Here’s video of The Stranger’s literary editor Paul Constant giving me a Stranger Genius statuette at the Moore Theater in downtown Seattle the other night:
and since I’m guessing it was recorded on a phone, here’s (I think) what I said:
“Okay, I’m going to be totally uncool, because that’s what happens when you invite a hermit to what looks like being the best party of the year. That’s what writers are when they’re in the middle of a book, hermits, so I’ve been spending my days shut up at home, wrestling with this one like crazy. I mean, I know it seems like I should have figured out how to write a book by now, but it still feels like I’ve never done it before. So once again I’m sitting there, wondering why I do this weird, lonely, difficult thing called writing, full of doubt and hesitation, and then The Stranger turns up at my door with this gorgeously disgusting sheet cake, and a check, and the biggest gift of all, which is renewed faith in what I do. Thank you.”
And wow, I was right: The Stranger knows how to throw a party!
Filed under: existence Tagged: | acceptance speech, party, Paul Constant, The Stranger Genius Awards
Just sent you an email. You can ignore part of question #4 now (in other words, thanks for posting this.) -N
Bless! Love the cake.
Lesley,
Lovely to hear of your award! I am posting because I am not sure the link for the video (via phone) works. Like to see the pictures as well as the words. Good luck on the book! I will see you at your next event in Seattle.
What a delightful occasion.
Dear Lesley,
I am a big fan and looking forward to reading your book about Mohammad next year ..
and while I don’t want to bother you much as you are trying to focus on writing the book .. believe it or not, I had a dream yesterday.. I saw myself writing you an email asking you the one question that bothers me the most these days…
Does God Exist??
I’ve spent most of my life believing in God, but recently, I’ve been asking myself lot of questions and gradually losing my faith …
I believe in science .. I believe that if god exists, then he should reveal himself in front of humanity for only one minute and end this debate about his existence .. he can also just tell us where the “right path” is and end the cycle of endless killing in his name …
I watched many debates on youtube between believers and atheists … so much of articulation in their talks.. each trying hard to prove his point … Why did god leave such a fundamental issue like his own existence so vague and in need of “proving”…
My close friends keep telling me that ” I just have to believe ” … I just can’t …..
I’ve gone through your website, and I couldn’t find an article about the subject, I really hope you find time to share with me some of your thoughts about the subject …
I am miserable..
A true fan,
Rami ..
Rami, you’re asking a committed agnostic if God exists, so you must expect an agnostic answer. My best answer would be book-length, and in fact will be, since I’ll probably start writing that book later next year. Which is of no help to you right now, so here’s a couple of very brief notes, as much to myself as to you, that may or may not be of help:
1. You’re right, this is a question of faith, not fact. But one might as well ask how large is infinity, The concept of the divine is by definition beyond human comprehension. It is a meta-physical question — literally, beyond the physical — and thus has no provable answer. It cannot be known in human terms. That is the whole point of it, as I see it. So that those who claim to know for sure are, as I see it, reducing the idea of God to human terms. Unintentionally, they diminish it, cut it down to human size. Which seems to me the opposite of respect, let alone faith.
2. Why does not-knowing make you miserable? To me, it makes you human. More open, and more honest. Far more so than those who claim absolute certainty, which too often leads to the dangerous diktats of dogmatism and its ensuing inhumanity. Uncertainty and paradox seem to me essential parts of what it is to be human. People who claim certainty and have no sense of paradox bore me (when they don’t terrify me), and this applies as much to militant atheists as to militant fundamentalists.
3. Why do we insist on naming the divine and talking of it as “he,” anthropomorphizing it as though it were an objective physical entity “out there” or “up there” like Michaelangelo’s white-bearded man on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel? I prefer the Kabbalist idea of the shechinah, the divine presence, or the Quranic one of the ayah — a sign of divine presence. Or the Gnostic idea of the divine as within you, not outside you.
4. We can have faith in many things. Mine is in inquiry. With no necessary expectation of answers.
I know what I’ve written here only raises a ton more questions, but as you know, I’m trying to focus exclusively on the book about Muhammad right now (to be published in the spring of 2013, by the way, not 2012), so please, if you can, hold off until the spring, when if all goes well I’ll have finished the manuscript. Thank you, and all best — Lesley
Lesley said “and thus has no provable answer. It cannot be known in human terms”
This acknowledgement is enough that theres a supernatural (creating) force of mega physics dimensions.
Why this Mega Force need to be known in Human Terms…why not Force Itself arrange a medium within humans to be known.
We as Human are helpless to know this Mega Force but for sure this Mega Force is not helpless at all…if its a Mega Force.
Things could be as simple as I put them or could be as difficult as Lesley may spend sea load of inks to define and understand herself.
She being an intellectual is at disadvantage here.
I have read your reply for at least 10 times.. and every time, I am learning something new..
I was always divided between believing and not believing .. white or black .. I was more of “grey” … I feel more content now to know that this is normal .. we are all humans and our abilities are limited.
I have to confess that I didn’t know what agnosticism is; but in the last couple of days, I’ve read about the ideas of Thomas Huxley and Robert Ingersoll … very interesting and different way of thinking.
Thank for your reply. You have helped me a lot.
-Rami
Yes, that’s where life is, in the vast variety of shades and colors between pure black and pure white. Or to put it another way, humans live between the north pole and the south pole, not at them, because life at the poles is impossible (unless you’re an ice crystal…). — L.
Just perplex…how lesley failed to notice Qaddafi brutal manufactured murder.
I saw the videos, AJ — and noticed the people yelling “We need him alive.” But I can’t rouse any compassion, let alone indignation, at the brutal death of a man responsible for the far more brutal deaths of so many others. Would rather maintain my focus on the book than dignify Qaddafi with commentary. — L.
Lesley every murder counts when it comes to our attention and we witnessesd the graphic details.
Millions dies probably more brutally than Qaddafi but we don’t feel. our human feelings are not aroused because we did not witness.
Qaddafi was a dictator and his 42 years of autocracy was on stake mainly on prompting of avenging forces of west…he reacted very much expected from him.
Though he was not infallible nor were punishing forces.
dear leslie,
although theres continuous prayers for an early completion of the expected book, heres a personal wish for the same.
my heart just sank on reading that the wait is now extended to 2013…seems like eternity…!!!
you know, sometimes i dream of being the first person to be able to lay my hands on it. at other times i wish i was close enough to help you in whatever way i could, to expedite the process and ease my desperation.
May Allah strenghthen your hands to lighten the burden.
sincerely yours,
nuzhat.
Thanks for the lovely good wishes, Nuzhat — hopefully it’ll be worth the wait. — L.
Dear Lesley, “Jezebel” is one of the most valued books on my bookshelf – it is brilliant! I had cause to take it out again this week and refer to the chapter “Babylon” as I have just completed writing an article/blog entitled “Image of the gods” which looks at the origins of Genesis and the creation of Man. After writing this, and reading again your insights of the re-invention of God “by the rivers of Babylon” I am now totally satisfied that God is man’s most magnificent creation. I also noted that in two places Genesis reveals that the gods created Man, both male and female, in their image. Therefore there were/are male and female gods!! Another influence for me is Zecharia Sitchin and his scholarly research of ancient Sumerian and Hebrew texts showing how much the writers of Genesis, in particular the aaccounts of Creation and the Flood, can only based their writings on the ancient texts of three thousand years earlier, as they whiled away their time in exile by the rivers of Babylon – the Land of the Gods. I posted my article on my website http://kenparsons.weebly.com/ . Best wishes for your new book. Ken Parsons, Johannesburg, South Africa
PS: Regrettably I have been unable to source any of your other books here in JHB. Will need to try Amazon.com
Thanks, Ken! — big smile here. If Amazon doesn’t oblige, try the wonderful http://www.abe.com, the best source I know for hard-to-find and out-of-print books in English, with assessments of the books’ condition that are actually accurate.