Cumberbatch and Egypt and Homework, oh my!

Okay, folks.
Many of you have heard my rant about how the so-called "Arab Spring" is horribly, wrongly, and unjustly named.
It is not exclusively "Arab". Dozens of countries, all around the world, Arab and non-Arab, had protests.
It is not a "Spring". The action did not come from unknown, mythical source in the ground. It came from a lot of really hard work by really dedicated, passionate, and professional people.
Nor did it happen in a single season.
People are still protesting.
People are still dying.
To call the revolutions that began in January/February 2011 the "Arab Spring" is an insult, in my opinion, to the thousands of people working, fighting, and dying.
So don't do it.
/end rant

Benedict:
Because we sometimes need a bit of happiness to bring ourselves into these issues, here is a photo of the ever-fabulous Benedict Cumberbatch, who you may know as "Sherlock" or "Khan".

But seriously.
For real.

Homework:
If you don't know what he's talking about - and even if you do - please, please, please check out:
-My friend Salma's blog, especially this blog post about the pain of trying to deal with this as part of daily life.
-The news. Read the news. There is joy and beauty in the world. There's also a lot of really awful stuff. And pretending it doesn't exist will not help further the joy and beauty. So read! For stuff on the Middle East, Al Jazeera English is a good starting point. If that's too scary, try the BBC or New York Times.

So that's your homework. Read about what's happening in Egypt, do something about it if you can and feel called to - pray, write a letter to a policymaker, send some love to a friend in the region, whatever. And then, make sure you find some joy in the world. And spread it. 'Cause we need it, folks.