top of the morning to ya

It is the first day of Eid vacation, but I am not sleeping in. Can you guess why? Can you guess why I’m wide awake at my computer at 6:15 in the morning, and I’ve already been awake for over an hour trying to figure out the digital recording equipment that I bought a year ago, brought with me to Kuwait, but still cannot use? Yes, the mosques. The noise started about an hour ago. At first I just thought, my goodness the mullah today needs some voice lessons! Then I realized that it was just some old guy in the mosque that had been handed the microphone, and he was just crying out something over and over again, Probably “God is Great“ or “God is Merciful“ or something like that. And then, from what I could tell, the microphone was just held in the crowd so that people could yell “God is Great, God is Merciful“ into it over and over. I say people, but it‘s all men. No women in the mosques. It was not like singing or chanting, it was just a kind of desperate yelling, a whole crowd of people yelling it at the same time into the microphone, and this blared at deafening levels into the early morning. They sounded like they were in torment. I actually thought it would be a great soundtrack for Hell in a horror movie. I got out of bed and paced back and forth once, thinking that I had to do something because I was getting upset about it, and then I decided that I would try to get a recording of it, because I don’t think people would believe my description. Unfortunately, I only got more upset as I tried to figure out the recording equipment and soon determined that it would require much more concentrated studying that I was prepared to do. Gradually the “God is Great! God is Merciful!” switched over to an angry sermon, and we all got to listen to the mullah scream about whatever it is that is bothering him.

Now it has stopped. It is 7:00. All the Muslims will now go home and go to bed. I am wide awake, and I don’t feel particularly relaxed. The noise itself is a nuisance, but the emotional context of the noise is what’s really disturbing. My mother wants me to just wear earplugs, but what if you lived somewhere where you could hear your neighbor beating his wife and kids? Would you just put in earplugs and have a pleasant sleep? I am somewhat hopeful that all of the frenzy will die down once Ramadan is officially over. Maybe that’s today. It has something to do with the moon, nobody will say when Ramadan is starting or ending--it has to be announced from the mosque. So anyhow, maybe it will really calm down now.

To be very honest, I must admit something. The noise and disturbance outside is only a replacement for the noise and disturbance inside. It is like when I was kid and I stubbed my toe, and my older brother would say, “I’ll pinch your arm real hard, and then you won’t feel your toe anymore!” Life is awfully noisy and not usually very peaceful. If Kuwait is the arm-pinch, what is the stubbed toe that I’m not feeling? The fact that I am a single, middle-aged funny man without a life plan? But life plans don’t often go the way we want them to anyway, do they? Better not to have one, and trust God. After all, God is Great, God is Merciful.