MEMORIES
The future of the children
You asked me about an important matter, the future of the children, look at things with our own eyes and they are short viewed and the future is not known. It is important that we do our duty at home. But the problem is complicated because with the spread of the cinema and television, and these only spread news about crime, these inevitably have an effect on the young generation. The truth is that today there is a wave of evil that is spreading all over the world and there is no country that is safe from it. There is no salvation for mankind except by going back to God and to sublime spiritual values and this through a new movement in understanding true Christianity as it is seen in the teachings of Christ.
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Strange Dream
In relation to this I would like to tell you about a strange dream that I had last week. I saw myself as if in the great Coptic Church. I entered the section where the temple is, the Egyptian way. Someone approached me and said to me: come in and try this crown on. He gave me the big crown that belongs to the Coptic Patriarch. I put it on but found it bigger than me and I woke up.
I cannot interpret this dream, but may be in the next life I will be nominated for the position of Patriarch but I will not win the election. This is a far-fetched prophecy, may be after many rebirths. I strongly believe in this and last week I wrote a poem about this as I was sitting in the park.
After Jesus Christ there is nothing that man needs. He has the perfection of everything but Christianity needs from time to time New Interpretation to suit the times.
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The Church in this age
The church in this age is faced with big challenges and it must meet these challenges by being liberal, i.e. by being simpler and clearer and by social work because Christian teachings are eternal and must last, but outside forms change and transform with the change of time. The big surprise was that it was the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. This was a strange coincidence and I will try to attend a Mass next year wherever I may be especially because it is the feast of my name and now we have the big Paul and the small Paul too.
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Observations
Here are some of my observations:
Scenes on the Street
There is no light or beauty in the faces that I see. But I see bodies that are well-fed.
Men grow their hair, blonde and beautiful and women have short hair
Young girls and women wear pants. Some of them wear mini dresses
Men grow their beards. Some are as thick as a forest, some are light
I do not know why it is considered wrong for a man to grow his hair, is a boy born with a shaver and the girl is not?
Nature granted woman smooth cheeks that have no hair, why does man imitate her and shave his every day?
Man is an eating being. Every man or woman on the road is carrying a big bag full of meat, cheese and butter.
Women here are interested in dogs and children and playing.
Dogs here are very lucky and many of the children in the second world do not have one tenth of the attention that dogs are given here.
5/9/73
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Thoughts on the book “Positive Thinking”
A successful businessman used to put in his wallet a card with a quotation from the Prophet Isaiah. The words of this quotation are not new to me, I remember that I wrote them on a big sheet of paper and put it on my desk in my shop in El Obeid.The truth is that in this age one needs to go back to the source of pure faith to obtain the spiritual nourishment which gives peace in this materialistic life and takes one back to nature. One should live a simple life, uncomplicated. The more life is close in nature and simplicity, the better and more peaceful it is. If one is able to keep this balance between the spiritual and materialistic needs of life, then one is closer to happiness or to a peaceful mind and body. This is not a sermon, but my personal thoughts that I try to record in these letters that I send to you because this is the only way by which I can open my heart and talk.
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Wish
I only have one wish: to see all of you around me and I find a quiet and simple room with poets and philosophers and great writers around me. A big tree with plenty of shade and I sit under the tree to read and meditate in peace, the peace of the setting sun that will shine in another world, a world that is more genuine and beautiful than this world.
Are these dreams? If they come true, then it is good, if they do not, we can consider them as consoling thoughts for us and a source of light that takes away the darkness of this world that surround us.
1973 13/5/
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THE FOOD OF MAN
The sea is our father that gives us fish
The earth is our mother that gives us corn and fruit
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Happiness
This week I was reading the book of "Positive Thinking" and this is one of Michael's books and the writer is a great American preacher and his writings are beautiful and useful but sometimes they are "too American". For example, he talks to his readers and businessmen who ask for his advice and he says to them "Take God a partner". This means, take God as your partner in your business. But this business may be a beer factory or a weapons factory. Will God accept this partnership?
Anyway, generally, he is very great and I very much like many of his thoughts.
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Recipe
This is one of his recipes that will work with you. He says, do not allow work or the rush of everyday life push you, you should push them in front of you. These are very useful words. He also advises that we experience silence even for 15 minutes a day.
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A joke
A young lady, ready for marriage, went to the doctor to get an injection.
He said to her: "Give me your hand, lady"
She replied, without hesitation and unconsciously:
"Go and ask my father for it"!!
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Quotations on Life
Life is a headache in a noisy stream (John Marsfield)
Life is an illness between two eternities
Life is a dream within a dream
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But the best is by Shakespeare on Lady Macbeth's death:
Out Out little lamp
Life is Strife
Life is a loaf of bread,
Casket of wine and a wife
The beautiful does not need to be beautified
Most of us read to sleep and a few read to wake up
The earth is a slave, running around its mistress (the sun)
People are travellers from the wombs to the tombs
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From Aristotle
We see the sun with the sun
Without which we cannot see it
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It is not by bread alone that man lives
But by his love for others and
By the love of others for him
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If man is wise about his food and drink
He will not need the wise man (the doctor).
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What is Poetry
It is a marble container which holds the secret of life
Those who are taken by its shape and beauty
And forget what is inside
They miss out on the true meaning and nature
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A WISH
Do you know what I wish for now?
My wish is to see all of you doctors. You and Michael, Zoser, Ramsis, Joseph and all of Salim's sons. Amazis is already a big doctor. I want this so as to avenge my poverty that stopped me from studying at University. I will avenge when all my children and grandchildren become university graduates. This may seem like self-conceit but it is good conceit. As for me, if God wills and I come back to this life again "rebirth", as I believe, perhaps I will be a lecturer in Philosophy or Theology or Ancient Languages. Gibran, the poet, said : "What the soul longs for, it must attain". 2/5/73
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Where to live
If I were to live with you (in Australia), I will try to build a small hut made up of one large room and this will be the hut of "Uncle Bolis". It will be surrounded by flowers and trees and birds and inside the hut will be a bed, a few chairs and many shelves and art pictures. 11-3-1974
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The Geographers said to me:
The Pacific Ocean is the deepest sea
I said, no wonder it is peaceful
Note: Pacific and peaceful are the
same word in Arabic.
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Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep
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*Minorities all over the world have a hard time and it all depends on the status of the person and his work.
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With the beginning of the school year, I ask you to extend your care to the social aspects of your students who are in need. In this world not everyone finds enough love and care in their homes and from their parents. And this is the cause of many of the problems and immorality.
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The Pharisees asked Him
Why don't your disciples follow the Sabbath?
He said to them: Man is master
And the Sabbath follows man.
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One possesses 'today' only, so we must enjoy it if it is possible. This means that one has to live in the present, because the present is everything.
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Man should adapt himself and it is possible to be happy in any place if he/she sets an aim and had intellectual/spiritual values beside eating, drinking and resting.
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Look at the birds flying in the skies
They do not sow, grow or harvest
Yet, everyday they eat and sing.
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On Dora's Birthday
They say that today is Dora's feast
I say, I hope it is a hundred years
Many long and worthy years
More beautiful and truthful than dreams
When you are a famous doctor
And your Amazis is a fellow surgeon
His fingers on the ailment famous
And heals every wound
Beside you a prosperous home
With shady trees
And Ramary and Nefretiti
And on the 24thJuly next year
I will have in London a grandson.
24/7/1972
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On Giddo Bolis's 67th birthday
I completed the seventh year after sixty and
I am starting now on the eighth. On this occasion
I am writing:
Sixty years passed and then eight Sixty,
If I choose, I will not choose to come again