By Amr Muneer Dahab

nasdahab@gmail.com

In “Wisdom Highway,” translated into English from the Arabic origin by the author himself, Sudanese-born poet and essayist Amr Muneer Dahab questions ideas that people accept as standard rules for living, aiming to make individual life paths easier to navigate rather than providing rigid success formulas; he uses short, witty statements to prompt deep thought ins. In this series of posts, the prolific author shares excerpts from the book.

Week 2: What Is Experience?

• Experience: An experiment you have practiced. And that others may pass through without having an impact on them, if they do not encounter the same pain as you did in the experiment.

• The heaviest of worries: That which I had to bear alone.

• Disturbing talk: Very important words directed to you, while you are drawn to something fleeting.

• The best days of my annual vacation: The week before it begins.

• Darkness: The color of black light.

• You do not lie when you are able to handle the truth.

• The difference between stupidity and genius is how much experimentation a society allows.

• The difference between a problem and its solution: Another problem.

• My convenience: The burden I choose.

• Your outstanding biography: Showing your genius, to let them weave legends around you.

• Life is an adventure. Perhaps, most accurately, it is gambling.

• Vogue: We talk about its negatives and forget that it is the direct cure for boredom.

• Happiness: A short-term respite from the truth.

• Life: It is a vigilant observation to capture a fleeting moment of joy. This fleeting moment becomes, when the hours of pain come, a motive for anticipating another fleeting moment.