Archive for April 9, 2007

From time to time I take an extended leave of absence from blogging, though by no means am I just resting on my laurels [well, not completely anyway]. But this leave of absence has been a bit different in that it has been due to a number of issues, personal, private and just plain old worldly, that in combination have put in me in cyber-exile, so to speak. Questions of faith, both of an introspective and personal nature as well as larger world views, have occupied me intensely. But I have not been totally idle. I have been gathering my thoughts, mostly in my head, about all of the above and more and am now trying to distill them into coherent topics. I hope to put them down here soon and look forward to your reactions.

I have also been engaged in other art projects, photography namely [the new Marc Manley Photography page as well as a new series entitled Con Frequencia] - even the entry page is different now, reflecting the three major things I’m involved in at this point], and have been dedicating some time to that endeavor as well. But primarily I have been looking upon the American Muslim, in all of his or her permutations and ask, “what are we doing?” “Who are we and where are we going [if anywhere at all]?”, without trying to dump us all into a monospace [as so often the media does]. Ranking amongst these questions are how can we, as American Muslims, reform our practices in terms of man/woman relations [i.e., dating, marriage and the whole shebang]? For they are most certainly in need of reform. Our political voice[s] or lack thereof. And of course, I look to the Blackamerican community primarily as I am not an immigrant. As a matter of fact, I have given considerable thought to the state of Black America in general, regardless of religious affiliation and wonder where Black Folks are headed [again, if anywhere at all].

In the end, all of this mental gymnastics makes me re-think my approach to blogging altogether. If you look at this blog, it has changed over the years from mildly amusing posts about my random life to taking on a more concrete feeling - attempting to tackle a few issues, state some opinions and try to connect with the various communities that I am engaged in [even in that there’s a good post to come - what community/ies do I belong to?]. So again, I will be reexamining my role as commentator and thinking about where I want to drive this vehicle and how I want to drive it - left lane or right? So check back in a few. I will have some posts for your reading pleasure and as always, I look forward to your comments.

Thanks - “M”. Philadelphia, April 9th, 2007.