Every interaction is an opportunity

.كل تفاعل هو فرصة

Every interaction is an opportunity.

Every interaction—with a driver, a shopkeeper, a colleague, or even a friend—is an invitation to give, to offer kindness, and to create an opportunity for connection. These seemingly small experiences, often taken for granted, hold the potential to ripple outward. But it’s only through the deliberate practice of living an examined life that these moments rise above the trivial. Devoid of mindfulness, they risk passing unnoticed, slipping into the void of the unremarkable, rather than becoming opportunities to contribute, however subtly, to a more compassionate and intentional existence.

From a very young age growing up in Toronto, the city afforded me the luxury of being surrounded by many cultures.

Palestinian, Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Filipinos, Tamil, Japanese, Jamaican, Nigerian, Ghanaian, Egyptian, Iraqi, Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian, Russian, Croatian, Italian…

It occurred to me with striking clarity — in this part of the world, the chance to experience and engage with other cultures is a rarity, a luxury afforded only to those who are part of international schools or communities in enclaves like Maadi and Zamalek.¹ On a more fundamental level, this limited exposure leads to a uniformity of thought, which, in turn, cultivates a cultural sameness. True progress, after all, thrives on the interplay of differences, not on the comfort of conformity.

So, in many ways, being here — on the outside of those enclaves — is an opportunity to freely give what has formed every fibre of my being.

A different outlook on life. A different approach to life. A different way of building and operating businesses. A different way of being.²

It’s through these interplay of differences that we can then begin to experience true progress in society.

“A person who has not been completely alienated, who has remained sensitive and able to feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity, who is not yet “for sale,” who can still suffer over the suffering of others, who has not acquired fully the having mode of existence—briefly, a person who has remained a person and not become a thing—cannot help feeling lonely, powerless, isolated in present-day society.”

The Art of Being — Erich Fromm

1. There are of course other pockets outside of these two enclaves. ↩︎
2. Read The Art of Being, by Erich Fromm. Fromm suggests that rather than accumulating material possessions, we should shift our perspective towards a life centred on not-having. This approach emphasises cultivating love, reason, and engagement in productive activities—qualities that cannot be owned or hoarded, but only lived and practiced. But, reaching this understanding and altering our path is far from easy. It is painful, not only because we are entrenched in a consumer-driven society, but also because we often fail to recognise the invisible chains that bind us. True liberation, therefore, demands profound introspection and the courage to confront the deeper layers of our conditioning. ↩︎