People
are like Cheese – Different colours, flavours, sizes, textures and
some more mature than others.
I
am someone who likes to speak, think and see in analogies. I am
inwardly awakened with metaphors, similes and symbols. I think this
is due to the religious influences in my childhood such as the
Biblical parables attributed to Jesus and after my conversion to
Islam, the many parables found in the Qura'n. But it also maybe
because I am easily confused with words and my child-like mind is
more comfortable with pictures.
As
human beings, we learn how to see a picture before we can construct a
sentence or understand it. Words can give accuracy and clarity but a
picture can make us see something more in context and gives us more
than one dimension to a reality.
An
analogy allows us to see a concept by means of representing it with
something more familiar or easier to digest. We can tailor the
presentation of an idea to a particular audience. By a common thread
we link the reality to its analogical equivalent so we derive an
underlying lesson.
However,
an allegory or parable is also a sophisticated means of exposition,
as unlike defining something specifically and narrowly by explicit
words, an allegorical representation opens the audience to think.
This opens the field of exploration, reflection, commentary and
interpretation. It can allow for more discussion and deeper derived
principles. Another sophisticated use of allegory is that its
inherent cryptic nature allows it to be communicated esoterically to
an enlightened audience while concealing its meaning from the
majority who do not think deeply and who do not study widely.
Ambiguity can be a cloak for the conveyor and an encrypted message to
those of sophisticated vision.
I
am now beginning to regret that this analysis of the mysterious and
intellectual topic of analogies has been placed into an article that
I have entitled 'People are like cheeses...' But I don't plan these
articles, I have seedling ideas and let them grow on their own as I
type.
So
now onto cheese and people. When I was younger, I didn't like many
cheeses, I found the blues and green veins and hard rinds unappealing
and the considered mould in food repulsive. I didn't like the idea of
something strong, bitter or with unfamiliar colours. I stayed away
from even trying such cheeses when I was younger. But then again,
such cheeses were not eaten by the adults in my house to my
knowledge. By the way, the cheeses in that photograph are Mature
Cheddar, Sage Derby, Blue Shropshire, Chaource and Bavarian Blue
Brie.
If
I look back to my taste in people, then I am not sure whether it was
wider or narrower. I know my preference in women back in those days
was a lot narrower. Now as long as they can be scientifically
verified as female and technically alive, there is a good chance they
might meet my criteria. Some call that a maturing appreciation of
diverse attributes, while others wrongly classify it as desperation,
but then again, a desperate and deluded person might say that.
I
am certain that my appreciation of many things has increased greatly
as I have grown older. I remember being dismissive of many things as
a youngster. Some tastes I had back then I can not even understand.
Some things I turned away from in my past that I would accept with
much enthusiasm and excitement today. I guess back then I was like a
bland cheese with little taste and texture, but perhaps a shiny new
shell or maybe it was just plastic packaging choking me and blurring
my vision.
One
thing is clear, it takes all sorts to make a world. Variety prevents
us from boredom and we learn different things from meeting different
people even if we differ with and dislike some of them.
“And
among His signs are the creation of the heavens and the earth
and
the differences in your languages and colours.
Verily
in that are signs for those who know.”
(QURA'N
ar Room [The Romans] 30:22)
My
taste in cheese has changed dramatically as I have 'grown up'. I am
now excited to try cheeses of varying colour, taste, texture,
process, origin and maturity. When I am tasting such cheeses I can
pretend I am a connoisseur, raising my standards by raising my
tastes. Perhaps I see that in widening the vision in one issue it
encourages the vision to be expanded in all issues. If I can elevate
my class in cheese then I can elevate my my class in general, the
cheese being a microcosm of life itself.
An
interesting thing about cheese is that it suffocates in plastic, a
manufactured, chemical, unnatural covering damages it. The cheese
deteriorates quickly, People also deteriorate quickly if they are not
allowed to breathe, if they wear a false shell or if an unnatural
environment suppresses them. When we are forced to be other than
ourselves outwardly our real inward self can become estranged, lost
or diminished.
Some
cheeses are hard and some are soft. Some people are soft, giving way
to all pressures around them and some people are hard, no flexibility
and only breaking if the situation doesn't fit their shape.
In
one respect people are not like cheese. How many people can you rely
on? How many people do you know who you can trust in all the most
important areas? We live in a time of many people accepting the norms
that have been artificially manufactured and not too many people
opposing the trend. Most people are happy to go along and support
those ideas and mechanisms that enslave us all and contribute to much
misery.
This
is the state of most of the people, a lie can not sustain itself, it
needs people to initiate, carry, maintain and distribute it along
with a whole load of people to believe it, that is, if it is one of
those dominant lies. Cheeses on the other hand, you can rely on most
of them to be cheese and most of them are quite good, even if we have
our different preferences concerning them. But I am not a cheese
expert and I do have an accommodating view, so perhaps an expert
cheese maker could tell us that most cheeses are not that good. He
may tell us that the vast majority of cheese that is consumed is mass
manufactured, cheaply made, characterless, tasteless and only
produced due to the low standards of the masses who maintain its
demand. Or without putting direct blame on the masses, the low
quality cheese is all the impoverished can afford in an economy where
they are forever in debt to a few people they have not seen, while
they themselves do all the work so that a few people can eat
expensive artisan cheese. It seems that we get the cheese we deserve
just as we get the society we deserve. If we have immature ideas and
judgements then the results will be like one big immature cheese, not
holding its shape and melting quite easily.
Another
way in which this the cheese may mimic the masses is that so much
cheese ends up wasted and in the garbage. But an immature cheese is
nowhere near as distasteful and detrimental as an immature person.
A'bdullah ibn U'mar
reported that the Prophet Muhammad said
“People are like a
hundred camels
among which you hardly
find any suitable camel to ride.”
(BUKHAARI, MUSLIM)
