http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zaidi happy men learn to find beauty in those seemingly unimportant details of life Sun, 26 Nov 2006 09:05:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en "The truly virtuous are they who fulfil their vows, and stand in awe of a Day the woe of which is bound to spread far and wide, and who give food - however great be their own want of it - unto the needy, and the orphan, and the captive, ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zaidi/2006/11/25/giving-thanks/ as i returned from my wonderful soirée at lamont this evening, i walked past the majestic facade of widener library, noticing the grand columns that held it up (or, more likely, did nothing to hold up the building and were simply placed there by the architect for their aesthetic appeal). ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zaidi/2006/10/17/forgetting/ i read an interesting word for the first time a week ago. i didn't notice it until i read it again tonight. desiderata is the plural form of the word desideratum, something considered necessary or highly desirable. the root is in the word sidus, meaning constellation or heavenly body. with its latest ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zaidi/2006/10/16/desiderata/ as the plane buzzed through the crackling clouds, my mind kept returning to break and re-break apart the word: indianapolis. like a kit-kat, indiana-polis; i kept manipulating the two pieces. i don't know why i was so fascinated. probably because of the trigger polis allowed back to the week's examination ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zaidi/2006/10/02/indianapolis/ ramadan at harvard is very different than it was back home. fasting was a much more intimate affair then. ours being one of just a handful of muslim families in the area, the four of us were normally the extent of each other's company during the month, in the peak hours ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zaidi/2006/09/25/sundown-at-ticknor/ today i took a trip to dickson brothers' hardware store in harvard square. before today, i don't think i ever really acknowledged that it existed. like all other things though, my acknowledgment didn't really matter, it existed just fine on its own finely tucked, or more plopped, between the many ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zaidi/2006/09/21/time/ what is a poem, and what are politics? who is a poet, and who is the politician? what constitutes poetry, and what makes similar words fashioned, something political? these are the questions of the day. the first questions of a semester. the big questions that will begin to be answered by ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zaidi/2006/09/19/poems-and-politics/ i just finished doing my laundry. it's a simple chore and sometimes i really appreciate the simple, mechanical aspect of folding my clothes. i am reminded of the mythic sisyphus, as painted by camus: an absurd man, who is condemned by the gods to roll a giant boulder up a hill ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zaidi/2006/09/18/forever-lowell/ an educated mind, i have realized, is simply a mind that can shop better than others. this afternoon, in preparation for ramadan, we went shopping. we bought thousands of plates and forks and knives and napkins and...well, stuff, lots of stuff. but we shopped discerningly; it was enlightened shopping. we made predictions ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zaidi/2006/09/17/shopping/ it was a carnival of days as i waded through the many modes of harvardania. my first “mode” was the iop, the political mode some may call it, though i would suggest every mode is political. the institute of politics or rather its subset the harvard political union (hpu) is filled ... http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zaidi/2006/09/15/carnival/