The History of High Expectations

    Occasionally we, as optimistic animals, make choices that, at the time, seem quite reasonable yet in retrospect seem rather foolish.  I make decisions like this more often than most, I think.  Take yesterday, for instance, when I was accompanied by two of my favorite ladies to downtown Portland to delve into the local food cart cuisine that is so well known and appreciated here.  I opted for Thai food - Hot.  It sounded good at the time.
    Another thing that sounded good at the time (albeit and earlier and unrelated time): writing a blog focusing mainly on the books I was reading.  A blog a week.  A book a week.  Say cowboy, why not put the two together?   And so a blog was born. 
    But here I find myself a day late on my blog schedule and a book behind.  Not entirely behind, mind you, but only 180 pages in to a 458 page book. 
    How did I find myself here you might ask.  Procrastination, mainly.  Watching television, probably.  Doctor's appointments, DMV and the ancillary requirements of registering a vehicle in the state of Oregon, spending time with the aforementioned ladies in my life and various other little day to day existence details that sometimes get in the way of our personal goals. 
    Not that I mind.  I just know how much you've been looking forward to this installment of excess thought.  Pop corn popped, frosty beverage at your side, waiting patiently for the new blog to hit the net so you can read and feel fulfilled and educated.  And I so hate to disappoint.
    To wit, a brief discussion of the first 180 pages of A History of the Arab Peoples, by Albert Hourani -

This books begins before the time of Muhammad and explains in detail life from the edge of the Arab world butting up against India to North Africa and in Andalus in Southern Spain.  He details the different kingdoms and the changing political and religious climate leading to the Sunni / Shi'a "split" in the early history of Islam.  There is great depth here and I haven't the time or inclination to summarize.  However, I will quote a few lines that struck me:
Concerning intellectual curiosity in the early Islamic world "such as expressed in the words of al-Kindi (c. 801-66), the thinker with whom the history of Islamic philosophy  virtually begins:
     We should not be ashamed to acknowledge truth from whatever source it comes to us, even if it is brought to us by former generations and foreign peoples.  For him who seeks the truth there is nothing of higher value than truth itself."
     Al-Kindi is, without question, a man after my own heart.  That he comes both from a previous generation and a foreign people (as relates to me) perhaps speaks to his own understanding that his words may one day find fertile ground in a mind beyond his own time and culture, that he wrote not merely for those of his time and in his place but for all men (and women) of all times and places.
    I will continue with this book to the end at which point I will divulge my next book.  But I'll give you a small hint, it will also be a nonfiction tome of some import to someone, somewhere.  It will not be THIS book, though I will add that to my list at some point...  (gotta click on the link if you want to know what book!)
    Despite the beauty of being able to choose my own reading and go at my own pace I am considering applying to another degree program...  just considering it though.  More details will follow if the decision is made to pursue what is now only in the exploration phase.
     That's all there is, there isn't any more...
    Until next time...