It is time for CreativeMornings in Dubai #71 with Rashid Al Awadhi.
Our framing essay this month is from one of our community members and the start of yet another way we here @CM_Dubai are trying to give this community a voice.
The Monumental of the Little Things
By Aldrin Silva
Growing up in a place where physical objects are meant to be monumental, some tend to overlook the non-physical possibilities of something being monumental in nature. Me â I look for the monumental in the smallest or more personal things in life.
A good example would be my personality. Iâd like to say Iâve been shaped by face-to-face role models, but, most of what I am comes from a TV series called M*A*S*H*. If youâre not old enough to remember the premise, it was based on a frontline medical unit in the Korean War in the mould of a comedy-drama, complete with a laugh track. Emotional stuff with a lot of laughs. I watched it for the first time when I was 14. Back then, everybody wanted to be the main character, Dr. Benjamin Franklin âHawkeyeâ Pierce, including the wit, sarcasm and largeness of character he was. Most of my âhumourâ comes from his stylings, which means almost no one today gets it.
Iâve watched the entire series once a year, every year since getting them on DVD in 2003. And upon every watch, I find myself noticing more personality traits from the other characters that I had taken on imperceptibly. In fact, those other traits are something that I find myself growing into more each year â BJâs charm and easygoing nature balanced with a righteous temper; Colonel Potterâs almost Solomon-like wisdom and grit; Margaretâs non-nonsense attitude and hidden funnies; Charlesâ appreciation for finery bordering on superciliousness but hiding a well of emotional fortitude; Father Mulcahyâs faith in humanity and compassion; Klingerâs focus and drive in everything he does.
Each of these traits has guided me in ways to treat my fellow sapiens. The show was about the horrors that humanity can inflict on itself balanced by what could be termed as insanity but dressed up in a way that makes you reconsider your notions on people and their experiences. Iâve found that maintaining that balance is one of the most difficult aspects of my personality, something that takes enormous measures of focus, even on your worst of days. But, in the end, itâs actually something Iâm most proud of, and I consider that balance in myself, my most noteworthy monumental achievement thus far.
January 2022 CreativeMornings is all about the theme FREE!
Ella Spira and Pietra Mello-Pittman the dynamic duo behind Sisters Grimm are speaking!
This month our theme essay is by Randah Taher.
Permission to Live Free
By Randah Taher
âDon’t want to be sweet and neat Don’t want someone living my life for me Want to be free.â
Said Toyah in her song âI want to be freeâ.
The 80s are so last century, but the feeling of wanting to shed our skin to bring our true selves out is always in the present tense. We feel like pretending to smile for the picture, not for a moment or two, but for long months and years on end. Ooh, that face muscle hurts so bad.
I was only 4 years old when this song came out. So I canât say I remember it. Yet I remember clearly the freedom I sought in my childhood to choose my own friends without my parentâs approval, to travel on my own to destinations I know nothing about, to experience life without a pre-approved itinerary. I followed mostly my intuition and it served me really well until I started bringing logic into the picture so that I can explain my creativity better. I ruined a big part of it because of that limited freedom I put myself in.
We take this picture-perfect frame to work. We try to fit in with how we dress, act and even how we think. We donât feel free to approach problems in new undiscovered ways.
Too risky.
But when someone suggests something radical and it gets approved, we moan and regret not sharing that same idea since we thought about it a week ago. We didnât feel free enough to share it out loud and ruin that picture. Did you experience this lately?
I sometimes still do.
Hereâs your permission to be and act free.
Start the day with a new routine. Experiment with your next meeting with a physical exercise. Write on the walls instead of typing on the computer. If it makes you alive and with a sense of freedom, why hold back? After all, the term âleisure time inventionsâ didnât come out of nowhere.
Thatâs when a new product or process occurs when the âinventorâ is away from the workplace and in contact with people from outside his/her field of work.
Read: free.
And so Toyah continues ..
âWe should live and let live And all live our dreams"
January 2022 CreativeMornings is all about the theme FREE!
Ella Spira and Pietra Mello-Pittman the dynamic duo behind Sisters Grimm are speaking!
This month our theme essay is by Randah Taher.
Permission to Live Free
By Randah Taher
âDon’t want to be sweet and neat Don’t want someone living my life for me Want to be free.â
Said Toyah in her song âI want to be freeâ.
The 80s are so last century, but the feeling of wanting to shed our skin to bring our true selves out is always in the present tense. We feel like pretending to smile for the picture, not for a moment or two, but for long months and years on end. Ooh, that face muscle hurts so bad.
I was only 4 years old when this song came out. So I canât say I remember it. Yet I remember clearly the freedom I sought in my childhood to choose my own friends without my parentâs approval, to travel on my own to destinations I know nothing about, to experience life without a pre-approved itinerary. I followed mostly my intuition and it served me really well until I started bringing logic into the picture so that I can explain my creativity better. I ruined a big part of it because of that limited freedom I put myself in.
We take this picture-perfect frame to work. We try to fit in with how we dress, act and even how we think. We donât feel free to approach problems in new undiscovered ways.
Too risky.
But when someone suggests something radical and it gets approved, we moan and regret not sharing that same idea since we thought about it a week ago. We didnât feel free enough to share it out loud and ruin that picture. Did you experience this lately?
I sometimes still do.
Hereâs your permission to be and act free.
Start the day with a new routine. Experiment with your next meeting with a physical exercise. Write on the walls instead of typing on the computer. If it makes you alive and with a sense of freedom, why hold back? After all, the term âleisure time inventionsâ didnât come out of nowhere.
Thatâs when a new product or process occurs when the âinventorâ is away from the workplace and in contact with people from outside his/her field of work.
Read: free.
And so Toyah continues ..
âWe should live and let live And all live our dreams"
