The Threat To National Security
or rather, insecurity.

"Everyone gets what they deserve." -my daughter Fatima

The first thing I made note of as I drove into South Lebanon for the first time after the Israeli Agression of 2006 was a billboard. It depicted in sillouhette, a man, a woman and a child. The woman was hijabi or "covered" from head to toe so her shape was recognizable. She was muslim. Not Christian, not Druze. Most definitely she and her family were muslim. The man was walking with crutches and was missing a leg. The words on the billboard said in Arabic, "Life Goes On".

It sure does.

We had to return to Lebanon in 2007 in order to say goodbye to our family in the proper way. We hadn't been allowed the opportunity when we evacuated aboard the USS Trent the year before. We had to see what happened up close.

Many people thought we were a tad bit crazy to enter such a dangerous area of the world where Israeli land mines were still lying in wait in the fallow fields and yards of South Lebanon. As a matter of fact, when we arrived at Heathrow airport news was breaking about the beginnings of a new conflict in North Lebanon in a place called Nahar Bared or "Cold River". What can I say...the last time we passed through Heathrow, it exploded the next day. Ah heck, it's always exploding. I thought to myself as I stood under the television monitor near our usual old boarding gate at Heathrow, well, isn't that nice, another boneheaded US-Israeli Saudi-backed plan to destablilize little old defenseless Lebanon. Will they ever learn?

I also thought about the risk of returning and how there is no way in life to bargain with the fates. How that must appear to people who believe they are "safe" from terrorism or safe from salmonella or safe with their bicycle safety helmets on. How people in the Non Islamic provinces on the planet bank on things like FDIC guarantees. How they sue when someone dies in a plane accident. How they end up with OCD which is a newly discovered problem. Or rather, a newly invented problem that aims to explain away the anxiety people develop over time when they lack faith in the Creator, his creation and the knowledge that Allah already knows all about everything already because Allah exists outside the spectrum of events we call Time.

And what exactly is anxiety composed of? What does it mean and what does it have to do with the ancient word risk?

Anxiety can be understood by knowing what is missing rather than trying to understand what constitutes anxiety itself. Afterall, a person with math-related anxiety doesn't necessarily have OCD and everyone can have a bit of anxiety or alot of anxiety which is related to any number of ordinary to extraordinary human events. Apparently there are a range of functions of the human mind that exist to produce feelings of total safety and the complete absence of safety. Anxiety then is the absence of a feeling of security relating to something perceived to be outside of oneself.

Let's take a look at the word risk. According to my favorite on-line etymology dictionary, the word risk was Anglicized in the late 17th century:

risk (n.)
1661, risque, from Fr. risque, from It. risco, riscio (modern rischio), from riscare "run into danger," of uncertain origin. The Anglicized spelling first recorded 1728. Sp. riesgo and Ger. Risiko are It. loan-words. The verb is from 1687; risky first recorded 1826

But where on earth did it originate before that? I mean, it must have come from somewhere because the lack of safety in human lives and the need or desire to challenge that threat to national/personal security must have existed since the beginning of human self awareness.

What many people do not know is that the word risk actually comes from the ancient language which is still in use today (and by a growing number of people) called Arabic. The pronounciation of it is slightly more emphatic: ri's(eh)k. Like all Arabic words, it is composed of three consonants that can be altered via the use of vowel vocalizations that can vary from the deep gutteral to the nasally inspired. The literal meaning most widely used for the word risek in Arabic is "one's due bounty".

A good way to understand the concept of risek in Arabic is the story of a thief. The thief enters a house and takes away two hundred dollars in cash and valuables. It can be said that the thief "took his risk" by entering that house. The risk being that he would be discovered, arrested or even shot by the occupants. If the thief had waited, had he enough faith and security in the future which is completely unknowable to anyone, he would have realized that the two hundred dollars would have come to him in another way...perhaps through gainful employment or even a charitable donation. Or maybe it wasn't even his risek in the first place to have two hundred dollars. Maybe he was going to get a job and walk into the men's room and discover a bag with five hundred dollars which no one ever claims. He'll never know though will he? He'll never know because he "took" a risk which he shouldn't have taken. Hence the origin of the idea of "not taking risks".

Perhaps the greatest risk one takes is when one takes their own life in response to the uncertainties and unpleasantries of life or because their "OCD", that newly discovered "disease" becomes simply intolerable in their heart and mind. When someone places too much emphasis on the risk of falling off their bike and croaking the way non muslim people do, it is the case that they are simply too materialistic to understand the idea that tomorrow is always unknown. And even when people plan for something there are no guarantees that it will turn out the way that they expected. Like Iraq, like the Super Bowl, like a big mouthful of ham sandwiches like the kind Momma Cass Elliot was eating when she choked to death.

So there I was in Heathrow saying Why Me? And then saying, Why Not Me? It is absolutely me. Hope is all there is and risek too. It doesn't bother me much at all to be in a war zone. Lightning is a bit of a problem but bombs are just bombs.

Life goes on......or maybe not!

"And when those who disbelieved devised plans against you that they might confine you or slay you or drive you away; and they devised plans and Allah too had arranged a plan; and Allah is the best of planners." - The Ways of Ascent, The Glorious Quran


A post to Lanny Muss, my dear old friend from Cloud's Hill dated April 2007, one month before the Heathrow:

http://carmenisacat.blogspot.com/2007/04/with-apologies-to-lanny-ah-there-you.html

Days or weeks can go by you know without one shred of
evidence...then I find a woman who wants to be a Sufi.
Her door is graced with a tin replica of St. Francis
of Assisi. For whatever reason, my sister rescues
cats and wants to give them away, then posts her
persuit on International "Speak Like a Pirate Day".
What about that? It is interesting to note that the
day when I brought this lovely dog home whom we began
calling Zero and then settled on just Pooch...my
sister brought to me a cat which was later named Davey
Jones. Pooch wouldn't have it or rather, Pooch would
like to have it for his dinner..his former master must
have taught him that kitty tastes good. So I had to
turn old Davey Jones the beautiful gray kitten away.
Who ended up with my kitten? The same woman with St.
Francis, the sufi hopeful. I told her this but she
didn't grasp the importance of my speeches or what it
is I know about these kinds of signs that tend to go
unnoticed. All these things coming together in a
triangle of fate. So I said to my student of "sufism"
(seems that is what most people like to call Islam
nowdays in order to avoid the orneriness of the fine
print)...there is your sign..."YOU have my cat"..what
else is it that you require and how will I present it
to you? What about this Zionist thing and what would
that do to the finer details of this acceptance one
must abide by?