Confession Time

40 essays in around 100 words #23

I recently started using ChatGPT and I feel ashamed. I’m currently writing a thesis about imaginative prayer as a means of feminist liberation in Pakistan. Sounds fun, right? Mostly it is. But when your advisor doesn’t respond for weeks and you feel stressed about figuring out a theoretical framework, and everyone keeps telling you to just ask ChatGPT, you give in. Or at least I did. And I hate to say it, but it was helpful. I also think it’s trying to manipulate me by being super affirming: “That’s a good question!” That probably says more about me than AI, though.

"Wow, you have such good ideas. These 100 word essays sound like a great way to get people on your website."

Maybe God is Just Really into Aesthetics?

40 essays in around 100 words #22

I am becoming more and more convinced that God’s whole purpose in everything is to create beauty. A single match lit in a dark room allows us to notice all of the complex colors and movements of the flame. A story of redemption, beauty from ashes, from zero to hero, these are our favorite kinds of stories. They capture a beauty that a vanilla life does not. It’s like perhaps the cosmos is this giant work of art. As with most great works of art, it has to go through a period of ugliness, of pain, on its way to greatness.

The Journey to Pakistan in 100 Words

40 essays in around 100 words (This one is exactly 100 for the fun of it) #21

I am sure as a child I did not know Pakistan was a country. A trip to California expanded my world beyond Kansas. A trip to Mexico (obviously to build a house) got me past border patrol. At 20 I got my first passport and went to Thailand with my university. Then I spent a semester abroad in Kashmir. That birthed a fascination (obsession?) with Pakistan. Also I had a very small, very miniscule start on learning Urdu from that. After a variety of twists and turns I found a way to live here, and alhamdillulah it has been fun.

Upon seeing this picture, one Pakistani friend said, "look at little Caprice! She has no idea she'll one day live in Pakistan and travel around and speak Urdu."