that famous book the culture of
narcissism you know he saw something
that nobody was seeing at the time how
narcissistic our culture was coming I
think the selfie is just such an
indicative aspect of our of our
civilization this idea of just taking
your own picture you know I've never
I've never carried a camera I've never
taken I don't have any pictures of
myself and I've been all over the world
I've been in that you know I met the
Pope you know and and had a picture with
the Pope and you know I just never had
that urge to have these pictures you
know my last because some people stand
us things and she wants to put a lot of
I said I don't want them on the wall you
know I don't want to do that and and I
know I don't get that thing about
pictures you know like I for me this is
where I take my pictures I and I try to
be present with people and remember them
as best I can
and I learned this from the Bedouin
because what really struck me about the
Bedouin that I lived with is they were
so present
and I would need a better one that I've
met 10 years before he would remember
what we talked about the conversation we
had and and they don't take pictures
because they know and so this whole
obsession with images that the New York
Times recently reported that the average
American seems more images in one day
than a 19th century English person saw
in his entire lifetime and these images
are flooding our hearts were losing that
just that space you know the imageless
space you know one of the things when
trade Jim went into the holiest of
holies the thing that really disturbed
him was there was nothing in there you
know any wanted the Jews to explain like
where's your idols where's your images
it's an empty place and and and and so
that emptiness we have to have that
emptiness to be able to to contemplate
and I would recommend leading Neil
postman's incredible book amusing
ourselves to death and that second
chapter about why the Decalogue would
have prohibited images because he argues
that if you want people to understand
abstractions you have to watch out for
the images that you give them and God
wants us to know something a concept
that is so abstract and and this is why
image based cultures become debased very
quickly so I really think the images are
harming us immensely the the
pornographic images that are going into
the minds of these young kids it's
really terrifying because they can't get
these things out they won't be able to
get those images out of the mountain I
know this from I have people that have
converted to Islam or have these
problems and they've told me when they
just when they open their prayer images
start flooding they're there and they
want to get rid of them so it's really
difficult spiritually it can be done
with a lot of work but you have to be
careful what you put into your heart
and I once I was with a Bedouin we've
gone from the desert to the walk shop
and there was a TV in the room and it
was on and he was looking the other way
and his man in his 30s and he was a
student of knowledge and he was looking
the other way and I was with a Libyan
Abdul Razak Mokhtar he's the ambassador
in Turkey now for Libya but he asked him
have you ever seen television he said no
he said don't you want to look at it and
he said I heard that it has foul things
on it I don't want to let it into my
heart and you know that level of being
is just where are those people yeah it's
very briefly the Jewish community I
would echo this part about how important
travel can be and meeting people from
other cultures and places we have the
commitment it's called birthright to
send all of our children's in the Land
of Israel and we really press this and
we make it literally affordable to the
point of practically free to get every
one of our kids to go to Israel they
need Israeli kids you know who also have
cell phones and text they text in Hebrew
Devi I think that's really cool but what
they also find out is if these kids go
into the army after high school all okay
and they serve their country and these
kids have an expectation that they
probably aren't going to be able to go
to college necessarily because not
everybody gets to go to college because
there's just not enough slots so you
would have to work hard if you want to
do that and they'll grow up in a world
where they're not able to afford a home
and they'll be very lucky but probably
not have a car and you know and they're
there their sense of commitment to their
country is something that's very
different
and when these kids come and visit our
economic titled you earn things every
day you know and and that the things
that you choose to earn are the things
that really matter
I mean maybe are not those material
things maybe they're things like respect
maybe the things like you know a future
in the fan
things like that okay I would like to
continue with questions but we need to
stop now because we have some other
things to finish the first which is the
poetry and do you have it yeah I do okay
um explain this was a there were several
poems and then they were they narrowed
them down to eight and then I was given
the unfortunate task of determining
which one should be given let me read
the up the introduction to this and then
okay it's not explained this is a poetry
of the sacred contest that the center
performed as part of this year's
festival the poetry the safety sacred
context is run annually to the center
for innovation Institute for
contemporary practice poetry can be
thought as the language of the soul and
this contest encourages poets that
awaken their reader to the
meaningfulness and beauty of life people
entered this contest from 34 different
states in four different countries from
these entries a winning poem and three
honorable mentions were chosen and
received both monetary prizes must be
published in parabola magazine in the
winter issue of 2014 the poems were then
judged by hamsa which he hated having to
do and we've selected one which uml read
so you know just to preface this I
really they were all very interesting
poems this one was the one that hit me
the most just in terms of my talk and
and what I think the festival face is is
about so it's called what worship is
it's by Red Hawk from Arizona I don't
think that he apparently he doesn't have
internet access which I thought was
great but the other poems I mean the
filter list of Mont sainte-victoire was
really I really like that Prairie hours
and him too morning were the runners-up
and they were all good and the other
ones were good - they were more
depressing so but this one I thought
really captured something from me what
worship is by Red Hawk from Arizona at
dusk cousin John is driving home when a
rabbit darts in front of his car and his
throne tumbling and spinning into the
tall grass beyond the shoulder now here
is where John emerges from the pack of
ordinary brutish humans and assumes a
form we barely know he stops the car
pulls off to see what harm he has done I
don't know anyone else who would have
stopped he finds the rabbit broken and
thrashing not yet dead in the tall grass
goes to his trunk for a hammer returns
and finishes what chance started then
with the claw part he did the shallow
hole and puts the body in returns drives
home heavy with sorrow feeling remorse
having performed his humble sacrament to
make right what has gone wrong in us we
have forgotten who we are and what we
must do
so just a few other sort of follow-up
things will be concluding now but I'm so
Youssef will be in the foyer we had a
long conversation about the
pronunciation of that word there'll be a
book signing there as well as a
reception with like food and drink and
we want to invite all of you to join us
there again
Wendell Barry Gary Snyder and Jack
shoemaker this evening at 7 and 9 is a
program I'm not going to miss and really
shouldn't just gonna be fantastic and we
will conclude as we are in all these
sessions with a moment of silence and I
encourage you in silence to try to take
in some of what Hamza has shared with us
and think in the ways that many of your
questions did but how we can take these
ideas and make them into spirit in
ourselves and in practice in our lives
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thank you for joining us
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you