Newly back in Seattle after an amazing couple of weeks, I’m jet-lagged, news-lagged, and above all, TED-lagged.
Eleven days ago, I was onstage at TEDGlobal in Edinburgh. The talk — on Muhammad, doubt, and the travesty of fundamentalism — may be released on TED.com as early as this coming week, but meanwhile, in the tease category, here’s a still shot:
The TED audience was beyond-words wonderful. I still can’t quite believe the generosity of their ovation. But how do you come down from such a high?
I hereby declare a new addition to the DSM-IV manual of psychiatric disorders: post-TED syndrome, which poses the patient with the problem of how to get her feet (let alone her head) firmly back to earth after a week of non-stop talk and ideas and excitement and superb company? (Plus some great music and dancing too).
Seven days ago, I took the back-to-earth idea literally. If you had been in possession of a pair of good binoculars, you would have found me roaming the wilds of Romney Marsh in Sussex, totally wind- and rain-blown, along with thousands of sheep and the most bullish lambs I’ve ever seen — sturdy little bruisers, each with a very distinctive vocal point to make about my presence. (On the menu that evening in nearby Rye: “Romney Marsh lamb.” My response: “Noooooo….!”)
Forward a bit, and four days ago I was doing my roaming in London, meeting my brilliant UK publishers over grappa in a club so private it has no name (British release of The First Muslim is set for November 7), doing tai-chi early mornings by the lavender field in Vauxhall Park (triple espresso at the ready), communing with the Rothkos at the Tate Modern, zipping along the Thames in water taxis, and downing elderberry lemonade and tahini-drizzled eggplant at Ottolenghi’s in Islington (his cookbook Plenty has the best recipe I’ve ever found for socca).
So today, back in my houseboat in pacific Seattle, my head is reeling from it all, and I have a new way of posing the post-TED problem: how do you get your feet back to earth when you live on a raft that floats on forty feet of water?
Another talk from you about Muhammad and more. WONDERFUL. Have just started reading your ‘The First Muslim’. I’m all ears already for the talk. Our planet needs more people like you, Lesley. You’ve been such an inspiration.Thanks!
no……please dont try to come down to eath or wherever….we love you in any state of gravity…..looking fwd to the Ted brilliance while i repeat the one on “reading of Quran” to restrain my excitement of hearing you again….wish Ted India invite you too…
love you more lesley….
nuzhat.
“The earth is my body, my head is in the stars.”
(spoken by Maude in the movie “Harold and Maude”, a wonderful little gem of a film from 1971)
Today I received your talk at TED. I can not find any word to discribe my appreciation about your latest work about prophet Mohammad’s biography. He is my forefather and my role model. I know him very well as if he lived today . Your thoughts about him are absolutely true. He would stand up to terrorist, suicide bombers, wars, discrimination by gender, race, wealth. I am fascinated with your curious mind, turning every stone to find the truth about Him. I will order the book immediately. You deserve every award in the world because your work and your contemplation about the truth is going to help thousands of people. You fullfiled great service to humanity for going after the truth! I salute you. You are also brave women because you stood up on your two feet against liers, mud throwers to prophet Mohammad. We are brothers and sisters as humanbeing and we must live at peace in this earth.
Thank you, Fatma — from your lips to god’s ears…
Not floating, but camel-riding, down-to-earth! The real deal.
Posted your talk on Facebook… Sending you Ya Fattahs for PTedS.
love, and a rain of blessings on your good work. T’m
Ah, it was you that sent down all that rain last night! Thank you. I love going to sleep to the sound of rain on the water…
What irony!
“We’ve allowed Judaism to be claimed by violently messianic West Bank settlers…”
It must be habituation that makes the truth so elusive to you. And it’s nothing new. Judaism has actually been hijacked, long ago, by agnostic intellectuals who “believe that they and they alone are right.”
How do you lump the likes of Baruch Goldstein and Yigal Amir, who are widely condemned among all Jews, together with Islamic suicide bombers who are memorialized and celebrated by many millions.
You are among the millions of Jewish liberal extremists who have sought acceptance by being self critical. How pathetic. In demonstrating your intellect, open mindedness and humanism, you persist in supporting the very forces that seek your destruction.
Yawn…
Apparently you didn’t catch what I said about “the Truth”.
Actually, I did. You talk about the arrogance of the extremists who claim a monopoly on the Truth.
Your dismissive tone suggests that you won’t dignify my challenge with an answer. Do you even own a mirror?
Didn’t you know? Witches don’t own mirrors.
… Love the wit.
I also failed to thank you for the faith and doubt resonance thesis. But, agnostic Lesley, if you must subscribe to the Truth at least leave room for the truth of your heritage.
I subscribe to “the Truth”? Since when?
As to the “truth of my heritage,” one of the finest Jews I know of was Spinoza. And he was excommunicated by those who thought they owned “Truth.”
As my shuttle bus roared from downtown Seattle to the airport, i thought let me check ted.com and wisely use the ride time.
The words faith and doubt were carefully chosen by Les and they did the marketing job they were supposed to do and i clicked and she started!
I have to admit – I enjoyed the talk but there were information – based on my humble understanding – which were incorrect or let’s say are prone to wrong interpretation due to linguistic loss of fidelity for the lack of a better term.
Mohamad (pbuh) may have been in doubt about what he saw in the night of revelation but this is different than faith (defined as deeply rooted belief(s)) . That instance could be described as experience and yes many books refer to it as such and agree with what she said about leaping of a cliff, etc…
But the fact the he was in the cave is actually because he had a different faith than those who surrounded him and he used that time to reflect and further his beliefs.
The opposite of doubt is certainty and the opposite of knowledge is ignorance. Fanatism is not the result of certainty but ignorance. Mohamad did not have doubt (that is the wrong word to use) he needed knowledge and that is what that divine revelation came to give him […]
Lack of knowledge is abundant and the more know the more he realizes how humble his knowledge is and thus is willing to accept another opinion and the converse is true.
Wishing guidance to all mankind – a fellow human
But the point is surely that I do not define faith as “deeply rooted belief.” In fact as I see it, real faith defies the certainty of definition…
This posting has generated quite a few responses, some thought-provoking and as usual one or two, well…
Anyway, I took the time to listen several times to your talk Lesley and jotted the following excerpt in my journal:
…….
“Real faith has no easy answers…it involves an ongoing struggle, a continued questioning of what we think we know, a wrestling with issues and ideas. It goes hand in hand with doubt, a never-ending conversation with it, and sometimes in conscious defiance of it…”
…….
As a “somewhat agnostic catholic”, I found it very interesting that in 2007 the Vatican was a bit upset that a priest took it upon himself to publish Mother Theresa’s private letters in which she revealed that she had doubts about the existence of God and lamented the absence of a personal sense of Jesus’ love in her life. She wrote that at times when she was in church and prayed, she felt as if there was no one there. Some people thought less of her knowing this, some atheists rejoiced, and the Vatican whimpered.
Your view regarding faith replies perfectly to the conundrum Mother Theresa seemed to face, questioning, struggling, wrestling with issues and in so being, probably made her stronger spiritually and to the rest of us, more human.
Totally with you on this, Guy. Thanks. — L.
Enjoyed your talk, but not sure that either side of this conversation (faith-doubt, certainty-uncertainty, theist-atheist, etc.) gets us closer to empathy — to compassion — to loving one another.
After 6 years of TED Conferences, I know what you mean. A week of high-intensity, non-stop creativity among amazing people, and then the brutal home crash for a few days.
Hope we can chat F2F in Vancouver next year.
Do we have to love one another? Isn’t it enough — more than enough — that we let each other live?
Vancouver would be good. — L.
Indifference, isolation, apathy, neglect. Many would see these as problems.
Totally agreed. But compassion seems to me insufficient — almost passive, in fact, and that passivity is precisely what you’re talking about. I’d advocate a kind of waking up: to social responsibility, to involvement, to the recognition that we’re all in this together, and action on the basis of that recognition.
Isn’t that love? 🙂
Hi Lesley,
I started to read your book ” First Muslim” this week. Certainly it is a unique approach that no writer took until now about Prophet Mohammad peace be upon him. There fore your book is filling this very important gap on the biography of Prophet Mohammad ( PBUH). You did put hundred hours of contemplation about his human side. As a person who contemplates a lot I do appreciate your contemplations and sharing them with rest of the world. Lots of hours of searching truth brought this beautiful realistic book about Him. ” there is no other worship more valuable than contemplation” said Prophet Mohammad. And in many verses in Quran Allah urges us to contemplate. Because that is how we can reach the truth by separating truth from falsehood. You are asking questions everything around you just like example of Prophet Abraham given at the Quran. Who ever seeks Allah, Allah guides them to Himself. And who ever finds him fulfills her/ his purpose of life. Who ever doesn’t find him they lose only chance given to her/ him to be among the friends of Allah. Ultimate happiness or true love is felling in love with Allah.