You want wildly unpredictable?? You got it!

Sounds like a good day to practice flute. Someone is practicing his or her flute downstairs. I can't tell exactly where it's coming from, much less who lives there, much less who actually plays the flute (or even whether s/he lives there or is a guest), but I've heard the flute being practiced for the past few days. The first time I heard it was when I was leaving to go out and heard these sweet sounds floating up the stairs and down the hall. I thought it was a creative alarm clock because I heard the same pattern repeatedly, and then, when it stopped abruptly and repeated, I realized that it was someone practicing. I think it's great that people still play. I should play more. I mean, I could - I have this thing sitting over in the corner, and even though I planned to play it every day when I got it not too long ago, I haven't exactly made good on that plan. Sigh.

This is the day I started learning how to play the "Maple Leaf Rag" four years ago. I remember it so clearly because I had to learn it without the aid of a piano. My host family had a piano downstairs, but I didn't want to disturb them by practicing on it after hours. I wasn't even there all that often, anyway, since I was at school all day. But I'd brought the score along with me, so I tried to learn it by doing the finger movements on the surface of my desk. Victor Lin had taught me that technique, and I hadn't used it all that often until then, mostly out of laziness. But I was determined to learn the thing, since it was so much fun to listen to and since it seemed within reach at that time even though I hadn't been playing for a while. Eventually, I got the finger movements down well enough that I tried it out on the piano when my host family was away. By the end of the month I'd made real progress on it. I never got to play it for them, but hey, maybe one of these days I'll see if I get another chance.

Shifting into overdrive now.. just a quick word on the caricatures of Muhammad that first appeared in Danish newspapers and now have been popping up in periodicals all around Europe in a show of solidarity. I'm all for freedom of speech, but I'm also for sensitivity. The press must know that publishing caricatures of Muhammad - in fact, publishing drawings of the Prophet in any form - is beyond blasphemous. It seems like one of the most injurious things you can do, very much like flying the Stars and Bars on a Black family's lawn or the Nazi swastika on a Jewish family's lawn. And yet they do it anyway, citing freedom of speech. At some point, that freedom goes a little bit too far and boils over into reckless irresponsibility. I think that's what we're seeing. It's pretty shocking to me that a newspaper would do something like this, knowing that it's like opening up a wound for all followers of the world's largest religion and then pouring salt on it, and then defend their actions based on freedom of speech concerns. Needless to say, I'm frustrated and disappointed. I'm not sure I'm so angry, or even sad. I think people have a right to their own feelings and opinions, as well as, to some extent (differing depending on which society you're talking about, as we're seeing right now), the right to express them. This is coming from someone who has been called just about everything from "dork" to "nigger," to his face. What's most dismaying is that there's such a callous lack of compassion and lack of sensitivity, particularly given the undeniable tension we're all facing now, particularly between followers of Islam and followers of "Western" traditions.

One good result of the controversy that has eruped into violence is that we're seeing some of the tension released and exposed. This reminds me of the riots in Los Angeles 14 years ago after the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King. The acquittal was the spark that lit fires of rage against the L.A.P.D., against a society that systematically marginalized Black people while paying lip service to their civil rights, etc. The Islamic rage and violence is not a good thing in and of itself - far from it - but it shows the depth of the anger many Muslims feel toward the West. Just as one example, even though the U.S. government came out against the European press and its publication of the caricatures, an American flag was burned during violent protests in Beirut. There are obviously a lot of reasons to do that. Muslims have plenty of reasons to be furious at the West, and the most extreme Muslims have made good on their anger in the most horrific of ways, particularly during the past 30 years. Part of this anger might come from internal frustration which finds a target in the West when it is expressed. But it's unfortunate that the Danish press and many of its European counterparts have now given Muslims everywhere another reason to hate the West in general. It's like depicting Jesus or the Buddha shamefully. Think of what that would do to Christian and Buddhist sensibilities. Or don't even think about it - look at it happening right now, in the context of the world's largest religion.

Now I'm rambling and ranting, but I promise I'll stop in a second.

Isn't it way past time to really try to resolve the tension, to find the sources of the anger and try to smooth them out - not the anger, but the reasons behind the anger? Isn't that an unbelievably rhetorical question? My only point is that mutual respect is lacking (notice that I did NOT say "tolerance." I actually hate that word with a passion). As long as the lack of respect persists, there will be conflict. When the lack of respect is addressed, with the goal of elimination, then we'll be on the path to actual peace - not the ionic kind, but the covalent kind.