Job Discussion Forums

[scot47]

To those contemplating matrimony to a Saudi, consider this current news story

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=128183&d=8&m=11&y=2009&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom

[Cleopatra]

[littleoldlady]

Been there, done that, got the T shirt ripped off my back trying to escape
We were very, very, very lucky and I thank God for that. However, it's the PTSD which never goes away.

I was naive and thought love would conquer all. Try telling that to your Embassy.

Of course I did escape cos I am here telling the tale.

However, my daughters would be under lock and key if I thought they were going to follow in my unlucky footsteps

I feel pain for such women caught in this situation. Just reading that article has made me need to lie down in a darkened room.

[Mia Xanthi]

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

lol: Breath in.. breath out...breath in...breath out...yer good ta go!

All my luv, luv...

NCTBA

[007]

[johnslat]

Dear 007,

" . . . . do you really believe in love?"

007, do you really believe in God?

Regards,
John

[007]

[johnslat]

Dear 007,

And do you think God (who is the epitome of love) would create a humankind that could not love one another?

Yes, I know there are all kinds of love - but romantic love, the love between two human beings - is the deepest expression of love that we have on this earth.

Regards,
John

When a man loves a woman, he seeks union with her, that is to say the most complete union possible in love, and there is in the elemental sphere no greater union than that between the sexes. [Man's] contemplation of the Reality in woman is the most complete and perfect. . . . Contemplation of the Reality without formal support is not possible. . . . Since, therefore, some form of support is necessary, the best and most perfect kind is the contemplation of God in woman. The greatest union is that between man and woman (Ibn al-`Arabi, 1980: 274-5).

Here is some commentary by John Ryan Haule:

God appears in the objects that he has created, and erotic love provides us the most powerful vision we can attain, enabling us to see through the fleshly object that attracts our eye to the Ultimate Reality lying beyond. Sufism calls this fana', passing away, annihilation. We pass away from the ego's reality in the persona field and pass through our beloved to realize God. This is not God "in Himself," Who is beyond all direct knowing, but God perceived in and through a created being. We need the "support" of a perceptible being in order to gain access to the transcendent realm. The highest form of this, for Ibn al-`Arabi, is the union between a man and a woman in erotic trance.

Also by Ibn al-`Arabi
The divine lover is spirit without body;
The physical lover is body without spirit;
The spiritual lover possesses spirit and body.

[Mia Xanthi]

[Deicide]

Everyone seems to have been able shrug off the horrible condition of being single...how did eveyone get so lucky here?

And in Saudi of all places...

[johnslat]

Dear Deicide,

"Of Living Alone--But Not Brooding Too Much About It"
1.
To live alone is to be immensely in charge of the silence
So that, if you have something serious to think about, such as
a problem you have to solve, & are determined to solve,
You'll probably think about that problem long & hard;
& probably (since you're usually able to) uninterruptedly, too

--Perhaps for entire mornings, afternoons, & evenings;
Or indeed, maybe whole days on end!

2.
In fact, if you're living alone & therefore, when you're home,
are--eek! yipes! & oh horrors!--by yourself most of the time,
with only yourself to keep yourself company
(Except of course for an occasional, hopefully tension-relieving, relaxingly welcome guest!)
It's obviously really necessary to concentrate, & reflect,
& think your actions out before you perform them
Since, after all--just in case you foul up on on things--

You're the only one you're going to be able to blame
For things that happen to go wrong!

3.
Certainly, if you're living alone, it's important to choose those friends,
acquaintances (& any lovers, too!) whom you do see,
especially wisely & well
--That is, for their & soothing, & relaxing, & unnannoying qualities
Lest you find yourself entertaining as guests, merely pests
who take advantage of your acquired knack for problem-solving
And who wreck your hard-won peace-of-mind
By passing along endless problems of their own that they haven't solved

--Being, themselves, far too distracted to do so
By those they regularly reside with.

4.
--Being constantly surrounded each day by, for example:

The cheerful confusions of a busily uproarious, merry family; or perhaps,
the ups & downs of an equally boisterous, but argumentative,
& dysfunctional one;
Or perhaps, by the turmoil of overly-talkative, excessively sociable
room-mates who interrupt their concentration constantly
by babbling at them randomly or else coming & going
all the time--shouting helloes & goodbyes & then slamming doors
like big, loony cuckoos popping in & out of cuckoo-clocks;
Or perhaps, by live-in lovers or other close companions, such as spouses,
who all too often, it's been my experience, seem to feel somehow entitled
to interrupt virtually every physical & mental move of their living-partners
By asking what they're doing; & why they're doing it, all the time

--Or by any one of the other various, relatively riotous & (I think)
generally God-awful living-arrangements which humans are
forced into or which, sometimes, they simply accept or inherit
Or which (much to my amazement!), they often
actually willingly create for themselves!

--Most of which, IMHO, tend to befuddle people.

5.
--But individuals living alone should not brood too much about such things, I think
But instead, substitute for such negative, perhaps purely self-defensive,
& possibly unproductive thoughts as those

The positive--& yes! even decidedly festive idea--of carefully selecting their friends
& associates (& sometime in the future, perhaps living-partners too)
Exclusively from among that rare, discriminating, well-focussed, thoughtful,
& IMHO also thoroughly courageous breed of individuals
Who've been responsible for themselves & for themselves alone--with an
absolute minimum of interruptions!--

For at least some few moments, & for at least some continuous time,
Within recent memory."

http://www.angelfire.com/ny/MichaelBenedikt/lvgalo.html

Regards,
John

[Deicide]

[johnslat]

Dear Deicide,

You're right - it's not always easy. But it's simple.

I've been married for only about a decade of my adult life; that left a lot of living alone time.

Regards,
John

[Deicide]