How from a Teacher Flows a kind of Life-But it depends who is the student

Reflections of one of my best students-Raheel Waqar 

Words of Wisdom

Sitting in the Geography class in school, I remember how fascinated I was when we were being taught all about the Dead Sea .

As you probably recall, the Dead Sea is really a Lake , not a sea (and as my Geography teacher pointed out, if you understood that, it would guarantee 4 marks in the term paper!) Its so high in salt content that the human body can float easily. You can almost lie down and read a book! The salt in the Dead Sea is as high as 35% - almost 10 times the normal ocean water. And all that saltiness has meant that there is no life at all in the Dead Sea . No fish. No vegetation. No sea animals. Nothing lives in the Dead sea . And hence the name: Dead Sea .
While the Dead Sea has remained etched in my memory, I don't seem to recall learning about the Sea of Galilee in my school Geography lesson. So when I heard about the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea and the tale of the two seas - I was intrigued. As it turns out the Sea of Galilee is just north of the Dead Sea . Both the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea receive their water from river Jordan . And yet, they are very, very different.
Unlike the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee is pretty, resplendent with rich, colorful marine life. There are lots of plants and lots of fish too. In fact, the Sea of Galilee is home to over twenty different types of fishes. Same region, same source of water, and yet while one sea is full of life, the other is dead. How come?
Here apparently why. The River Jordan flows into the Sea of Galilee and then flows out. The water simply passes through the Sea of Galilee in and then out -
and that keeps the Sea healthy and vibrant, teeming with marine life. But the Dead Sea is so far below the mean sea level, that it has no outlet.
The water flows in from the river Jordan , but does not flow out. There are no outlet streams. It is estimated that over 7 million tons of water evaporate from the Dead Sea every day. Leaving it salty, too full of minerals and unfit for any marine life.
The Dead Sea takes water from the River Jordan, and holds it. It does not give. Result? No life at all.

Think about it.
Life is not just about getting. It’s about giving. We all need to be a bit like the Sea of Galilee . We are fortunate to get wealth, knowledge, love and respect.
But if we don't learn to give, we could all end up like the Dead Sea . The love and the respect, the wealth and the knowledge could all evaporate. Like the water in the Dead Sea . If we get the Dead Sea mentality of merely taking in more water, more money, more everything, the results can be disastrous.
Good idea to make sure that in the sea of your own life, you have outlets. Many outlets. For love and wealth - and everything else that you get in your life. Make sure you don't just get, you give too -------------------------

A Search for Ways to Ensure Peace in the World

let's see so many intelligent people, if reading, this join hands in an endeavor to look for ways to ensure a really peaceful world, free of hatred, exploitation, injustice and treachery in all its manifestation, a few to mention. We can do it though it is a challenge, man has no history of any such movement as all such movements too were for some ulterior motive or the other, resulting in colossal bloodshed and gave man no peace. But we believe "Since the time immemorial man is gaining intelligence........" then why is it so that we are day by day getting closure to disasters in one form or the other, may it be wars, terrorism, dictators in disguise even natural calamities too are on the increase. We are also faced with if global warming on one hand the ozone layer on the other. Why is that nature too seems to be as hostile with every passing year as we ourselves as mankind are slowly heading towards a hostility which can result into catastrophes much greater than even world wars and barbaric incidents like Boer War. Let's seriously and sincerely ponder over this dilemma, if man is committed can reach the moon why can't we reach a solution that saves our beloved home we all share, we call world. I would just complete the above dictum to make our job a little easier, "Since the time immemorial man is gaining intelligence but not wisdom". Hoping to see us all rise to this necessity with wisdom as this is the only path to our salvation.

with best wishes for all those who love peace and are ready to mobilize their minds for a start, any other kinds of mobilization we see all over the world only results in more bloodshed, which is what we are aiming to stop.
Tariq Razi. Islamabad Jul 09, 2011