My Dear, if few, readers,
As you know, I've had significant change in my life recently. My husband, the unfairly clever (see his fanpage on Facebook: Smartest Man in the Universe) Robbie Charles Fry, passed away from cancer on August 31st of this year. He didn't believe in an afterlife, but my daughter and I like to imagine him in a world with unlimited access to chalk, Springer-Verlag publications, and 24hr free pizza delivery. We miss him terribly; no one can replace him, and yet we must keep living, and even writing.
To that end...
Today is the beginning of Eid Al Fitr - and a fasting day for Muslims. Tomorrow, many of my students will celebrate their New Year, and the end of Ramadan. I am not Muslim, nor fasting, but I feel a sense of solidarity with the Muslim world on this day. My own culture (Canadian) and religious tradition (Christian - in my case, agnostic, but still like to think about Baby Jesus at Christmastime) - would benefit from a little more emphasis on austerity - at least a day or two when we rest from acquisition and display. That word, austerity, is much in the news these days. 'Austerity measures', enforced by governments to try to rescue faltering economies, seem to be de rigueur. But what would it mean to actually live more simply and less adorned? What would it mean to give something up - even for a day?
We 'celebrated' Halloween last week. Candy, costumes, and on my street, houses (including mine) covered in all the trappings Wal-Mart can provide: battery operated spiders, sparkling inflatable pumpkins, day-of-the-dead style purple skulls, etc. And soon, well actually yesterday, the race to Christmasize (my new word) the city, my neighbourhood, will begin. There is no day of self-sacrifice, nor one moment of 'austerity' prescribed by my 'culture'. Someone had a go at a 'buy-nothing' day - good try, but a bit limp.
So, here is the thing. I suddenly find myself somewhat free of financial worries. I can buy more stuff. I can pay to have someone hang the Christmas lights, and someone else to microderabrase (also mine) my sagging skin. Yet, there has not been a day of fasting, if you will, to make the promise of abundance taste sweet. Instead of decorating the house, or myself, this November, I will endeavour to do the opposite - subtract from the cache in order to share, simplify the routines in order to have more time for real productivity, and real connections. Maybe there will even be time to write!
Just remembered, I'm taking a holiday to West Edmonton Mall later this month. Dang it.
Happy Eid everyone. It's good to be back.
PF
3 comments:
Hi Pam,
Great to hear a positive note in your voice - welcome back! You've had a heck of a journey of late.
Joe
Thanks Joe! Appreciate you taking the time to read. XXP
Pamela, so wonderful to hear your voice again. We are looking forward to having you back next semester.
An afterlife...now there is an fascinating idea. What if we are buried alive in physical bodies, as tools to naviagate and manipulate and transform a physical dimension, but none of it is real?
I had a ride with a horse shoer once who had treatment from a healer in the Phillippines--it's so unscientific, but the experience he had convinced him. The healer in a deep state of meditation reached into his body as if the skin and tissues were no more solid than the surface tension on a cup of coffee, through which we put a spoon. He removed the tissue of a tumour near the man's spine, in a place that his doctors had said was too dangerous to operate. Since then, the man had returned to active life, apparently healed.
But of course, the Chesire Cat can't tell Alice where to go--Alice is building her own road, where no one has walked before. Every road leads up the mountain.
Janis
http://janisgoad.hubpages.com/
Post a Comment