One of the themes found in the August 22, 2023 blog was the rather ill-fated ride on the contraption. You shall be happy to learn that I was able to find the contact information. For the ride of a lifetime call Riyadh Wing 966-55-124-7778. If you live in Saudi Arabia and really want an adventure, have at it. But it you don’t – do not.
Listening to one of my reels on Instagram served as a reminder that I had written about the experience. Searched, found it, July 3, 2023. It was a discovery of sort.
Me: Wow that is such good writing, I wonder who wrote that?
Alter Ego: It seems it was you.
Me: Must be – I have sole control over the writing that appears on the blog. .
To those of you, not reading the July 3 blog, I shall provide some background., Then a sort of quote. I was flying in the contraption, totally terrified when suddenly my iPhone alarm went off, telling me it was prayer time. Almost instinctively I began my prayers. This I wrote in July when the experience was fresh in my mind. .
“Me: Allah (SWT) please get me down. My prayers were answered!!!! We landed. My people and other people ran unto the ‘field’ to greet me. I am sure I was weeping – tears of joy, not tears of sorrow. I am so proud of myself for many reasons. The bravery, the moxie but most important my ultimate trust in Allah (SWT). With people crowded around me, the pilot asked to make a reel. Me: I DID IT! I DID IT! (Moxie is force of character, determination, or nerve)I have overcome enormous adversity my whole life – all these eighty years. I did it again!! But this time I had lots of help. Incredible support from my ‘Saudi ‘family’, all of the Saudi staff and even other passengers.”
Enough of the recent past, it is now onto the present. I continue to live in limbo land. What is that? “If you say that someone or something is in limbo, you mean that they are in a situation where they seem to be caught between two stages and it is unclear what will happen next. The synonyms (state of uncertainty) reveal the pain: oblivion. nothingness. nowhere
That is me, admired so in an email. “l do not know when I am planning to return (on a tourist visa) to Saudi Arabia. So many tasks need to be completed. Get one done and another pops up. For example – paid a final visit (I thought) to my doctor to get necessary prescriptions for three months. There was an hour and a half wait to see her. Dreadful the working conditions for doctors here. She ordered blood work so now I have an appointment next week at the lab, and will need to wait for results (I guess)/ Made an appointment for an eye exam. Ends up I need new glasses for computer work (need to wait for those) and have another appointment so that my pupils can be dilated. . Oh well.”
I am attempting to remain patient. The days not crowded with appointments will be spent writing. There are three stories to be told. 1) The William Dryburgh story 2) The magazine thief story 3) The story of the Medina photograph taken in December 2022. There shall be no distractions – no flying contraptions, no two-humped Chinese camels or the giraffe-camel combination, no men with dowry offers. The weather seems unseasonably cold and cloudy – perfect weather for writing.
Recently I spoke of those who speak with forked tongue. Today this rhyme came back to me: “Liar, liar, pants on fire!” This is the Internet has to say about it.
Children all over the United States know this simple rhyme. They say it when someone gets caught in a lie. In other words, when someone gets busted for lying. The phrase that is the title of this article is said to have originated in a poem written by William Blake entitled “The Liar.” Of course, this phrase has been used by children down through the years to mock their peers for telling a lie.
I did not realize this but there is a response to it: — It’s “I don’t care, I don’t care, I can buy another pair.”
That is the thing about liars, they are going to keep doing it. Their rear ends are going to get a bit singed, but that is the least of their problems. On the day of Judgment they shall in LL probability, be facing Hell Fire.
There are, says the Internet, ways to spot liars: They will avoid using pronouns like “I,” “mine” and “myself.” They may use oddly phrased statements in the third person. For example, they may say, “You don’t bill hours that you didn’t work,” instead of saying, “I don’t bill hours I didn’t work.” Or they’ll say, “The vase got broken,” instead of “I broke the vase.”.
How does one revenge a liar? I do love this quote. The best revenge on a liar is to convince him that you believe what he said. But there are other ways in which a liar can be punished. “There is a well-known Hebrew saying that goes as follows: “The punishment of a liar is that he is never believed, even when he speaks the truth.” It is noteworthy that variants of this quote are also attributed to the legendary Greek fablist, Aesop, and the Irish playwright and activist, George Bernard Shaw” This quote gives pause: The liar’s punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.
It is a quagmire; misinformation abounds: “Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”
Instagram can be a quagmire, defined as an awkward, complex, or hazardous situation. There are many descriptive synonyms: mix-up, quandary, entanglement, tangle, jumble, confusion, sticky situation, dilemma, hot/deep water.
It is impossible to reliably discover the truth on Instagram because there are so many lies, so much negativity, so much misinformation. . One person Posted: I’m Done, saying they were close to deleitng the account because of a “select group of people who hate me and my page.” This was my response. I am sorry you are leaving but I understand. Those making such negative comments are Shaytans. The good news is that soon they will only have each other to rebuke and Instagram cannot pretend to be anything else but a purveyor of hatred. I will keep saying good thing to good people. But if no good people left I will disappear too.
There is also much sensationalism shown on Instagram, particularly in the world’s hot spots such as Palestine. . Sensationalism is (especially in journalism) the use of exciting or shocking stories or language at the expense of accuracy, in order to provoke public interest or excitement. Nothing in particular is gained by the use of such images. This is the cold hard facts, reported in the August 24, 2023 Al Jazeera: “The United Nations Middle East envoy, Tor Wennesland, told the UN Security Council on Monday that more than 200 Palestinians and nearly 30 Israelis have been killed so far this year in the occupied West Bank and Israel.”
What will the UN Security Council do with this appalling evidence? Nothing. They never have and it looks like they never will. It does cause me to realize how fortunate I am, I think I shall stop complaining about being in limbo land, surrounded by the occasional person who speaks with a forked tongue.
Chris, my computer guru has begun adding captions to my photos and cartoons. One cartoon describes the possible problem encountered in Western societal courting patterns. The framed photographs on a hallway shelf depict very special Saudi Sojourn moments. There is not a contraption in sight.
