💎 Friday Gems #40 (Palestine, Writing Simply, The British)
In your writing reflect on your reality and acknowledge your fears, biases, weaknesses, and privileges.
Hi Low Fidelity friends,
Here are the gems that have caught my eye this week.
💎 It’s not easy to talk about it…
It’s crazy to think that we can’t even talk about the genocide and ethnic cleansing going on right now in Palestine and criticizing Israel for the indiscriminate destruction of Gaza without fear of getting reprimanded at work and being canceled on social media.
Standing up for Palestinian human rights is not being anti-Semitic. The criticism is about the handling of the war by the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Forces.
In his latest newsletter post, Mike Monteiro speaks out about how uneasy it makes us feel talking about Palestine.
It’s easy not to talk about Palestine at work. In fact, your boss sent out a memo making it very easy not to talk about Palestine at work. Plus, at work it’s best to focus on work stuff anyway. And it’s important to be earning, Kim needs orthodonture.
As I read Mike’s post, I felt uncomfortable but realized this is exactly what is happening in our world.
We need to talk about Palestine.
Source: Mike Monteiro’s Good News
💎 Writing Simply
Silas Jelley is walking from Bristol, UK to India. Yes, India! I can’t wrap my head around this amazing feat. It’s one thing to travel by bike, car, or bus, but by foot? That’s super human!
As I was reading the posts from his walks, I came upon his post about writing simply. In it Silas sets a few rules for himself write more simply.
His writing goals are something for all of us to aspire towards as writing is a critical part of personal and workplace communication.
His writing goals are to be:
Honest - reflect your reality and acknowledge your fears, biases, weaknesses, and privileges
Clear - say only what needs to be said
Simple - If you cannot say it simply, you probably don’t understand it deeply
Proportional - Not everything needs to be a long explanation. Present rough ideas presented proportionally to their size is ok
Iterative - It takes iterations to state something simply. Keep refining until it reaches a better form.
and the last one, my favorite…
Be Selfish - Write for yourself first. Scratch your own itch and it will most likely help someone else with a similar itch. All this talk of itching is making me itch!
Source: Silas Jelley
💎 The British
I want to share a wonderful poem with you called The British by Benjamin Zephaniah. It’s a recipe for what makes London so special, which is the diversity of nationalities. It’s a call to treat all people with equality and justice. Having lived in London as a child it brought back fond memories of playing with friends from many different nationalities.
The British
Take some Picts, Celts and Silures
And let them settle,
Then overrun them with Roman conquerors.
Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years
Add lots of Norman French to some
Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, then stir vigorously.
Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans,
Trinidadians and Bajans with some Ethiopians, Chinese,
Vietnamese and Sudanese.
Then take a blend of Somalians, Sri Lankans, Nigerians
And Pakistanis,
Combine with some Guyanese
And turn up the heat.
Sprinkle some fresh Indians, Malaysians, Bosnians,
Iraqis and Bangladeshis together with some
Afghans, Spanish, Turkish, Kurdish, Japanese
And Palestinians
Then add to the melting pot.
Leave the ingredients to simmer.
As they mix and blend allow their languages to flourish
Binding them together with English.
Allow time to be cool.
Add some unity, understanding, and respect for the future,
Serve with justice
And enjoy.
Note: All the ingredients are equally important. Treating one ingredient better than another will leave a bitter unpleasant taste.
Warning: An unequal spread of justice will damage the people and cause pain. Give justice and equality to all.
Source: Tom McCallum
💎 A gem of a quote
💎 Little Gems
The Ten Frameworks of Life Design. Now is a good time as any to start designing your life.
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Have a fantastic weekend!
Rizwan
P.S. 💜 I’m thankful that you read this far.
My comments on war:
War is only possible when everyone takes sides and a hard fought belief that they are correct. When everyone believes they could never be misunderstood or not understanding, or there is no scenario where the other could have a good point we become blinded, been there done that!
Granted, it might be that one party did something that is considered by most as clear cut, that should never be acceptable. Why would they do something so horrible?
The more important question is WHY did each party do what they did?
What if no one took any side other than the two who began what started as an argument? The people leading the argument from both sides would have to fight all by themselves, or agree to collaborate towards resolution.
I don't know everything about everything, actually I know almost nothing. I do know that when others show me how to empathize with someone I fiercely disagree with, mad at, my fierceness seems ridiculous and at least agreement to disagree becomes a possibility.
Thank you, Rizwan, for having the courage to write openly and honestly. Thank you for nudging me to stop and think about this.
Have an amazing day!😁