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At the “Dreamers of Tomorrow” Café
A culture of optimism amid adversity
Hossam Badrawi
I read Professor Fatima Al Mazrouei, a university professor, story writer, and distinguished Emirati poet, who says:
When one of us encounters a problem or an obstacle in our life’s journey, the best way to overcome it is to fill oneself with energy of optimism and hope and fill the soul with these feelings. However, what is happening in our lives today is completely different from this aspect, with a quick look at social networking sites or what we receive through applications. On smart phones, we find that they are words and sayings that express and indicate a state of misery, despair, and self-reproach. A huge amount of dark words surround many people, occupying their day and consuming their time, and the reason is that they failed or stumbled.
My friend Muhammad Abdel Quddus alerted me that in my article last week, I focused on the beauty that I felt during my medical ordeal, and from it entered the concept of beauty in life, and I should have talked about optimism in the midst of adversity, because what society needs now are doses of optimism and hope.
One of the young people dreaming of tomorrow asked me:
We hear you saying that your genes are optimistic, and you seem smiling in the darkest times. Is this an inherited trait? If so, then there is no blame on the unfortunate and pessimistic people, for they were born like this!!!
I said: I invite you to read my new book, “Me and Memes.” The meme is the unit that carries ideas across time for all humans, and it operates with the same logic as genes. I dug deeper, and found that ideas are really like genes; Genes carry genetic information within them, which is transmitted and reproduced, just as ideas carry information and knowledge that are transmitted and reproduced, but by different means. In the case of genetic material; DNA carries information, which is chemical instructions that guide the cell and dictate how to build the necessary proteins that the organism’s body needs to survive and reproduce. There is an incentive within the structure of creation’s genes to reproduce. To make more copies of the same creature, using its genetic material. Without this motivation, the genetic material dies, and the creature disappears. Our genetic material shares interesting and distinctive features with ideas, myths, and harsh life lessons. They all contain messages and an impulse to reproduce, multiply, and spread. Although there is a big difference between biological life and ideas, there is a link between the two. Ideas that multiply and divide themselves are very similar to genes. The term “memes” is equivalent to “genes” (gene=mem).
Optimism is an idea and a way of life that, if applied repeatedly, becomes a “meme” and settles in the conscience of society like genes. So yes, I have optimistic genes and so do my memes.
The collective mind of the family and society creates positive energy and vice versa. This collective mind is driven by society’s culture, its leaders, its media, and its arts. Emotional preparation for it begins from childhood, at home, school, university, in the club and arena, in houses of prayer. Mosques, churches and temples…
Life is a blessing from the Creator, and joy in it is gratitude to God, and we must long for it and savor it, as it is a human right.
As for optimism in life, it is a wonderful internal feeling, a state of comfort that an individual feels because of his belief that there is always a way out of problems if they occur.
To be optimistic means to see the light in the midst of darkness, to feel that despite all the challenges, difficulties and pain, there is still a lot that we love in life and that it is beautiful and worth living, fighting and striving to achieve and reach.
The optimist sees crises as opportunities, and his optimism activates his psychological and physical immune systems, while pessimism exhausts a person’s energy, reduces his activity, and weakens his motivation.
The pessimistic interpretation style is one of the reasons that leads to various physical diseases and a low level of academic and professional performance. It is the human being who can decide his fate or future. Optimism is not a gift or a trait in the human personality, but rather a skill that the individual learns until he masters it and thinks positively so that it becomes a way of life.
I remind you that optimism and pessimism are contagious… In other words, they can be acquired from contact with others… Associating with pessimists makes you, like them, have a dark outlook, hesitation and lack of courage… But your company with optimists makes life simpler and more exciting in your view, and you can face pitfalls positively. Look around you well and choose the company and friends well. First, then feed your mind and soul with beautiful thoughts, and flood your conscience with optimism, and you will find positive results showering upon you one after the other.
There is a collective mind of society, created by the sum of the positive energy within it, and stimulated by the essence of religions, education, media, and the arts, which places a great responsibility on the leaders of society because they are the makers of this climate and the facilitators of its existence, and I hold them responsible for achieving this.
While I was in the middle of the ordeal of illness between consciousness and subconsciousness for 52 days in Germany, I realized the value of optimism. Had it not been for my trust in the medical team treating me, and my vision of the light in the midst of darkness, which was illuminated for me by my sons, granddaughters, wife, and sister by being around me, holding my hand, hugging my arms, and stroking my head, then what would I have done? They transmit it to me from the messages of the rest of my family and friends from Egypt and the Arab world, and they do not know whether I hear them or not, because I exist in an isthmus between consciousness and subconsciousness, but I felt them and heard them, as they were my source of energy for optimism and not slipping into the black hole that was attracting me with a pessimistic and negative gravitational energy. .
Optimism was my weapon, but what gave me the ability to resist and my faith in God, which deepened during times of adversity.
To every person who suffers from illness, suffers from the oppressed, suffers from suffering, and complains, arm yourself with a card of optimism, and search for it with those you love, and trust that your destiny is linked to the will of your Lord, but it is also linked to your positive ability to challenge the obstacles of suffering and search for the light of optimism, as what you are in may be a test. And there is no end…
A culture of optimism amid adversity
Hossam Badrawi
I read Professor Fatima Al Mazrouei, a university professor, story writer, and distinguished Emirati poet, who says:
When one of us encounters a problem or an obstacle in our life’s journey, the best way to overcome it is to fill oneself with energy of optimism and hope and fill the soul with these feelings. However, what is happening in our lives today is completely different from this aspect, with a quick look at social networking sites or what we receive through applications. On smart phones, we find that they are words and sayings that express and indicate a state of misery, despair, and self-reproach. A huge amount of dark words surround many people, occupying their day and consuming their time, and the reason is that they failed or stumbled.
My friend Muhammad Abdel Quddus alerted me that in my article last week, I focused on the beauty that I felt during my medical ordeal, and from it entered the concept of beauty in life, and I should have talked about optimism in the midst of adversity, because what society needs now are doses of optimism and hope.
One of the young people dreaming of tomorrow asked me:
We hear you saying that your genes are optimistic, and you seem smiling in the darkest times. Is this an inherited trait? If so, then there is no blame on the unfortunate and pessimistic people, for they were born like this!!!
I said: I invite you to read my new book, “Me and Memes.” The meme is the unit that carries ideas across time for all humans, and it operates with the same logic as genes. I dug deeper, and found that ideas are really like genes; Genes carry genetic information within them, which is transmitted and reproduced, just as ideas carry information and knowledge that are transmitted and reproduced, but by different means. In the case of genetic material; DNA carries information, which is chemical instructions that guide the cell and dictate how to build the necessary proteins that the organism’s body needs to survive and reproduce. There is an incentive within the structure of creation’s genes to reproduce. To make more copies of the same creature, using its genetic material. Without this motivation, the genetic material dies, and the creature disappears. Our genetic material shares interesting and distinctive features with ideas, myths, and harsh life lessons. They all contain messages and an impulse to reproduce, multiply, and spread. Although there is a big difference between biological life and ideas, there is a link between the two. Ideas that multiply and divide themselves are very similar to genes. The term “memes” is equivalent to “genes” (gene=mem).
Optimism is an idea and a way of life that, if applied repeatedly, becomes a “meme” and settles in the conscience of society like genes. So yes, I have optimistic genes and so do my memes.
The collective mind of the family and society creates positive energy and vice versa. This collective mind is driven by society’s culture, its leaders, its media, and its arts. Emotional preparation for it begins from childhood, at home, school, university, in the club and arena, in houses of prayer. Mosques, churches and temples…
Life is a blessing from the Creator, and joy in it is gratitude to God, and we must long for it and savor it, as it is a human right.
As for optimism in life, it is a wonderful internal feeling, a state of comfort that an individual feels because of his belief that there is always a way out of problems if they occur.
To be optimistic means to see the light in the midst of darkness, to feel that despite all the challenges, difficulties and pain, there is still a lot that we love in life and that it is beautiful and worth living, fighting and striving to achieve and reach.
The optimist sees crises as opportunities, and his optimism activates his psychological and physical immune systems, while pessimism exhausts a person’s energy, reduces his activity, and weakens his motivation.
The pessimistic interpretation style is one of the reasons that leads to various physical diseases and a low level of academic and professional performance. It is the human being who can decide his fate or future. Optimism is not a gift or a trait in the human personality, but rather a skill that the individual learns until he masters it and thinks positively so that it becomes a way of life.
I remind you that optimism and pessimism are contagious… In other words, they can be acquired from contact with others… Associating with pessimists makes you, like them, have a dark outlook, hesitation and lack of courage… But your company with optimists makes life simpler and more exciting in your view, and you can face pitfalls positively. Look around you well and choose the company and friends well. First, then feed your mind and soul with beautiful thoughts, and flood your conscience with optimism, and you will find positive results showering upon you one after the other.
There is a collective mind of society, created by the sum of the positive energy within it, and stimulated by the essence of religions, education, media, and the arts, which places a great responsibility on the leaders of society because they are the makers of this climate and the facilitators of its existence, and I hold them responsible for achieving this.
While I was in the middle of the ordeal of illness between consciousness and subconsciousness for 52 days in Germany, I realized the value of optimism. Had it not been for my trust in the medical team treating me, and my vision of the light in the midst of darkness, which was illuminated for me by my sons, granddaughters, wife, and sister by being around me, holding my hand, hugging my arms, and stroking my head, then what would I have done? They transmit it to me from the messages of the rest of my family and friends from Egypt and the Arab world, and they do not know whether I hear them or not, because I exist in an isthmus between consciousness and subconsciousness, but I felt them and heard them, as they were my source of energy for optimism and not slipping into the black hole that was attracting me with a pessimistic and negative gravitational energy. .
Optimism was my weapon, but what gave me the ability to resist and my faith in God, which deepened during times of adversity.
To every person who suffers from illness, suffers from the oppressed, suffers from suffering, and complains, arm yourself with a card of optimism, and search for it with those you love, and trust that your destiny is linked to the will of your Lord, but it is also linked to your positive ability to challenge the obstacles of suffering and search for the light of optimism, as what you are in may be a test. And there is no end…
The optimistic young woman said: But we must respect the genetic aspect, Doctor. In my family, along with my father, we always look at things optimistically, while my brother and mother tend to be pessimistic, even though we live in the same house under the same circumstances.
I told her: There is some truth in that, but positive will is very important and I advise each one of you to think about what makes him happy within the framework of healthy values, and search for it. As I told you, optimism is a skill that we can acquire. I remind you that God Almighty said: “God does not burden a soul with more than it can bear. It is for it what it has earned and for it is what it has earned.” That is, we all have in our souls a space in which we can acquire new things through our free will, and let there be optimism and seeing the best in life. Seeing the light in the midst of darkness is something we strive for.
Another young man said: What about the climate of pessimism around us? What do we do in it?!! A threat from terrorism, and a Salafist conscience that wants to take us back to the past and depressing thinking, and the whole world is jumping into a chaotic future, world wars that have no meaning, fear of a water crisis in the south, a huge demographic and economic challenge, vanishing employment opportunities and a rise in the cost of living… How? Do you expect us to be optimistic in this climate?
I said to him: Do you imagine that life will go on without challenges? It is as if you want to play a match guaranteeing victory in the absence of an opponent. The most beautiful thing in life is facing challenges and achieving victory for yourself and others. The threat is everywhere, and it could have been Egypt. In the situation of Iraq, Syria, Yemen or Libya. However, our people were able to withstand… Yes, we need more and more, as this is our right. We need complete justice, real respect for freedoms and guarantees for the transfer of power and respect for the constitution. We need our right to high-quality education, respectable health care and transportation. Our humanity is respected, and a minimum wage is appropriate to high prices. Can we avoid anxiety and fear? , no
But we can, within the framework of legitimacy, demand, work, take the initiative, object sometimes, and search for solutions. Pride is not in not falling, but pride is in getting up whenever we fall. So do not be among those who complain that the rose has thorns, but rather among those who are optimistic that above the thorns there are roses.
And remember the words of the great Elia Abu Madi:
Who is this complainer and what is wrong with you?
How do you become if you become ill?
The worst offenders on earth are…
. Before leaving, you long for a departure
Hey, this complainer, what’s wrong with you?
be beautiful see the Universe beautiful.
I told her: There is some truth in that, but positive will is very important and I advise each one of you to think about what makes him happy within the framework of healthy values, and search for it. As I told you, optimism is a skill that we can acquire. I remind you that God Almighty said: “God does not burden a soul with more than it can bear. It is for it what it has earned and for it is what it has earned.” That is, we all have in our souls a space in which we can acquire new things through our free will, and let there be optimism and seeing the best in life. Seeing the light in the midst of darkness is something we strive for.
Another young man said: What about the climate of pessimism around us? What do we do in it?!! A threat from terrorism, and a Salafist conscience that wants to take us back to the past and depressing thinking, and the whole world is jumping into a chaotic future, world wars that have no meaning, fear of a water crisis in the south, a huge demographic and economic challenge, vanishing employment opportunities and a rise in the cost of living… How? Do you expect us to be optimistic in this climate?
I said to him: Do you imagine that life will go on without challenges? It is as if you want to play a match guaranteeing victory in the absence of an opponent. The most beautiful thing in life is facing challenges and achieving victory for yourself and others. The threat is everywhere, and it could have been Egypt. In the situation of Iraq, Syria, Yemen or Libya. However, our people were able to withstand… Yes, we need more and more, as this is our right. We need complete justice, real respect for freedoms and guarantees for the transfer of power and respect for the constitution. We need our right to high-quality education, respectable health care and transportation. Our humanity is respected, and a minimum wage is appropriate to high prices. Can we avoid anxiety and fear? , no
But we can, within the framework of legitimacy, demand, work, take the initiative, object sometimes, and search for solutions. Pride is not in not falling, but pride is in getting up whenever we fall. So do not be among those who complain that the rose has thorns, but rather among those who are optimistic that above the thorns there are roses.
And remember the words of the great Elia Abu Madi:
Who is this complainer and what is wrong with you?
How do you become if you become ill?
The worst offenders on earth are…
. Before leaving, you long for a departure
Hey, this complainer, what’s wrong with you?
be beautiful see the Universe beautiful.
