In the past year I experienced a whole series of events which, if I had dwelled on them too long, would have sent me around the bend. Indeed, one sleepless night, I did have this recurrent thought: “Someone is pranking me, seriously.” But in the end, you just have to tell yourself to move on. …
If one day I finally felt moved to tell my family about my condition, I don’t think I would tell them what it’s called, or go into any details. That’s because — to my mind — the stigma is still too raw. While an internet search nowadays reveals significantly more helpful academic research than was …
This is a way which, when practiced, dignifies men and women. This is a way which raises up even the most lowly in the eyes of society, and makes them great before their Lord. This is a way which, when made real, makes the broken whole. This is a way which unites the hearts even …
Indeed, He unites hearts.
It’s funny that the way I was introduced to my wife is derided by society. For if we had met on a nightclub dance-floor, while completely inebriated, and had immediately jumped into bed together, society would have given us a pat on the back and wheezed, “Way to go!” Of course, the latter would not …
Does a nerd see themself as a nerd? I certainly didn’t. I was into my thirties before I embraced this identity. Mine was a complex identity, anyway. Stereotypically, nerds are brainy, bright and intellectual, whereas I was none of those things. As a kid at school put it when another called me a square: “No, …
Dear extremely angry, please check your facts. www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics www.refugee-action.org.uk/about/facts-about-refugees
Life is not ordinary. Life itself is a miracle, when you think about it. But sometimes life is extraordinary, as so often I have seen for myself.
But only for today.
What good is it to prise open an old box, however poorly closed? What good does it do to peer inside and inspect the contents? Do you really think you will discover buried treasure? More likely everything to implode your world. Leave that old box alone.
My lack of verbal fluency has stifled me in many areas of life, but most notably in education and employment. One of the reasons I took up writing — and write so much — was to compensate for that deficit. Looking back on all I wrote fifteen years ago, I acknowledge that I wasn’t a …
How much money do we need to make? We encounter people working so hard that they seem not to have what I would call an ordinary family life. By ordinary, I mean being around for your family. Near at hand. Not far away. When I ask them whether it’s time to settle down a bit, …
Was I insufferable all those years ago? It hurt so much that those I respected most held me in such contempt. What was my crime? What did I do? Or was my admiration simply too much to bear? Does it ever change? Will I always be insufferable? And, if so, why? Explain it to me: …
To make it on social media, you must be loud, brash, self-assured. It helps if you’re capable of stirring up controversy, or telling people what they want to hear, or confirming prejudices and biases. Unfortunately, if you have such characteristics, you may be the worst possible person to represent a faith whose central hallmark is …
There’s so little difference between communities, each one jumping up and down with equal excitement. Your beloved spokesman got banned from social media! This is censorship! Where is freedom of speech? This is victimisation! Discrimination! Yep, nothing to do with hate speech, spreading lies, breaching terms of use. Of course, it’s simply the anti- Muslim …
