And out of curiosity, if I said I was a doctor, would you have suddenly possessed a medical degree? Because if you are a lawyer, you seem to be blissfully unenengaged by the operations of the law as it regards property, so I feel for your clients, fictional as they may be.

And, by the way, that makes us colleagues; I am also a lawyer.

I also apologise for misstating that you referred to flattery when you said honour – that was my mistake and you’re right of course, honour has a different connotation.

The only part of my response that was in any way critical of you was the last comment, because I didn’t think I warranted such personal analysis from someone whose character I do not know, and you even went to great lengths to write out what you thought I should have written…purporting to speak about my background and resources when I don’t know you. I didn’t respond to those things, I simply tried to further explain my views.

And the comment about having lawyers in Guyana is a light comment for regular readers of my blog, as I don’t hide the fact that I am a lawyer, as is my brother in law. Voila, lawyers in Guyana. Aggressive, indeed.

Your angry name-calling response now, makes me wonder what prompted your comment in the first place. And despite all your talk about forgiveness, I have to say your graciousness is slipping.

I did not speak of being “flattered”; I spoke of honour, of giving freely and I spoke of forgiveness. I am sorry if you cannot understand this and for this I forgive you.

You are obviously about waging war. That is your choice.

The disrespect I referred to wasn’t about me, however, but my feeling about the disrespect for law and order by a Government. In recent weeks there have been complaints about use of work during CARIFESTA from people who actually earn their living from such creative work. For them especially, there is no difference between that act of theft and someone stealing your car.

I hope you do acknowledge that although this may be flattering on some level (and if I am supposed to move away from ego, why would you bring that up as a consideration? By your argument, I would say I have conquered my ego since I was not flattered ) that it is stealing under any law – I do not know that religion condones stealing, and in fact Islam regards the issue of debts and payment for work as a very important personal obligation, as well as necessary for orderly society. It is not a frivolous or unfounded choice “ to imbibe and live the values and life of commerce and rights and patents and permission” – commerce and trade of property is an inextricable part of life unless you manage to live in isolation.

Religion may also encourage forgiveness, but this is a very personal decision dependent on personal factors.

I hope and pray that you also drop the Ego that makes you feel entitled to make judgements on my spiritual status, because I think they make your comment less helpful than you perhaps intend.

Chenette, there’s man’s law and God’s law. This whole incident can be used as an opportunity to drop your need for respect. If no one respects you all that is left is self-respect.
So who are you or I in our smaal battles?

You are being presented with the best opportunity to drop the Ego.

Success with the struggle

So it surprised me that you could not experience this as a compliment to your work. Allah gave you the talent and resources to do what you do and to do it well. I pray that in this month of Ramadan you find the love and peace and forgiveness for and about people who perhaps are not as gracious as you; ho did not have the parents nor the community to teach them values and proper ways of going about things. But you have those values thanks to Allah. Please find it your heart to be thankful of the compliment and the acknowledgement of your talents and forgive the Earth for having creatures who are not as perfect as you.

I am sure that not even one minister in Guyana has your kind of resources and the safety of your kind of background and family network. So my wish for you in this holy month of Ramadan is that you take this as a compliment and drop the ego of “mine” and “yours”.

When others go low, you don’t have to diminish yourself. Go into higher ground.

If you had chosen to truly live in love and grace of the Almighty, your post would have read something like this:

“I was honoured to see that my foto has been selected to be used in a government website in Guyana…blablabla…see link. It would have been more gracious though if I were contacted and asked for permission to publish them. Although I am honoured that my fotos are now living a life of their own, I will however contact the hosts to discuss this matter.”

Please Chennette, don’t get me wrong…I am not talking out of my hat. I have these experiences myself all the time. My choreographies are used and I do not seek the credit. The spiritual and psychological insights that I am given I give away for free. For in truth and in fact my talents are God given and he gave them for free. And Allah is so wonderful that he gave me a profession in which I can make my money to keep me alive and facilitate my mental and spiritual growth and freedom. And I suspect he has done the same with you.

So give freely. In another holy book, the bible, God said something to the effect of: “when you put your bread into the ocean, it will pop up in places where you never deemed possible”.

Your talents belong to God. But it is your choice t see this differntly and to imbibe and live the values and life of commerce and rights and patents and permission.

The choice is yours: stepping into Love or waging War. Which angels do you want to feed the dark ones or the light?

Enjoy your Ramadan