Painting Light on the Walls of Life

I'm up late tonight, celebrating a Happy 65th Independence Day of Pakistan with friends online so far away. I'm not only celebrating this historical memory yet I'm seeing history in the making and LIGHT for the journey ahead via a book offered as gift at this time -- a nonfiction thriller:

If you want to download and read this book, simply go here

What I understand of this little masterpiece -- based on Allama Iqbal's teachings and vision for the future of his nation -- is that there is plenty of light for those with the eyes of heart and soul to SEE.

So, I was reminded of this little excerpt I read in a poetry journal at the library:

' “All I wanted to do was paint sunlight on the side of a house,” said Edward Hopper (or words to that effect), and there have been legions of poets and filmmakers obsessed with light. I would side with the irrational visionary romantic who says light came first, and darkness but a fleeting shadow to be swept away with more light. (“More light!” cried the great poet, dying.) Poets and painters are the natural bearers of it, and all I ever wanted to do was paint light on the walls of life.' Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I took this one striking quote -- perhaps a bit out of Ferlinghetti's original context yet to me it suits exactly what I am trying to say tonight.

The way I interpret the last line for this day in Pakistan is that Allama Iqbal and his interpreter for our time, Khurram Ali Shafique, wanted to (and are still succeeding in) painting LIGHT on the walls of LIFE -- the life of Pakistan as well as the walls beyond the nation they hold most dear.

"We have pledged ourselves to love One.
We are the conscience hidden in God's heart,
We are the heirs of Moses and Aaron.
Sun and Moon are still bright with our radiance,
Lightning-flashes still lurk in our cloud.
Our essence is the mirror of the Divine essence..."

(Just before the invocation of 'The Secrets of the Self'
by Allama Iqbal.)

Photo Credit:
31d47164cf062c60a7c5e167efffb1dc.jpg
nowpublic.com 240 × 182 - sunrise in karachi :) by far0ck on