Just Another Day in My Life
One thing leads to another, and a lesson learned.
My friend Holly Jahangiri’s brilliant piece that I mentioned in one of my recent stories received double curation, in Politics and Election 2020. It was her first one. She is new to Medium but has been writing forever, as far as I know.
This morning we had a Messenger chat that started with the news of her curation. Then she asked me about a short video that she had shared on Facebook about Holi, an Indian festival of spring, that was presented as potential religious conflict resolved by the loving nature of human beings for each other regardless. While that seemed like the message, and the script on the video highlighted it, there was a definite subtext to it; Muslims are others, and they are decidedly not tolerant.
I had seen the video on WhatsApp, and I took it in stride, having grown up in India during a different time when the rift between Hindus and Muslims was practically non-existent. However, that was more than half a century ago.
Given that the current government of India is spending millions to vilify Muslims and treating them as second class citizens, using WhatsApp videos and other means, including the media, there is a different context today.
Holly was concerned that it might be offensive to some, or further the divide between Hindus and Muslims. She was considering taking it down.
We don’t know who created or propagated the video, or what their intentions may have been. That led to a discussion about how we never know the aims of the author/creator of a piece and how people can interpret it in any which way they want and often make a mountain out of a molehill.
There were comments on her FB thread that ranged widely, links to Twitter comments, and answers on Quora by others. I wish I could share the thread with you to read and participate in, but the privacy setting on it is for friends only.
We had a lively discussion about the nuances of culture and religion that often get tangled up into misunderstanding and rift. For example, how sometimes people twist themselves into pretzels over the meaning of Christmas. Is it a religious holiday or a cultural celebration combining the traditions of many peoples that were initially a part of the European settlers in North America?
So, why am I sharing this? Why not? It’s another day in the life, and that’s the kind of writing I want to do. I want to share my thoughts and opinions on what life is and what I am learning along the way. I don’t want to limit myself to writing only about things that might have the potential to make money. Holly shares that sentiment and said something to the effect that she doesn’t want to be angry all the time, or be known as a writer about politics. She wants to write fiction.
I said, “You can do both; let one pay for the other.”
Funny how you teach what you need to learn the most.
Life offers us opportunities to learn & live, and live & learn all the time. What we do with those opportunities is up to us.
Last night I had a fantastic experience. I became aware that I was dreaming. They call it lucid dreaming. Yet, I knew it was neither a dream nor it was a lucid one. I was experiencing something else.
I was fully aware of my body and its sensations. While sleeping, I was not asleep. Colors were swirling all around engulfing me, but they were emanating from me. I could hear a motorcycle outside, but it didn’t disrupt this reverie.
It was the weirdest feeling ever, and I felt a deep sense of gratitude. I tried to wake up, but I was not asleep, laying there fully conscious of my body and the surroundings. The experience itself was all-encompassing, reminding me that Grace is beyond the rules and limitations of the world of cause and effect. I remembered thinking about it earlier in the day when I was trying to understand inexplicable events in my life. It was yet another incident I can neither understand nor explain, yet, I cannot deny experiencing it.
Can you relate? Have you ever experienced anything like it? Have you ever been through something that you can neither explain nor deny it’s existence?
If you have, share it in comments. Better still, write about it and tag me so that I can read it.
As I said, it’s just another day in my life, full of weirdness. Thank you for reading.
More Weirdness:
I am a self-proclaimed weirdo, Jack of Many Trades and Master of Some. I live the Freedom Lifestyle — life on my terms, and help those who are interested in doing the same. (email me with Freedom Lifestyle in the subject line)
“You can let others tell you what it means to be successful, or you can decide it for yourself.”
