly conveys the gradual stripping of self that Rachael undergoes when it becomes more convenient for the men in hr life to treat her – an unhappy wife, an incensed patient, a wronged employee-less like a person than a problem to deal with.”
Powerful words: the stripping of self endured by women who are not treated like persons but instead like a problem to deal with.
Needless to say this is more than a tiny bit depressing as this takes place on a daily basis, not only in the United States, but throughout the world. Is there a solution to this problem? Perhaps.
Rachael and similarly situated women suffer from angst. Shaykh Hamza Yusaf, an Islamic scholar said this about angst. “The natural state of human beings who are not aligned spiritually with the celestial realm is angst—an existential dread that takes hold, a dissatisfaction with the ways things are on earth. Some even designate our own modern materialistic epoch as the age of anxiety. The antidote to such a condition is true faith and the knowledge that everything comes from God. When we are afflicted with loss of life, of limb, or property, we say, “To God, we belong , and in God we return” (Qur’an 2:156)
So that is the ultimate solution it seems to me. Forget about society’s stripping of women’s self; have faith in Allah (SWT) and, in the meantime, enjoy some of the benefits of being a woman. One joy I enjoy is having my nails done at Khrome Nails. The photo you shall see below is me in the loo with a charming neon sign above my head that announces “You’re like really pretty” My expression indicates that I do not quite believe that I am really pretty. Khrome Nails, my very favorite nail place go in Edmonton, recently moved to a remodeled locale on the South Side. The owner told me that, for her, it was a new beginning. The owner of the nail salon and the accompanying academy that trains (usually Canadian women) to become manicurists and pedicurists. She, by her efforts, is improving things on earth, my ‘spoiling’ hard-working women and training other women to serve in the same capacity.
An Edmonton Muslim woman texted me during the few brief days when I was attending the Al Rashid Mosque, which was founded by a woman in the 1930s – the first mosque in Canada. Its focus has changed during the years, I discovered much to my dismay.
She: We do not wear nail polish.
Me: That has not been my experience. In the Middle East almost all Muslim women wear nail polish and so do most of the Muslim women I met from the Royal Family of Qatar.
She was trying to be helpful, I do think. But her criticism was unfounded, it could have been demoralizing if I had not been in the world and was observant. It would remove a pleasure that many women enjoy. It cannot be a prohibition found in the Qur’an because nail polish did not exist at the time of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), when most of the rules for following the faith were established. Being a devout Muslim is not that difficult but it does entail more than following rules, rules probably made by mere mortal men and women.
Learning more every day, about the rules that did exist and the reasons why they were absolutely necessary at the time. One must remember that infant mortality was an enormous problem. Women needed to be child bearing or else the population would dwindle down to nothing. Nonetheless, Lady Khadiji was the only wife that had children – none of the other wives did. She died at the age of sixty-five, they married when she was forty. She had five children, the two boys died in infancy. These are different times.
Absolutely beautiful ✨ Keep shinning Alexis