All through my few years of adulthood; I have learned to revisit every lesson I have learned as a kid. I have made a habit of it to criticize, analyze and scrutinize anything that has become a prejudice for me or a predetermined thought…to understand the motives behind every judgment and dig deeper into every social norm. But lately I have found myself revisiting lessons I have learned as a kid in order to be grounded, to be able to remind myself of the truth and what actually matters.
Here, I am sharing some of the lessons I have learned as a kid; lessons I believe are carved in your hearts.
1- We do not –under any circumstances- offend or disrespect a teacher or an older person.
2- We do not –under any circumstances- swear or curse especially at home, in front of girls or women and certainly not religion or mothers.
3- Well-bred people don’t talk like criminals, instead stick to an eloquent choice of words and well-structured sentences.
4- Being nice, gentle and decent is the rule. Being rude, loud with a foul mouth is reason to alienate people around you.
5- Having a curfew at home is a sign of a good upbringing, for girls and boys.
6- Cheating and lying will get you nowhere. It’s how hard you work that matters.
7- Reading might be nerdy but it is definitely finer than ignorance.
8- School days are spent at school and evenings are for doing homework and their nights are spent being tucked in bed.
9- Summer is for bikes, beaches and scraped knees.
10- A pair of Jeans and a t-shirt are the dress code for anywhere you need to go unless it’s a family visit.
11- Excuse me, please, thank you and I am sorry will open doors and hearts for you.
12- If a girl is whistled at while walking is reason enough for the whole neighborhood to fight.
13- Loud music is banned in residential areas, not by the law, but by the decency of people.
14- Human life is precious, priceless and of the highest value. One death is not less disastrous than a hundred deaths. Loss of a human life must be avoided under any circumstances. A death sentence is a grave decision that burdens the conscience of any judge and requires hard-hitting evidence that can never be swayed.
15- We, as humanity, as a nation, as a family, sympathize with any victim of any crime of any race or gender or religion. We don’t judge the victim’s situation but are willing to understand the criminal’s motives. We also thank God we are safe in the warmth of our homes and with our families.
16- There are major differences between Israel, Judaism and Zionism. Jews have lived in Egypt for many peaceful years. Israel is an illegitimate being and is best described by Balfour’s declaration that was historically chronicled as the promise of “the oppressor who did not own [this land] or have any rights to it, to undeserving others”. Zionist is an extremist school of thought that aims at dominating the world and ultimately its destruction.
17- Palestine….Jerusalem-AlQuds….are words that have sanctity for arabs, muslims, Christians and represent the greatest challenge awaiting the youth of the land…the glorious day when it would be liberated and freedom and honour celebrated.
That’s my daily dose of thoughts to continuously remind myself of who I am and what I believe. I feel deep sorrow to feel like a stranger among my people and to find that everything that was once sacred is now violated by criticism, vulgarity and brutality. People have gone out of their way to prove themselves monstrous and inhumane and lessons of decency, kindness, forgiveness or tolerance are butchered in our land; our beloved Egypt, that has become a nightmare of continuous bloodshed and desecration of humanity.
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