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| This simply cracked me up and has no connection to the blog topic. |
And I’m back (again)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, busy, busy weekend with
hardly any rest in sight. And um, did
anyone at all note how steamy it’s been?
I’m not trying to sound like an ingrate but well…I almost long for the
winter, ALMOST! Now, Mother Nature doesn’t
have to go listening to this wistful musings, when she didn’t during the
coldest days a few months ago and I had been longing for warmth.
Moving right along, let’s recap
the past few days.
Friday: Busy
Saturday: Busy
Sunday: Busy
There you go. To sum it up, every day was busy. Got the general theme here?
But since this month has been all
about learning or teaching, then let’s break some of it down to see if I
managed to do either things.
A few days ago one of my blog followers
(and besties) mentioned that my daily ramblings about Ramadan have been used
well by her. How so? I think she mentioned how two people were
having a conversation about the holy month and she corrected a few wrong assumptions. I mentioned this exchange (between my girl S
and myself) to my other friend/bestie, N, and she responded quite
matter-of-factly, its huge blessings to spread knowledge about Islam. Huh, really?
I honestly did not know.
Folks, there are things I do on purpose
that I know is scoring me huge brownie points with the Almighty. But I will admit for the most part, I don’t
go around trying to find every op to make the scale tip to the side of a free
ticket into heaven. I basically go about
every single day simply trying to be a “good person” (whatever the definition
of that is), staying sane (doesn’t always happen) and resist the urge to bodily
harm another (believe me, this one is a toughie). That’s good, right? And if you don’t know me at all, know that
one of my greatest joys is my blog. I’ve
been in love with writing for as long as I can remember and therefore
blogosphere was predestined in many ways.
But the fact that it has become a vehicle to imparting knowledge about
my religion beyond amusing tales and antidotes is somehow surprising to
me. The very fact that anyone in the
world can walk away from reading me saying, ‘oh I didn’t know that…alright,’
wasn’t really consciously what I was intending to do. I’m a story teller, I tell stories, that’s
the whole of it.
I must admit I’m delighted by
what S and N told me. If my words have communicated
some sort of clarity regarding Islam, Muslim’s and the reality that is the
everyday life of a follower, then so be it.
All I want to prove in my writing is that in a world where we are so
very intent and focused upon borders, difference and hatred, I’m just attempting
to prove that we are all the same, really and truly. More importantly, I would like to showcase
that even Muslim’s struggle with fasting, even while we’re doing it, which
makes us human. If you think it’s hard,
well it is but faith is an amazing thing, it helps us do a myriad of different
things and overcome breathtaking difficulties.
To that effort, may Allah (swt) guide my keyboard and may I never
misrepresent…Inshallah. (Hark, would
this be categorized as a ‘lesson’?)
What else happened this
weekend? Hmmm, well I went shopping for
Eid. The holiday is now 15 days away
(whoop whoop) and just like Christians before Christmas, we are also in the
midst of preparations and gift buying.
Not to say there’s a rule anywhere that you must exchange gifts (just
like during Christmas there isn’t either), we do it anyhow. The only true Quranic rule, as you can say,
is that we are to wear clean new clothes (I should double check if it needs to
be new or just clean). Anyhow, the gift
giving is usually restricted to clothing, given to family members. I do dole out gifts to friends but those are
more tokens than anything else. The big
majority of the spending though is in the apparels. Doesn’t seem like a big honkin’ deal because
after all there are stores everywhere.
Your assumption would be incorrect if you only take into account my
culture.
And if you hadn’t noticed, I don’t
live in a country where every other store sells Indian clothes which means
whatever I purchase is limited in availability and at such an astronomical
prices that I go slightly light-headed whenever I venture even close to the
stores. The rest of my family sorta
lucks out on this because for the most part someone or another from each household
takes a trip back to Bdesh yearly or every two years, hauling back with them
clothes that they stealthy put away till the occasion arises and then whips
them out. I, on the other hand, haven’t
gone back in approximately 8 years, so no Bueno. Still the joy that is reflected upon the
receivers face makes me happy in-turn, eliminating the burden of expense and difficulty
in a flash. My bank account may not be
happy, but my soul is and I am a firm believer that if you give, you get
blessings in return. Sounds like a
win-win situation to me. J (Pray tell, could this be another realization?)
I was out and about on Saturday,
panting and nearly fainting with heat and exhaustion as I was armed with a list
30 people long. Yikes. Age, size, taste, style, all needed to be
taken into account and yes, it was as stressful as heck. And I am not that type of gift giver that
picks up whatever and assumes that the receiver should be grateful for the thought. Yeah, no.
I want the person to like the present (if not love) and preferably, use
it. Go figure, I’m loony like that, eh? And I absolutely refuse to put myself into
debt in order to impress anyone, ever. I
used to and that was foolish. I quickly
realized that this was a futile effort to begin with. I shouldn’t have to buy love. And whether you spend $5 or $500 on a gift,
what difference does it make? Truly,
does the thought not matter? The intention should be enough, that’s just
my two cents. (This most certainly is
not something new, so not really a lesson learned.)
I usually walk away every year
though from this particular shopping expedition swearing that next year, I’ll
order everything online. But then I
think, well these stores count on consumers like myself to walk through their
doors and buy their goods so that they can pay their mortgage and feed their
families and it’s not just the store owner themselves, but the workers. If I didn’t patron their establishment then
those folks wouldn’t have a job, right?
And then our economy will begin to tank, the unemployment rate would
start to rise, and…you get my meaning, yes?
And therefore whereas online shopping would be easier and cheaper, I
still drive my starving bootay to the store which is about an hour drive away
to buy something(s) that is super inflated in price for my awesome family. I can deal with that.
P will have absolutely nothing to
do with this trip saying that he trusts me because I have better taste than him. Mhmm, more like “I don’t want to go shopping,
you do it.” He just is much too big a
wimp to actually say those words out loud because he knows I’ll knock his block
off.
I was pleased with myself by the
time I got home laden down with bags full of goodies. There is something about that certain feeling
of accomplishment that keeps one glowing with pride for at least hours
afterwards. And the bonus? I had the opportunity to see my besties for a
few hours, break bread with them, sit, laugh, talk, laugh more, and just enjoy
a few stolen hours. It was completely
unexpected and after months of attempting to get together, this was a total
treat.
Sunday I cooked, of course, and
watched the World Cup Soccer final: Argentina vs. Germany. Now this is actually a sensitive subject for
me, and rather emotion filled. You
wouldn’t think I’m such a big soccer fan if you ran into me on the street. Heck you wouldn’t even go as far as to assume
that I’m into any sorts of sports but in reality, I am. No, I do not like to actually play a sport, don’t
misunderstand, but I can watch and admire and root. And futbol?
I can’t emphasis enough how much I j’adore the sport and if you think it’s
because of the hot guys running around in shorts? Then you would be…almost wrong. I mean one should always appreciate God’s
handiwork, shouldn’t one?
But otherwise, it’s all about the
skill and stamina of the sports. Sure it
can be filled with the ridiculous, but which sport isn’t? You have 11 guys running in all types of
weather straight up for 90 minutes and if no score? Then up to 120 minutes without the clock
stopping. And if you think it’s not a
full contact sport, watch again. You
will realize it’s hazardous, dangerous and can cause some serious damage. One goes through a range of emotions by
simply watching and yes, aside from the USA, the rest of the whole wide universe
is all about some futbol, as I am. Like
4 years ago, I pretty much watched every game regardless of whether I supported
the teams playing or not.
This year the USA played well but
not well enough to advance past the semi-finals however they played better than
anyone could anticipate. Tim Howard, for
those of you who live under a rock he was the goalie and a total beast. Frankly, if not for him, it wouldn’t have
been Brazil which would have been laughed out of the WC due to a shocking 7
goals against them during one game. Just
sayin’.
And as we watched, Germany
trooped through with military precision and talent. This super able team deserved to be in the
finals. And Argentina? Well I’ve been supporting this team since the
days of Diego Maradona. A colleague at
worked once asked me who I supported and why.
I told him, and since I have several ‘favorites’, he started to throw
questions at me regarding whether I was a band-wagoner. I assured him why I wasn’t and that as for Argentina;
my love for the team came from my family, the mother ship…Bangladesh. Did you know that Bangladeshi’s are fanatical
supporters of Argentina? If you didn’t,
now you know.
The final score was 1-0
Germany. The game was well matched, both
teams giving as good as they got. A lot
of people assumed that the Germans would wipe the field with the Argentinian
boys, but that’s not how it played out.
It was a well fought battle with a goal being given at the 115th
minute, just short of a shoot-out, but definitely into the 2nd 15
minute overtime. A lot of my fellow
Facebook friends were commenting, after the fact, on how boring the game
was. With all due respect, they are
WRONG.
The lack of frequent goals hardly
equates to a boring game. In soccer
there shouldn’t be a lot of goals, in soccer the goals should be defended and
if both teams are worth their salt, then it will remain so with may be one or
two goals, possibly a tie. Frankly, this
game was everything that I had hoped it would be and I give mad props to the
Latin American team for putting up a good fight but someone has to be the winner
and this time, the glory went to Germany.
Bravo, now get the heck outta the Amazon!
I suppose I may have realized a
few things through the weeks. I’m
struggling a bit with the lessons though because as I mentioned before, lessons
are often learned through introspection.
And sometimes, one doesn’t simply want to look into themselves. I’ve still tried to do my best.
There is one more thing I want to
reveal to you, my readers, before signing off.
Although I’ve promised to be open and honest on my blog, I also write
towards an audience, an audience which includes my family and friends. Should this fact stop me from writing all my
feelings openly, no, that’s not how it should be, I suppose. One should put it all out there, the good,
the bad, and the stupid if one is going to step into such a public forum. I haven’t totally done that. I have a lot of things that are within me
that I’m simply not willing to share. Those
thoughts remain deeply rooting inside of me and I’m blessed to have friends who
I can turn to share.
Why am I even writing this
out? Because if you were wondering where
the ‘spice’ of my blogs may be, well, don’t be looking too hard, I always plan
to keep a bit back, to repress a bit of me while I try to reveal as much as
possible. If after reading this you want
to stop ‘following’ my blog, then by all means you should, but for now this is
how it will be.
Anyway, I’m out and as usual,
Happy Ramadan-ing : )
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