Well the holiday season is over and I am 100% guilty of being incredibly indulgent not only with baked goods, cheeses and yes even white, crusty bread but also copious amounts of wine. Add to that a good dose of laziness and finding every excuse not to get to the gym and I am officially a glutton. No mind. It will be back to grilled chicken and raw zucchini tomorrow once the kids are back in school and I am back to my old routines.
So in the course of becoming a sommelier consumption engineer-like that? I have had a lot of time to read some good books. Unfortunately, as a hazard of being a Language Arts teacher, I often not only analyze those pieces of literature but also make connections to my life. Introspection can often get in the way of fluff and ignorant bliss. I have just finished the novel Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald on the suggestion of a good friend. The quick premise of the book is about a protagonist who has gone to India once and hated it but is forced to go back years later. She ends up going on this intense spiritual journey to find herself. As I read the first few pages I was almost laughing out loud about haw raw she is when describing the hardships of India and I immediately connect with the character. In my head I am thinking, “ This woman is saying in print everything I would love to write without tempering or softening the blow.” Unfortunately page after page leads her further down this search for her true spirituality and the story becomes more and more serious. So as I finish this book a little disappointed that it didn’t stay raw and in your face, I am forced to look at my own understanding of my reaction to the book.
I didn’t feel like maybe I should go on a spiritual journey or admire the woman for looking deeper into her soul, I actually just felt like “ Well that’s a waste of a read.” Sad but true. I started to think that maybe I really am just a superficial, spa-loving, shoe-shopping, hair-product buying sad excuse for an expat. But I do love my Nine West Temple. However I continued to think about my reaction to religion as illustrated in this book and realized that it started way before India and instead of India initiating a religious, spiritual journey it has only confirmed my original ideas.
Years ago in my university days, where I began my journey to become a sommelier consumption engineer, I decided that maybe I needed to figure out what this whole religion thing was about. My mother is a firm Anglican who believes in God, taught Sunday school in her youth, and to this day meets up at the church with her friends to knit hats for the poor and bake for holiday bazaars. My father not so much. He is the consummate, academic who worked as a classics professor at the university and strongly believes in the whole philosophy that ‘facts don’t lie and everything else is rubbish. When I was young I went to Sunday school to learn about god but that only lasted for a few years and it soon became dull. After that religion fell off the face of the earth for me.
So while in Uni, I went on my own voyage to figure out what the fuss with religion was about. I went to different churches, read biblical and religious works from a number of faiths and talked to friends. What did I discover you ask? Well initially I was impressed with people’s blind faith in a higher power but I soon realized that although people said they believed in god it was also joined with a great deal of hypocrisy. Many people sit in church, temples, mosques, and prayer but soon forget when beliefs don’t coordinate with wants and needs. Or they find a way to justify a choice under the guise of forgiveness. This did not make sense to me then and it certainly doesn’t now. To me any belief is a great one so long as it guides an individual to make good choices. End stop. One religion is not better than the other but certainly there seems to be a huge difference in believers.
So in my adventures here in Mumbai I discovered that Indians quickly define themselves as a great country because people of all faiths and religions can live together peacefully. Muslims, Christians, Catholics, Hindus and Buddhist all live in this over populated, crowded city and on the surface they do it well. But there are cracks.
My first driver Sayed, was a self professed good Muslim man who didn’t smoke or drink, completed his ablutions faithfully and went to mosque for prayer regularly. But I’ll tell you, he was the first to look for a way to ‘fool madam’ and make a few bucks. As you can imagine he did not last long and now we have Javed. Now Javed is also a good Muslim man but he walks the walk. He is proud and quiet, eager to help me out, goes to mosque every Friday without fail. I have never felt like he has taken advantage of our generosity and so ultimately he would qualify as a good believer. However, on a dime, he will turn around and punch someone in the face who has rammed his car into the back of ours as a form of vigilante justice. Then there is my maid who is a devout Christian who again is quiet and proud. Within the first few weeks of her employment she asked about whether I believed in God and did I know I needed to be saved by Jesus. As nicely and calmly as I could I told her my beliefs , which she was horrified with and preceded to give me a new bible the next day. Currently, we have a silent understanding that we don’t speak of it but every so often I find a mysterious piece of religious literature hanging around the house. Again, she would qualify as a good believer except that she has decided that she doesn’t like Muslims- any Muslims whether they are nice or not.
This hypocrisy is everywhere in India and I do not judge them. They are working under the umbrella of survival and things need to be done to live. Realistic yes. Inspiring no.
In 3rd year university, I read a book called Pilgrims Progress, which, ironically is a Christian allegory from the 1600s and an image from this remains in my head to this day. It is a picture of a tree where each branch represents a moral of life- honesty, loyalty, commitment, love, hope and that every individual’s goal in life is to aspire to these morals. Branches grow from their youth and are nurtured by those around but inevitably some will break along the way. However the beauty of nature is that broken branches grow back often stronger than before and will still produce flowers and fruit throughout the seasons. This tree keeps me grounded and on the right path and although I have had my fair share of broken branches I have also produced some sweet, sweet fruit and am waiting for a new season.
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