The Tide

There is a tide in our affairs, even at the smallest level. I have been noticing how some bloggers - including myself - seem to go in spurts of activity: producing a good deal for a while, then going fallow and letting the furrows of the mind replenish. It, of course, reminds me of Mu'awiya, the founder of the Umayyad dynasty. Unfortunately, he also caused the death of Ali and Hussein, but that is not our concern here. Mu'awiya mean "fox", and he was one of the foremost political geniuses of Islam. He was aware of the tides of men. His metaphor of government was working with fine steeds. When the reins slackened, he pulled, and made them taut. However, when the reins were taut and everyone was pulling at the bit, then he relaxed and gave them slack. In this, Mu'awiya was aware of the ebb and flow of passion and its satiety, of hunger and its satisfaction, of thirst and its remedy, or of fever and its breaking. There is a time for all things under the sun, and the timing is not chaotic, but follows a deep aquifer of logic and code.