Higher Calling

Hamza and Husain Abdullah are making headlines this year in the football world.  Not because of their play, but because they are not playing.  They have both decided to sit out the entire 2012 season in order to travel across the country and speak at mosques and eventually both will be making a pilgrimage to Mecca.  They are not the biggest names in the league, they haven't had the most illustrious careers, they are just there.  Playing the game they love and collecting paychecks.  Both are aware that sitting out this year may mean the end of their careers, but they both seem to be okay with it. 

This isn't the first time they have made headlines when it comes to their religion and profession.  Each year they observe Ramadan in which they do not eat or drink for thirty days during the daylight hours.  In an interview from 2010, Husain said: 

"I'm putting nothing before God, nothing before my religion.  This is something I choose to do, not something I have to do. So I'm always going to fast."

This is great for them, their family, and their faith.  They were brought up a certain way and they haven't let football get in the way of that upbringing.  They are being solid pillars within the Muslim communities across the country.  The thing is, this doesn't seem to be a huge story in the sports world.  I only caught wind of it because there wasn't much on early Sunday morning and I stopped to watch Outside the Lines on ESPN.  As I was watching I couldn't help but think of how big a deal this would have been if it had been a huge name in the sport.  The Abdullah brothers have decided to step away from the headlines and the hundreds of thousands of dollars to do what they thought was right.  What they knew they needed to do for their own personal and religious reasons. 

 One player that is lauded for his outspoken religious devotion is Tim Tebow.  Everyone knows that.  Now imagine him putting his career on hold to do mission work for an entire year.  What would ESPN do?!  They wouldn't be able to cover the daily Tim Tebow happenings.  And, just throwing my opinion out there, his leaving the NFL for a year to do that missionary work would be a huge deal because he is a Christian, not because he is a great player.  He is a good athlete, not a good player.  The Abdullah brothers' decision doesn't garner much attention partly because they aren't big name players, but I also think that partly because they are Muslim.

Let's be honest, that last statement is a fact.  Despite the fact that Islam is the second most popular religion in the world, there is an obvious stigma in this country.  No matter how far away from 2001 we get, there is always going to be that second thought in peoples' minds that they connect the religion with an attack, WHICH IS WRONG BY THE WAY!  And there is no way to tip toe around the issue, so that's all I have to say on the subject. 

Religious humor

I don't know what made me think of this today, but it popped into my head and made me chuckle.  Everyone remembers a few months ago when the rapture was suppose to happen, right?  Remember how pretty much everyone was going to be stuck here and not taken into heaven because of the horrible lives we have led?  Okay, now that you are all with me, enjoy this.

In the last week or so in Kansas, I noticed more and more of the 'In god we trust' license plates.  Which is fine.  If that's your thing, that's your thing.  Just don't push it on anyone else.  That's not the humorous part.  Around the license plate, the license plate holder thingy that people buy that usually has a sports team or an annoying phrase like 'princess' or 'you wouldn't understand, it's a rich person thing', there was the phrase 'in the event of rapture, vehicle will be unoccupied'. 

Knowing where I was at, I knew that this person had to have bought it half as a joke and more than likely half being serious. 





And I don't know which is scarier. 

The end is nigh....or not

This was just spoken on live television during the Royals/Cardinals game referring to umpires Angel Hernandez and Angel Campos:

'With the end of times predicted for today, it's nice to know we have two Angels on the field.'

You know your religious thoughts and predictions are a joke when sportscasters are poking fun at you.





Idiots.

What if...(part one)

*This subject is broken up into two entries.*

I've been trying to figure out the best way to write about this subject and haven't found the perfect way or the most intellectual way to go about it. I first thought about this subject because of the Marvel comic 'What if....' (weird, I know, but read on) which explores the comic world if different situations happened or didn't happen. So, I took this and thought about my schooling background. I took the the 'what if' situations and applied it to historical people. Most minds immediately go towards John Kennedy. What if he hadn't been assassinated. Same thing with Abraham Lincoln. I tend to think of different people throughout history. Personally, I think JFK would have faltered if he was not assassinated. He thought with the wrong head.

I want to explore two people. Robert Kennedy and Thomas Paine. Paine lived out a full life dying at the age of seventy two. Kennedy, obviously, did not being killed at the age of forty two. Buckle up people, this shit is about to get heavy.

Thomas Paine is someone that I knew about while in high school and in college but I never really explored and looking back at it, I wish I had. It may have changed my outlook on life or certain aspects of it. I never really thought someone who was considered a founding father would also be considered a radical. Revolutionary? Yes, but a radical? Not so much. Radicals are usually thought of as 'bad guys'. Crazy people that live up in the hills of the country. Making moonshine. When talking about the forming of this country, what names come to mind? Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, (maybe) Madison. And those are just a few. Paine should be introduced early and often in schools. And maybe he is, but he just wasn't in my high school. Thomas Paine, to me in school, wrote a pamphlet or two. It was a historical footnote to me. Then I read his writings. Common Sense, Age of Reason, and Rights of Man are what he is famous for. They blew my mind. They rate up there with the Communist Manifesto. It is on that level. If he hadn't been born, what would our world be like? It may not be very different today, but when he was alive and kickin', that is a different story. He was the crazy guy writing above everyone else. He is the reason Deism even exists (in my opinion). He carried it on when other guys no one has ever heard of died off. Deism needs to become more prevalent in today's society. It can resolve some major issues (but this is another entry all together). I like the thought of Deism, but don't tell my mom (HI MOM!! :o))

Had he never lived or never written, I think that the world may be a little bit of a darker place. Even if you don't agree with what he stands for or what he has written, it is worth taking a look. At the least, it is enlightening. It is in no real way controversial. It was just his outlook on life. Had he not lived or written, I may not be the person I am today. Sure I would have the same thoughts and outlooks on certain things, but I could be less....thoughtful. I don't know if that is the word I want to use, but that is the word that came to mind. I wouldn't be as conscience of things.

His influences are far reaching. He delved into politics, religion, and daily life. Nothing was off limits. He influenced people like Thomas Jefferson. Abraham Lincoln. Even Thomas Edison. Who knew. His outlook on life and religion have even influenced me. There is a sentence that after I read it, I kind of adopted it as my life motto. It has worked out well for me living in the state of Kansas as religions as it is. Religion is a very volatile subject no matter who you talk to. I leave you with the sentence that really grabbed my attention to Thomas Paine and honestly made me rethink some aspects of my life:



'My own mind is my own church.' -Thomas Paine "The Age of Reason"

reflective moments: engaging or vomit worthy?

I don't know why I just thought about this, but have you ever wondered how you got to this spot in life? I'm talking about right now, this very instant. Every aspect of your life, love life, work life, life life. How do we arrive at this point? I guess this came into my mind a couple of days ago talking about calling Kansas home.

I guess I'll start with school. A and I agreed we would move to wherever the first fitting job came to. So that is how we ended up here. Her degree was a bit more marketable in the bachelor sense. Mine, not so much in the bachelor sense...mine is more fitted for masters or ever phd...but I don't have the patience to sit in school for all those years. Plus, I don't think of myself as the smartest person in the world, and I don't think I could have handled all the stress and even more learning. I would have gone insane. So we moved away from Michigan (sadly) and from family (even sadder).

Moving out meant having to take on more responsibility and the whatnot. Now one thing that was a weekly routine for me living at home was church. Every weekend we would go. I understand the importance of it to people and even the importance of the 'great mysteries' in life. But my adult mind doesn't really work that way. I need to see the hard evidence. So I don't go to church anymore. Heartbreaking to my family, I'm sure. But I just can't find a reason to go...any questions I have, I have answers to.

Living in my mid-twenties the way the world is right now, can make you either angry towards the government or venegful towards those who question authority. I would like to say that I have a distinct political value to my life, but I don't. I don't let people tell me what to think. I try my hardest to listen to issues and choose whichever I see fit. Most times, I don't give a shit. Some of the things people get up in arms about is just rediculous. To follow a political figure based on what they believe in (be in war, marriage, abortion [just a few hot topic issues]) isn't being mindful, it is being a sheep. Just being a follower. Don't settle for what someone wants you to think. Think for yourselves. I don't have all the answers to political bullshit. I don't follow it. I just listen every once in a while and base my opinions on that.

So here I sit, four days after I turned twenty-six. The youngest (or close to it) in both groups of friends I have. I find myself enjoying my job (for the most part). I can't stand the turn over rate at work, it puts a shit ton of stress on me while I'm there. I do have days when the alarm goes off at five o'clock (yes, five o'clock) and I just want to call in. But I have the thought of having to go in the next day and make up for the work that didn't get done on the day I called in. So I deal with it. Eventually, and I don't know when, that aspect of work will smooth out for me. Not everyone can be millionaires doing lines of coke off of dead hookers, some of us have to get in the work trenches and deal with shit.



Unfortunately, I am a foot soldier for the working world.

keep your religion off your bumper and mine

I'm just going to throw this out there and get it out of the way...religion is pissing me off. I'm sick of those fucking jesus fish on the backs of cars, and sick of the darwin fish, or the jesus fish eating the darwin fish, or the darwin fish eating the jesus fish, or the darwin fish eating the jesus fish that is eating...get my point? SICK OF IT I highly doubt that the person behind you cares if you believe in evolution or creation. They only care that you get off the phone. It's not going to change someone's mind. 'Hang on, maybe evolution did happen because that person has a fish that has legs on their bumper.' I surely hope that is not the thought process as people put that shit on their bumpers.

I do have a little wiggle room to talk about this. I openly admit, I do have three stickers on the back of The Jeep. And all have a good reason.

sticker 1: 'Marxists get crazy laid' Obviously I have a man crush on Karl Marx, its the wicked beard. I have his most popular book, I titled this whole reading and typing experiment after said book, and I own a sticker with an entire political theory based on him on my vehicle. Plus, it makes people read it a couple of times and still won't get it. He developed the greatest government (in theory) in communism: you really can't predict the greed of an entire nation...or can you?, and his development of communism led to several key events in our history in the United States, just within the last fifty years:

• The Korean War
• The Vietnam War
• The Cold War
• Our landing on the moon (we were trying to beat the Soviets there, for what I do not really know. Maybe moon rocks)
  
• Cuban missle crisis
• Fidel Castro
• Our supplying upstart Al Queda against the Soviets in Afghanistan (didn't see that end game, did we? Oops)
  

The list goes on. Think of everything that may not have happened if Karl Marx had never been born.


sticker 2: 'Don't tread on me' A wonderful statement to come out of the American Revolution. This can be applied to our current state of affairs. I try to avoid politics and the war, but this is a great thought for anyone trying to persuade someone towards the left or right.

sticker 3: 'Unamerican' Don't get me wrong, I enjoy living in this country. However, there is that great running joke revolving around that if you go outside of the North American continent, just claim to be Canadian, and I feel like doing that ALL THE TIME. People blame george bush for our current state of affairs, and rightly so, but don't forget about the rest of the politicans who either back him or didn't fight hard enough to get their agendas pushed through. In all honesty, I have lost faith in the american way. It is too commerical, for lack of a better word. It revolves heavily on what you own (for example, do soccer moms really need that H2 or yukon?) and unfortunately that is what people notice.

It'll be twenty years down the road before china takes over as 'world power', but let them have it now and let's go back to an isolationist practice until Germany tries to take over the world again.


One last thing. If it were not against some law (which I'm sure it is one), I would rip off every single bumper sticker that dealt with the 'one man + one woman = marriage' every single mother fucker that has that on their car needs to get beat. Marriage is for everyone.