Ok...so I know on the schedule for July and August I would try on Islam...but the more I research it...the more I just don't see it happening. And since this is MY project, I get to change the rules anyway I see fit. And while I may not have yet found God the way that I am so desperately craving, there are some aspects of Islam that I just KNOW aren't going to work for me. I understand that the Muslim woman is supposed to dress modestly. I understand that this is a great way to get someone to focus on your mind and your words as opposed to viewing you as a sexual object...and that is AWESOME. But that is not me. In all seriousness, if I could get away it and not have to subject people to my awesome c-section "mud flap" (as I affectionately call it) I would be naked all the fucking time. The human body is a beautiful miracle, we are born naked, we express love naked (in theory, for the most part) and from our bodies and the expression of love that comes from our bodies, we are able to create life!!! Adam and Eve lived happily in the buff until they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil......plus it's fucking July in the Mojave Desert....asking ANYONE to dress more modestly than a tank top and shorts is like sentencing them to death by fire.
Second on the list, I like the occasional glass of wine or a beer with my husband or friends. It's the fermented juice of nature! And while we are on that topic....I also like pork, though that really wouldn't be a hassle to give up and I like gelatin (always room for jell-o!). While these requirements aren't the super deal breaker...they just seem to go against my thoughts of God. God put us on this paradise with everything we would ever need to not only be sustained but to be happy. While I can understand how many religions during their inception said things like "no pork, no shellfish blah blah blah" because of the dangers of food poisoning- It's 2011. Mankind has developed and learned enough to where I can eat a slab a center cut bacon and not worry that I'm going to get some weird disease. If it's from the Earth, how bad can it be? (and yes, I totally think pot should be legal...seriously...the government wants to get their panties in a wad about a fucking plant when people are overdosing on synthetic heroin that they get from a Dr!? God made pot- man made oxycontin- who do you trust?)
But the biggest reason that I just cannot practice Islam is the fact that I must continue to spite my husband in the wonderful way that only a liberal American woman can spite her husband and not give him the option of being "in control" of her. I saw Kiel's eyes sparkle when I told him I was considering practicing Islam. "This means you will have to listen to me and obey me," he said with excitement creeping into his voice. Ok, so I'm not a total fucking idiot, I have heard of the women that undergo genital mutilation because it is considered more "clean" for them to not be able to orgasm during sex. I have seen the pictures of women wearing burkas, we have all heard about Bin Laden's multiple wives and how the terrorists of al Queda hope to be greeted by a shit ton of virgins in the after life (which, to be honest, doesn't sound much like heaven for those virgins....first time....normally isn't a very fun time) or women being raped, stoned in the streets, beaten, denied education and basically treated with less respect than a walking blow up doll (at least the doll gets hand washed and treated delicately for fear for popping her). BUT........all religions have their nutjobs and psycho sects and this project would be still amount to a total fucking waste of time if I passed up the oppurtunity to educated myself on one of the world's largest religion. I keep reading online from Islamic women that Islam is very pro-women's rights and one of the best things I have learned from Buddhism is to seek the truth out for myself. SO....while I may not be practicing Islam for the next two months, I am not going to let myself fall prey to the believing what I am told about a religion when I could certainly study it first hand.
So I am going to order an English translation of the Koran and some reference books so I can educate myself on Islam. While I may not be actively practicing anything for the next couple of months, since this falls right in the middle of the year, I'm going to use this time to get my bearings together- what do I believe now? Where am I leaning? What am I learning? And basically just take some time to shut the fuck up. Perhaps my problem over the past 7 months is that God has been talking to me and I've just been too busy trying to find God to hear God. I may still even participate in Ramadan....it just sounds so simple- it's devotion in the easiest terms and strictest sense......Obey Kiel...HA! That's some funny shit!
Perhaps even though you aren't going to be practicing the religion as a whole you might try to practice one of it's disciplines of a main holy-day period.
ReplyDeleteRamadan starts at the beginning of August and goes for a month. http://islam.about.com/od/ramadan/f/ramadanintro.htm About.com has this basic information about it. While it does still require restraint from things (mostly during the daylight hours), the basic idea seems to follow many other religion's ideas.
Just a thought. :)