An Apple, a Bathtub, a Pretty Blond in a Bar ,And a Dancing Homeless Wise Man

Today’s Daily Barometer editorial ( Oregon State University’s newspaper) was titled Science! That’s how we spell it. Science! with a capital S and an exclamation mark. They proved the point that Science! should be nurtured and celebrated across the whole spectrum of a society. Having pride in OSU’s scientific discoveries is unescapable from someone who sees how our research is producing Science! that is enhancing quality of lives. I’m content about seeing non-science majored editorials finding a new way to define this fascinating thing: ‘Science!’. It is beyond what you study in school or observe in a textbook, it is all what nurture your curiosity, excites your passion to understand nature and technology. It is wherever you learn something that enables you to live an honorable life that adds a value to you and your society.

My own version of defining Science! …  Crispy Science

Four years ago, I decided to focus my engineering skills that I learned in a formal engineering school into informal learning of science and technology as a business that helps kids and youth to nurture their curiosity . My dear friend Samar Hamdan helped me to give it a great name. We called it Crispy Science ! With the help of excited and highly motivated college and high school colleagues who worked at my startup, we reached  out to more than 100,000 curious in Saudi Arabia alone in just 3 years. We called our end users curious because they are, our products or services doesn’t work unless you are a curious person. Today, Crispy Science is based in Corvallis, Oregon as well as in Al-Khubar, Saudi. Our purpose is to make Crispy Science aka. ‘Science!’ empowering our schools, teachers, companies to help the public understand knowledge, develop wisdom and be critical and productive in their lives.

I’ve been asked lately, “What is your aim in this life ?” my aim is to have efficient and productive quality of life for populations that my products, services or teams interact with. It is a tough and never-ending vision. But that what should keep me going everyday with my work. And that is not really an easy straight foreword job. While leading the Crispy Science team, I’ve been challenged by my ability to understand my teammates needs and capacity to grow. I’ve been told: Sami don’t expect everyone to think or behave like you, what works for you doesn’t work for others ! it is fallibility that I aim to reduce, We all need to understand others needs and personalities before we put them onboard. In order to help populations, well let’s say my team members for now! , to be more efficient and productive I better understand their ethical system, motivation, perceptions over their environments to be able to serve them and lead them toward a common goal. It is a tough job, yet I just found a starting point to work on ! A special kind of sabbatical !

 A sabbatical .. in college !

Lately, aside from my startup work, I’ve been focusing in my Master’s research on an evolving theory that attempts to understand peoples response to disasters and emergencies. Usually I’m pretty good in philosophical arguments. But necessity of life and engineering education led me to focus on products and services that put the bread over the table. But my first steps in the philosophical and theoretical journey gave me something much more valuable than a bread on a table; openly observant wisdom !

What could openly observant wisdom give you ?

Openly Observant Wisdom is the ability to derive a theory from an apple, a bathtub, a pretty blond in a bar ,or a dancing homeless wise man. You surely might be aware of the prejudices that our society carry. Our government awards many research grants to be led by those who proved that they can do almost just because the PhD associated with their names (Well, assuming all PhD’s can develop a sound grant proposal). The society would listen to certain people, text and media and filter out other ones just because they regarded the formers as holy, credible, and trust worthy. But nothing is trust worthy enough to make you regard it as more trust worthy than your own judgement and ability to question things. Even, sacred scriptures encourage its followers to be ready to be challenged in their faith in the same scriptures. I’ve been always excited in such stories that breaks such prejudices and assumptions. Newtons Apple, Archimedes bathtub, and John Nash’s blond in the bar were great in expanding what we regard as potential source of wisdom. Not to stick to the books, textbooks or peer reviewed journals. I recently had a kind of similar experience ! (Spoiler about next paragraph : I didn’t reach the Eureka moment .. yet. so don’t be excited about Sami’s law of gravity … laws of gravity still hold true … well … with some quantum mechanics and relativity theories that makes it little bit more complicated .. but don’t worry I am not intending to go there !)

Dancing Homeless Wise Man

Last night I was working at a coffee shop on an evolving theory. It was a little a while since I ran into that coffee shop for work, but I felt the sense of need to go there. I had the feeling that I had to order their a cardamon and honey tea latte. So that was one thing that drove me to that coffee shop. But probably I was unconsciously driven for another reason!

I got asked by couple of college students acquaintances about what I’m doing. Typical 30 seconds pitch with encouraging comments before they move on to get their coffee.  And then I got asked by ‘ Dancing Mike’. Mike started asking me about what I was doing. Rather the simple answer “I’m working!”. I triggered his curiosity with couple more words “I’m working on an evolving theory”. He asked what is it about and so I did my 30 seconds pitch. He returned the favor by triggering my curiosity with what he got in mind about it. Mike and I spent over an hour talking about challenges in the theory ! He challenged several assumptions I had, provided several factors that were not salient to me. he’s an assurance that wisdom can be revealed to those humble enough to accept it from wherever it is. He definitely got me several examples that expanded my understanding. Great enough that he stopped me as I was writing to my advisor to ask for his advice about a definition that is under dispute in the academic literature. Mike got to me before I hit the send button. After I heard his thoughts, I got some answers and deeper questions to talk about with my advisor.

Learning from the dance floor

Our Discussion was like dancing to music. You feel the rhythm of the thoughts bouncing back and forth between two minds. Mike inspired me in how he created an appreciation and respect to himself. He never minded what people think about him. Those +21’s Corvallisers who are regulars at The Peacock and Impulse know what I mean. He would dance in the dancing floor like no one is watching, while everyone is actually watching. Very skilled in maintaining his smile and cheerful attitude despite challenging life ( that we ‘all’ nag about from time to time). I learned one thing from him for sure, if you want to live a cheerful life that worths exploring, never settle down, and dance to any music that can give you a good rhythm, well, he is really good at that too.

Before ending my blog, I should observe the golden rule, am I writing about this gentleman in the same way I expect to read what might be written about me ? I did my best in doing so. I’m looking foreword to talk to him as my research journey evolves. Indeed I owe this gentleman as many of local young college students owe him the good time he gave them at the dance floor ;).

A key to the abundance of wisdom

If there is something in life I admire, it is the vast abundance of wisdom in the universe that gets scarce due to our limited senses and confined brains. Not accepting our prejudices and nurturing our natural curiosity might be a good step into that abundance of wisdom.

Sami

Procrastination Proclamation 

Before reading this, just picture this: a man kneels on his knees for a moment that he and his beloved one waited for so long, he puts his hand in his pocket, it vibrates with the shiny light from the screen. He got a social media app notification , so he checks it for a little bit,… nice ! one of his buddies tagged him in a post, thats cool. Then he continues the proposal rituals and put his hands into the right pocket to ask his girl to marry him. Hold your thought about this image for now. And let’s talk about Procrastination and Good work !

What makes a good work ? 

We tend to be harsh over ourselves sometimes. Some other times we would slack and blame the lousy work on the other things. Today, I’m going to try to understand why creative and smart people would make their Procrastination Proclamation ! This is something usually observed by graduate student, creative and knowledge workers, and typical human beings.

These thoughts are for you if you ever slacked on an assignment that you considered as very important or very interesting. Not because you can’t do it. But because you might be afraid of not perfecting it. My dear father once promised me to help me out with skipping a school grade if I would translate a chemistry experiments manual into Arabic. Well, I did not finish that. Not because I couldn’t, but because it looked to me very hard to do, and very great accomplishment to make. Surprisingly, under the encouragement of the same great man, I happened to ‘invent’ an electronics circuit that broadcasts any voice that is captured from the speakerphones into an FM radio channel of your choice ! My intention wasn’t that complex at all. It was simply using two circuits from my electronics kit manual, one that broadcasts morse code signals into an FM Radio and another one that amplifies an input sound from the speakerphone into an earphone. What I did was simply combining the two circuits by connecting the output of one to the input to the other one. Such ‘simple’ accomplishment was way easier to do for me compared to translating the chemistry experiments manual, I was experimenting with different circuits while not expecting failure. Or perhaps expecting failure  to happen many times but it really didn’t harm to try. I found the joy in trying, thinking of what could happen if I try, and see what happens. Unlike my other experience of not translating the chemistry kit manual, I didn’t see the value of what I do in the reward of completing the work. Probably I saw the reward, it was too big for me despite the relative simplicity of the task !

This might sound familiar to your thesis, senior project, dream project, dream job application, marriage proposal, a crush first date request, or invention ( uh my ! I just remembered I have to file a followup write up for a patent application that could get abandoned if I didn’t follow it up through in the next 24 hours ! Actually, let me keep the parentheses unclosed and talk a little bit of my patenting experience, it’s quite a good example ! Since my undergrad years I’ve been working on this table tennis automated refereeing system invention with my dear friend Hassen Turigi. At every time we have a deadline to submit something to the patent attorney we feel we didn’t do a good ‘complete’ job. Recently we got multiple patent application claims rejections from the patent office inspector, a pretty normal and expected thing, which should motivate inventors to be more critical and innovative about their idea and develop more precise and generic invention claims than what they already have done. Well, not in my situation, it seems frustrating at the end that we are almost loosing our invention. My whole expectation from this experience was to go through the process and learn from it. Still, every time I add something to the patent application or I clarify something about it, it makes me feel incomplete in my work. There is still something better I could do about it. That realization matters, but what matters more is the choice between trying to make my work better and start with a simple action and thought toward it or just leave it. Close parantheses )

Who to blame other than myself if I fail ?

I want to leave you here with a very thoughtful talk by the writer of the best seller of “Eat, Pray, Love”. She says “We’ve completely internalized and accepted collectively this notion that creativity and suffering are somehow inherently linked, and that artistry in the end will always ultimately lead to anguish — are you guys all cool with that idea?” Our societies became to think about creativity as something coming from the individual genius. Is it that a good writer, inventor, learner have a genius or is a genius ? They are different.

Ancient societies might have thought of ‘Genius’ as something separate from the individual. Would that make a relief from emotional risk? Would it help you to put your procrastination proclamation into rest ? I believe that you need not to fear wither your next adventure would be a disaster or the best thing you ever expected to make in life ? In Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk: “Your Elusive Creative Genius” provides remarkable thoughts over these questions. It was a valuable 18 minutes of listening for me. The most valuable 18 minutes in my day so far. Enjoy listening: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html.

If you would have thought about what could we do to escape procrastination, anxiety, or fear from failure into just enjoying what you do and do it the best way you could, then bravo , ¡Olé! , Allah !

May you find a great resolution from the paradox of wanting to excel what you do while still having the fear from such excellence to chase you. I’m not sure if I found such deep resolution into this. Philosophically I found great comfort in thoughts of Clay Christensen’s book “ How will you measure your life”. Here is a TEDx talk version of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvos4nORf_Y . In a nutshell of what this academician is trying to say is that you got to treat what you do differently from what businesses accumulate their accomplishments into a balance sheet. Do what you do the best on very specific individual situations. Invest the best of what you do each moment you live. On long term, have a journey that is meaningful and try to do your best at it. You might reach there, you might divert for a better path, or you might never reach there. But you always considered the right direction and never settled for less. This is what matters.

(Spoiler : This paragraph is not completely secular) I’m also a creature who enjoys spiritual guidance, wither religious or not, spirituality adds a meaning for humans life and embraces their ethical system close to their life practices. Spiritually I find the great resolution in surrendering my peace of mind to Allah, as he empowers me with inspiration, willingness and capacity to innovate and produce. It is enough for me to have the peace in trusting the guidance I already have, the blessings that I already got. It shall result into great results. I should just do what I can do and never settle down for less than perfection, if I perfect it then Bravo, ¡Olé!, Allah is to be praised. If I didn’t perfect, it is my journey and I shall walk through it trusting my spiritual guidance. If you belief system  is purely secular, think of whatever reason you live for. I’m not sure if that would work. But whatever guiding system you have and is beyond your individual being might help you feel humble and relieved. It might be your nation, humanity, nature, family, parents, or beloved ones. Being selfless in attributing what you do to those who have helped you to be what you are is a great way to feel the beauty of being one among many, and a contributor to the universe harmony.

 Summary of thoughts

Trust what you do, unless you are doing nothing. Trust yourself when you start working. Just give it a push. Procrastination is the escape from starting a great work you are revealing from your future. I hope you find a good resort in what I shared to stop procrastinating. Have you ever started very important work on your computer .. like a homework.. and then suddenly you start the browser … type letter ‘f’ … ‘enter’… Your life is better with things you are actively participating in. Stop browsing Facebook, write a blog and share it on Facebook ! Stop watching a football game .. play .. well… play cricket or soccer they are way safer. But don’t settle by being passive. Unless you inherently comfortable that you won’t regret doing it.

My Procrastination Proclamation simply is : I shall decide that when I procrastinate,  It is me who decide on that and I own it .. I shall never regret it. And I shall remember that things we regret when we die are the things we haven’t done … words we did not try … proposals we did not offer .. ‘I love you’ statements we shied away from saying. I will remember that great work and important work can’t be interrupted by any activities of procrastination.

Remember the man who’s on his knees ? Don’t be him, wither you are asking the girl of your dreams to be your life long partner or you are working on your school or groceries, don’t let life disruptions to encourage you to procrastinate and leave what matters in your life.

Sami

Links you might procrastinated opening :

“Your Elusive Creative Genius”  

“ How will you measure your life”

Oregon Cascades from South Sister summit hiking trail

Probity , the quality of being good and standing to what is right. A responsibility claimed in Quran , holy script in Islam, that human creatures carried over themselves . A responsibility that skies, earth and mountains couldn’t bear.

Today I wouldn’t go any further in my thoughts from the meaning of probity. It relates to everything I could think about right now. Within the last weeks I’ve lost some dear ones who portrayed it. Some are family members and friends. And some are ones who inspired nations with their actions. And I wonder, how would life prevail after their absence ?

I’ve loved my eldest uncle who I’ve lost recently. He was an example of the affectionate, tender, kind and compassionate man. I’m also sorrowed by losing others who made an impact with what they did and say, but they are no more around us.

But with losing our beloved ones, our hopes and thoughts goes into who might someday fill their shoes.

How could probity be consistent with actions of hate ? It couldn’t. But those haters who use force to take life away from kids in other nations are there. Those haters who justify despicable actions toward those they hate are there. Their hate is not just a feeling. It’s a collection of actions that put selfishness in the center of every decision they make.

Nelson Mandela once said : ” Let us all resolve to put children at the center of all what we do, they must be the motivation of all decision we make ”

Think once again about all brutal or selfish actions against life. What is in the center of minds of those who take such actions ?

Well, If we put children, all children, in such position, how would our actions be ? Would life prevail ? Indeed it will.

Now, You tell me, what makes life prevail ? Could it prevail without probity in mankind ? And to make the discussion more interesting, What your faith says about it ?

The Harmony of Conflicting Opposites

By Sami Al-AbdRabbuh

            It is the most distressing periods of life that could be your best too. The period of more than one year living on a small island called Bahrain was not really the hardest experience for me, but it definitely was for many others.

Bahrain is known for the very ancient graveyards that sailors and pirates used to stop by and bury their dead bodies before continuing their journeys. I did not know how these ancient burial sites would soon relate to me. Bahrain  was just a neighbor island that I used to visit to go to the cinema, or have fun during holidays and long weekends. Occasionally my family and I went there to give condolences to distant relatives.

Bahrain in its small and compact size is full of opposites that you will not notice easily, it is full of malls and hotels that some locals would never even dream to afford a meal from. Unlike many other surrounding countries, you would find the most simple and traditional conservative clothed women chatting with their liberal friends wearing Prada, Gucci, and other expensive name brands.

It was a very long list of opposites that was going along in harmony, a harmony that was enjoyable to my ear every October when an enjoyable international music festival rhymes in my ear with the mixed works of classics blending with modern, local and international flavors. It is a music that brings peaceful joy.

This harmony is stronger when almost every single person in the island gets together every Muharram month to carry on the more than one thousand year Shia’a religious tradition of reciting the heartbreaking story of the prophet’s grandson death and his family’s anguished suffering in their last journey, gathering the support of the people to stop the oppression and injustice. A full month that covers the island in black and elicits the most of people’s generosity and compassion toward each other. It is an experience that brings a special, peaceful grief.

I used to wake up in the morning every working day to work. Before my 15 minute journey between the villages to my office, I start with a view from my window. A view full of green surrounded with the music of birds of all kinds. The journey between the villages starts with a view full of little boys and girls around the streets heading to their schools in a colorful—well it is one color with white— uniforms. Then, I have to go by three different graveyards as I make my way to my office. The sounds of weeping mothers and the view of miserable faces of those who just lost their beloved ones are buried in the silence of these graveyards, or at least not anymore noticeable as they were pushed away in the past by the presence of the lively life all around. I couldn’t help but wonder: would all of this harmony of opposites ever last?

It did not. The people got to be upset of what they expressed as non-equal opportunities, oppression and detention of youth with no charges. It was the start of the Spring Wave. People went out by the hundreds to peaceful march,  and thousands followed them. I was not able to understand why they would need to do that. Wasn’t that hindering the natural harmony of opposites? Or, was this the harmony itself?! People have the right to go in groups to express their demands and needs. A fact that I was not fully aware of before, but have come to appreciate and understand as long as it does not harm anyone. Well, it did not harm me! I just had to take a different route to work, plan ahead for my trips, and just avoid troubles. So that’s what I did.

What I thought was just an illusion of harmony did not continue with the early deaths of people being shot because of their involvement in these opposition gatherings. Anger got to rise and upset was growing with every single drop of blood. Shops had to close earlier than usual on the island and depression and anger were everywhere.

Everyone on the island experienced the smell of it. Even if you are hundreds of meters away from the troubles you still got the smell, or perhaps something more than just a smell; The teargas was the most irritating experience, it is a suffocating smell the comes with the breeze of the air almost every evening and make you barely able to breath, with fully burning eyes, and flaming throat and skin. My hate for that smell was like nothing else, until I heard of the little infants and children vanishing from life because of that gas. I felt the anger of a friend who had to keep his 5 year old daughter who had asthma in a shop store for hours because of the fear that letting her out onto the street under with the dense clouds of gas would put her down in a matter of a few minutes.

It was by then when I could easily hear the buried sounds of weeping mothers, I could see the angry faces everywhere, but still not yet taking away the decent smile of the humble and simple Bahraini people. The disturbing thoughts of graveyards revealing the scattered memories from the past came to life but with more anger, rage and sadness than comes with a normal funeral. The disturbing thoughts got spread from these three small graveyards to every street and home, over every ground I walk over and in every breeze of air I breath.

Getting back to the history of the island, I am not a ship captain who came to the island to bury the dead bodies of his sailors after a very long journey. But I did bury something. In this humbling experience I buried my ignorance about conflicting opposites. Now I better understand how conflicting opposites can live in harmony, and how that harmony is compromised if justice and appreciation of differences is not understood or respected.

—
Acknowledgments :
Special thanks for my dear friend and mentor Eric Noak for guiding my English writing style. I extend the gratitude to those passionate Bahraini friends who showed me what does it mean to be joyful, respectful and humble but without losing dignity.

Should we be in love ?

In my recent post I mentioned a study that discovered reduced cognitive control in passionate lovers. I’m interested to explore if love, despite the adjective behind it is supposed to reduce the cognitive control !

Lavender .. Orange .. Viridian .. Ecru 

Well, the study tried to explore if those passionate lovers can succeed in a Stroop effect experiment and another similar cognitive control experiment. I wonder, What does this mean ? It could mean that such poor (or maybe fortunate !) men and women can’t focus on very detailed and dull tasks. Their hormones and instincts are reshuffling in anticipation of a new order to their lives.  They are detailed and dull tasks. But what about important and critical tasks such as heavy machinery ? The Huffington Post short video mentioning the study sarcastically concluded that yes heavy machinery is something we need to avoid until our love settles down a little bit. Well, some would say avoid making decisions when having an emotional crush. Too much excitement or too much pain might drives us into irrational and undesirable results. And that’s a legitimate reasoning !

Love .. exalts  ! 

But would this mean that love destruct us ? shouldn’t it elevate us ? Indeed, love has verity of levels or types that scientists, poets and linguists tried distinguish. However, love is a word that should have common features.  Regardless of the adjective you pass before ‘revenge’ or ‘anger’ or ‘upset’ .. You would have a meaning that is applicable whenever that word is used. So what about love ?

We start with passion .. Continue with compassion !

Compassion apparently is different from passion in love psychology ! Psychologist Elaine Hatfield was one of the modern pioneers to study love. I would argue that ‘true’ love to a significant individual should comprise both compassion and passion in two scales that do not conflict against each other. So I once had that passion toward an individual’s mentality, personality, and sweet dark long eye lashes ! That is called passionate love because that love involved “intense feelings and sexual attraction”. Kendra Cherry would categorize this love in the passionate love box rather than the compassionate love box that involves ” feelings of mutual respect, trust and affection”. Check her brief description here about these two types.

Or let me describe describe it with my own words !

Back to that lady with long eye lashes. Psychology expects that passionate love is what happen in the beginning of the relationship and compassionate love might follow that with time.

Or perhaps let me describe it with my own wondering questions !

1- Would you see compassionate and  passionate love mutually exclusive; so when one grows the other one shrinks ?

2- Have you loved passionately yet not compassionately ? ( Of course, one-night-stand hookups ! )

3- Well, when I got attracted by the great personality and the initial respect before even seeing those long eye lashes, was it an inappropriate evolution of a healthy relationship ? I’m not really sure !

4- Another question ! Why are we scaling people on passionate love scale without even considering the compassionate love ! These two boxes researchers have put are just interesting enough to break my thought chain and question: Do we build relationships through  ‘step-by-step’ love procedure ? if so, someone show all the singles the road map !

5- If my beloved one who I just got attracted to (100% passionate) is not at all on my respect, affliction or trust scales. Is she a beloved person from the first place ? My answer is no. What is yours ?

( if you can have sex with someone who you don’t love, let’s agree that one-night-stands and making ‘love’ is not a love relationship from the first place)

I conclude back to the study, if it completely passionate love, then we are lost. Lost in our desires that will fade away. We are lost with the eye lashes that will not matter at all when that beloved lady who might lose them in her fight against cancer one day. They still don’t matter when a lady shadows such beautiful eye lashes with the ugliness of her distrust and lack of respect. These two cases are distinguished by the amount of compassion that you would put into such relationship.

How pity !

How unlucky that researchers are studying the potential effect of passionate love over insignificant cognitive tasks such as the Stroop effect activity. Passionate love drives us to reproduce, fulfill some of our needs, and explore those who deserve our compassion and dedication. It could be that love is blinding us and making us dumber in ‘silly’ activities.

But..

But without such passionate love, how do you wake up every morning looking for a day full of excitement ? How could you go to work filled with energy and purpose ? Love makes you smarter I believe. You probably don’t focus on silly activities such as saying yellow instead of red or red instead of blue in front of a computer just because your mind is now occupied by more important problems, such as what it takes to afford a house for you and your partner. Or maybe what movie should you pick for tonights date !

Ok, now I admit it, I should stop talking about this subject ! If you reached this portion, let me know how disagreeable my thoughts are.

Sami

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. 
But if you love and must needs have desires, 
let these be your desires...

                          - Jubran Khalil Jubran, (The Prophet)

     One of my European friends once disagreed with my belief that I can be in ‘love’ with many dear ones ! ( Disclaimer: I’m not polygamous and do not intend to be.. continue reading before judging) . My friend explained that love is a heavy word in her language. And being in love with everyone is a heavy statement; Love is for the only rare ones who deserve such a highly precious feeling. It’s not to be given to an acquaintance who just smiled at you or acted in kindness with you! I disagree, I’m in love with my friends, in love with those who carry on great virtues in life, in love with those who soften the agony of others. And indeed, in a deep passionate love with those rare significant ones who happen to make my life a blessed journey ! But what is passionate love ?

 Love elevates us. Or as my name means in Arabic: Love makes us Sami ! It exalts who we are.

You love .. You no more useful !

A recent study amused me how science might astray from the roots of things. They ‘figured out’ that “being in love makes you a less productive person” . Give it some thought, And stay tuned if you want to know what I really think about such study !

Why Love ?

When love beckons to you follow him, 
Though his ways are hard and steep. 
And when his wings enfold you yield to him, 
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

              - Jubran Khalil Jubran,(The Prophet)

The root of love is to help us be selfless .. (sometimes selfish, right ?) .. in order to increase the value of our lives. A man loves a girl to reproduce, to bring joy to his solitude, bring better value to his life and someones life, and to elevate the meaning of our thoughts and actions. These are the roots of what loves really mean.

In love with couple deceased ones !

I’m in love with Marie Curie’s soul and her husband’s great sacrifices and passion to create something new that helped humanity. Marie slowly burned in radiation to bring health to many. From such love, I wake up in mornings excited about the next discovery that might be there for me that could soften someones hurtle, despite how exhausting that discovery would be for me. I’m in love with Steve Job’s assertiveness ( given such assertiveness was respectful and loving to the people he worked with ), such that I would wake up in my mornings remembering his words to stay hungry and foolish thriving to learn something new or design something elegant and meaningful.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy; 
To return home at eventide with gratitude;  

                                         - Jubran Khalil Jubran,(The Prophet)

OK , What about real love?  ‘Love’ with a capital L !

Indeed, my passionate love is given to the significant one ( Vacancy(ies) available, potential applicants will be subject to peer reviewed process)  , who I see an opportunity to drive my intellectual and spiritual growth. It is the intimate binding that makes a lady in my life worth going with her through the good and bad. To conclude the passionate love to the significant one means more than just this state of feeling and being in a cloud away from the universe. This intimate love is a way to connect to the universe ( and sometimes connect to god, if you believe in one) .

Love to connect …… or disconnect ?

We connect with our world when we are in real love, we don’t disconnect. Or at least we shouldn’t.  Surely, we might find our love for someone excited by the natural tendency of creatures to reproduce, yet that’s not enough to drive such love ! But the point is that we love ,and reproduce, to connect with the universe. Even those marriages driven only by the opportunity to get tax breaks are some kind of love that is driven toward a more efficient connectedness with the world. If those couples were in an isolated ,non-taxing, island, they wouldn’t consider such relationship from the first place.

Here is a problem, Scientists just published this article I just referred to and made me a little bit irritated ! And that is what I’ll be writing about tomorrow’s morning.

And when he speaks to you believe in him, 
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
 For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. 
                   - Jubran Khalil Jubran,(The Prophet)

Until tomorrow comes, stay in love !
Sami

I’m very excited to inaugurate this magazine ! Crispy Entrepreneurship magazine is a collection of articles, podcasts, and videos that have the interesting taste for curious minds of entrepreneurs and small business leaders.

Entrepreneurs share many interests, let it be specific news topics, educational material about business planning and operations or specific skills or apps that relate to our daily lives. Fortunately, there is plenty out there. But not precisely at one place. For the last three months I tried to collect the best relevant articles into this magazine using an  Flipboard. The Beauty in Flipboard its style that feels like a traditional magazine. And the capacity for contributors (like me .. and perhaps you !) to collect interesting content from anywhere and bind it together in a magazine. The other powerful thing that it is accessible through your iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire & NOOK. (I’m really hoping you don’t have them all together!).

In this issue you will find a diverse set of topics. Julie Pickens, through her natural baby wipes company, inspires you in her story about how to see and dominate a market opportunity. Topics include some 25 influential entrepreneurs on twitter that might worth to follow, How to create a one page business plan canvas, and why Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com’s CEO) is interested in publishing ( it looks like I’m setting a trend for entrepreneurs !).

These articles and multimedia are carefully handpicked by entrepreneurs (currently only me) from a verity of sources including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company , Forbes … and my blog.

How this work ? When you subscribe to the magazine, I’m hoping that every morning you will find at least a new piece of reading (or listening or watching). The magazine have more than 100 articles that I picked over the course the three months. This is intended to be a multilingual magazine. If you don’t know anything other than English, you might want to start working on that ! I might pick (or write) articles in Arabic, a very disadvantaged language in regard of relevant content. And I’m hoping for other contributors to share with me in other languages as well. If you read too much and want to join me doing what I do, you are definitely welcome !

As it is for any new project, feedback is critical. Let me know if this magazine worth continuing. To stay in touch, if you tweet .. I tweet @SamiO_o

Sami Al-AbdRabbuh

Hello Beavers !

The Student Sustainability Center (SSI). I would like to thank them for their short highlight about my volunteering. If you enjoy landscaping or any other work that could help maintaining sustainability in the community consider helping out !

To read the highlight :

http://oregonstate.edu/ssi/feature/20130109-meet-sami-al-abdrabbuh

Have a wonderful & sustainable day !

Sami

* Interfaithing ( /ˈintərˈfāTHiNG/) might not be a legitimate Mariam-Webster approved English noun. I learned it from OSU_IFCS among many other cool stuff.

Continue reading →

* This writing was an extended version from my talk at her memorial at Corvallis in November 9th 2012. (Between 41:30 – 46:00)

Jennifer reminded me with an Arabian proverb “ Ma Mat Men Khallaf “ ; Who has a successor shall never die.

My own perception of this proverb is having children. Children who will carry on my name and legacy. Well, Jenifer helped me to embrace another perception about this proverb.

I thought I’m not too young to miss a teacher who taught me. I just realized that I am not too old to start watching those who taught me move away from this life. It’s Autumn , they call it fall, even the young green leaves which inspired me are falling in this season, and amazingly it’s a cycle !
Last spring I took a course at the Adventure Leadership Institute in Oregon State University a class in groups dynamics. It was an experience rather than a course. Jenifer, one of the two instructors who made this experience insightful with a very ambitious and full of energy colleagues.

Fast forwarding to an earlier time last month I heard about her death. And for the first time knew her fight with cancer for the last year and half. Shocked, sad, and paralyzed I was. It was a weekday, emotionally incapable to think of anything I can do. Unless I had the thought that i would never knew her if she stopped producing, inspiring and giving as long as she could despite all the hurtles in her way. That made me think of doing something, anything. It was an open house at the crafts center, I wiped my tears and headed to the crafts center to do the job: doing something, anything. Trying this and that, I settled over the pottery section. It was my first time to work with pottery since my 2nd grade in school. That’s 16 years ago. It was a beautifully rounded pot with double layers. Similar to a fountain that has two layers to hold water. I’m not sure how useful is it, but I experienced something new, and so I liked it.

Jennifer mentored and facilitated experiential learning for many people. at her reception today, she was remembered by people from all around the nation. Remembered for her cheerful, insightful impact. And yes, I did self reflect, how would my reception be ? who would be there, what photos will be shared, why would I be remembered ?
As that day becomes closer I wonder, should forgiveness be there for those who have hurt me or for me from those I have ever hurt ? Despite what those people might think of me? shall my good deeds be accepted by god ? Was fairness always my guidebook through every single encounter in my life?
It is overwhelming to see people from different parts of the nation being connected because of one soul. They share their love, worm tears and a cheerful smile.
Jen graded my reflection journals for the group dynamics class. She was candid when I needed that, appreciative when I progress. As she was continuing to give, I said a goodbye before the last class as she was going to volunteer  teaching kids in San Antonio. How determined !

That did not allow me to meet her after submitting my final paper which she read and graded. I had to reflect on my learning experience and synthesize several theories. In my paper conclusion, I preferred not to conclude over the theories themselves, rather I wanted to conclude over something else:

“….

Conclusion,

This experience in group dynamics helped me to look to myself and surrounding with an

enlightened and curious eye. I was observing the crowds of the battle of the bands with many active neurons charged in my brain cells, thinking about the ‘why, how, what if, what would be similar to this?’ types of questions.

My experiential learning journey itself exposed me to moral dilemmas that I never thought of. Strangely, it made me feel how weak am I to have the full awareness of everything. My realization about care and justice in moral development ignited my spirituality.

I do think about the ultimate wisdom of god that I should seek more of (it). Not by having a blind faith. Yet by having faith in two elements;

 First, I do not possess the complete wisdom which I believe exists in Allah.

Second, I shall never stop the experiential learning journey of observing,experimenting, contemplating over every single existing concept, and actively building on what I have learned.

Such journey will make me closer to the complete wisdom, yet never there.

Investors usually reflect on the return over the investment, if I will measure it on the typical methodology of measuring the collective tacit knowledge of theories and experiences bounded within the coursework frame, which will indeed give me, and my scholarship sponsor, a positive return over investment value. However, I should realize that my real return over this investment is the impact of this tacit knowledge I acquired to appreciate and size my slender experience, knowledge and wisdom. It is more in realizing how this life is a huge arena full of untapped experiences, undiscovered scenes and unseen wisdom.

The real return of investment is in the realization of my own sparse wisdom that I starve to fill with my ongoing journey.

Sami Al-AbdRabbuh

Wednesday, June 06, 2012”

Well, I did not fully realize that the investment costs of this course was just the tuition and  learner effort and time. Jennifer invested her last breaths for the learning experience that I have gained.

I should thank you Jen for that investment.

I return to the first proverb and wonder, am I a successor ?

For those who were taught, inspired, mentored or touched by Jenifer: Are you a successor?

In your weakest moments do you still give or stop ?

If you are falling like a brown leave and you really know that you are not going to get back over that lovely tree of life, would you still make a beautiful landscape ? Would you continue giving ?
Will you inspire others around you ? will you serve them with a cheerful smile ?

Are you a succesor ?

I should thank you jen for letting me embrace a better perception about the Arabian proverb: Ma Mat Men Khallaf “ Who has a successor shall never die” !.

Jennifer, You have successors who will simply … carry on !

So long Jen.

Her last comments on the last journal. At this one I got a 10 ! But I still had to write something back !