Just to share with you a small part of the wonders I sometimes have to read for my classes. I read this while the last 2,5 minutes of Coldplay - Fix You was playing in the background.
Murray Rogers, Anglican priest who has spent over forty years in Asia and the Middle East, on those he encountered of a different faith:
"I gladly share, without fear of disloyalty to Christ, their treasures of experience, their perceptions of the Mystery, their ways of breathing the Reality beyond all name and form. 'I' and 'they' have almost disappeared and in their place it is 'we'. No longer am I driven to fight crusades to bring 'them' over to 'my' side, as if Christ were on 'my' side. Fanaticism, including Christian fanaticism, is seen to be what in fact it always is, an appalling insult to the Divine Mystery lying beyond and within creation."
Monday, 9 March 2009
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Strengthening your faith
"Will this world SURVIVE?"
it says, on the front of the little flyer the lady's hand is holding out to me.
I am walking home from class with a big bag of groceries and I see a lady walking towards me on the sidewalk. Just a normal, friendly looking lady with a bit of an eccentric coat on. When she is within 2 metres range of me she magically conjures a flyer out of nothing and stands still next to me. I yank my iPod out of my ears and listen to her.
I do that. My mom calls me when she sees 'religious' people walking up to our front door. "Selmaaaa, you take them." I enjoy talking to them. Or letting them talk to me. I don't know why. I'm interested. Not in becoming a Mormon/Jehovas witness/Hare Krishna/whatever, but in why they are.
Just before this encounter with the lady in the street we had talked about the 'strengtening of your faith' in class. Public displays of faith are not primarily to prove something to others or to convince someone else of your beliefs. Their primary function is to strengthen you own faith. New (voluntary!) women converts to Islam need some time to come to terms with their own religiosity. Wearing hijab (a headscarf)in public for the first time needs conviction. It means showing the world that you are a muslim. You are muslim. You remind yourself of that.
The same can be said of those that go from door to door or dance and sing in the streets. We usually think they are doing it to gain converts. And at one point you might think: "Don't they get tired of it? Probably no one ever says, Yeah sure I'll become a Mormon tomorrow".
But that's not the primary point. The simple activity of going out and telling others what you believe makes you aware of your own religiosity. It strengthens your faith. You think about what you believe, about God and the world and about how you think you could make it a better place. Or at least about how it has made the world a better place for you. Why not listen to them, let them speak? As long as the message is about love and peace, why not?
She smiles at me, the lady with the eccentric coat. I take the flyer from her and say "Thank you".
"Don't worry', she says,'The front sounds a bit ominous, but it has a good ending"
And for her it does.
it says, on the front of the little flyer the lady's hand is holding out to me.
I am walking home from class with a big bag of groceries and I see a lady walking towards me on the sidewalk. Just a normal, friendly looking lady with a bit of an eccentric coat on. When she is within 2 metres range of me she magically conjures a flyer out of nothing and stands still next to me. I yank my iPod out of my ears and listen to her.
I do that. My mom calls me when she sees 'religious' people walking up to our front door. "Selmaaaa, you take them." I enjoy talking to them. Or letting them talk to me. I don't know why. I'm interested. Not in becoming a Mormon/Jehovas witness/Hare Krishna/whatever, but in why they are.
Just before this encounter with the lady in the street we had talked about the 'strengtening of your faith' in class. Public displays of faith are not primarily to prove something to others or to convince someone else of your beliefs. Their primary function is to strengthen you own faith. New (voluntary!) women converts to Islam need some time to come to terms with their own religiosity. Wearing hijab (a headscarf)in public for the first time needs conviction. It means showing the world that you are a muslim. You are muslim. You remind yourself of that.
The same can be said of those that go from door to door or dance and sing in the streets. We usually think they are doing it to gain converts. And at one point you might think: "Don't they get tired of it? Probably no one ever says, Yeah sure I'll become a Mormon tomorrow".
But that's not the primary point. The simple activity of going out and telling others what you believe makes you aware of your own religiosity. It strengthens your faith. You think about what you believe, about God and the world and about how you think you could make it a better place. Or at least about how it has made the world a better place for you. Why not listen to them, let them speak? As long as the message is about love and peace, why not?
She smiles at me, the lady with the eccentric coat. I take the flyer from her and say "Thank you".
"Don't worry', she says,'The front sounds a bit ominous, but it has a good ending"
And for her it does.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Scotland map
As I just came back from Holland with a massive cold, resulting in stabbing pain in my ears during the flight and fear of permanent damage (since I still can't hear much)I have decided I'm ill until further notice.
Obviously I had enough of lying in my bed after one day, so today map-making has made it's entry: Hurrah!
The little gadget posted below is just to show you where I've been doing the things I've been blogging about and to recommend nice places to visit, eat, sleep etc. It's still a work in progress, so not all of what I want to show you is tagged yet (especially nog in Glasgow city) I'm also working on putting in pictures of the different places. Have fun looking at my world :)
Grotere kaart weergeven
Obviously I had enough of lying in my bed after one day, so today map-making has made it's entry: Hurrah!
The little gadget posted below is just to show you where I've been doing the things I've been blogging about and to recommend nice places to visit, eat, sleep etc. It's still a work in progress, so not all of what I want to show you is tagged yet (especially nog in Glasgow city) I'm also working on putting in pictures of the different places. Have fun looking at my world :)
Grotere kaart weergeven
Monday, 23 February 2009
Winter in Glasgow
The most hilarious snowman ever.A couple of weeks ago (or was it even last week..?) that seemed very far away indeed.
Here are some pictures to show you what Glasgow looks like in winter and how creative people get with snow....
Botanics
I love the look on his face! And the leaf-hairdo :-)
View from my windowFriday, 20 February 2009
En toen kwam er wéér iemand langs :)
Naast de redelijk opkomende essay stress is er hier gelukkig altijd nog wel iets SOGgends te beleven. Zoals bijvoorbeeld het bezoek van de 15 jarige zoon van mijn moeders beste vriendin (het klinkt ingewikkeld, maar dat is het niet). Reynier had al sinds ik hier ging wonen tegen zijn moeder gezegd dat hij bij mij zou komen logeren. Moeders had mij dus maar even daarvan op de hoogte gesteld en voilá: het werd geregeld.
Ik zou hem zondagochtend ophalen op het vliegveld, dus ik bedacht fijn budget-wise met de bus heen te gaan en met de taxi terug te komen. Mijn bus was natuurlijk te langzaam, ik miste mijn aansluiting en Reynier was te vroeg...lekker dan. Hij belde me toen ik midden in het centrum van Glasgow op mijn tweede bus stond te wachten.
Sja...ik kan er pas met 20 minuten zijn, terwijl hij met 10 minuten met een taxi bij mij thuis is. Dus ik vraag hem of hij geld heeft voor de taxi: "ja natuurlijk". Okee, ik stuur hem mijn adres in een smsje en ren naar de metro om weer naar de West End te komen. Vanaf het metrostation zal ik dan wel een taxi naar huis nemen. Hopelijk ben ik er dan tegelijkertijd met hem. In het metrostation (waar ik normaal nooit bereik heb...danku kosmos) gaat mijn telefoon: "eh dat adres moet ik nu wel hebben, want ik zit in de taxi en we zijn al bijna bij de West End". Smsje is dus nooit aangekomen..na wat taal moeilijkheden en herhalingsoefeningen begrijpt de taxi chauffeur dan eindelijk waar hij heen moet. Gelukkig net op tijd, want daar is mijn metro.
Aangekomen op Byres road is daar geen taxi te vinden....goeie, danku kosmos. Ik begin dus de 20 min wandeltocht naar huis, en wordt (vlak voor de RBS, danku kosmos) gebeld: "eh...we zijn er bijna maar ik was even vergeten dat ik alleen euro's bij me heb, en geen ponden"
Oh
Gelukkig stopt de taxi en geeft Reynier maar als laatste redmiddel de telefoon aan de taxi chaufffeur: "Hiya, I'm really very sorry bu the boy seems to no have any pounds on 'im. Could you maybe, please, take 'im down to Byres' so you cou take both of us up an I can pay for his ride?"
"Sure love, where are ye?"
Pff...
Dus, geld uit de pin, wachten op de taxi. Krijg ik een sms van mn moeder: "Hoi! Margriet (moeder van R) en ik zitten lekker aan de koffie. Alles goed gegaan? Hebben jullie elkaar al gevonden?"
Goeie, kosmos.
"Eh..we zitten nu even in een stressvolle situatie, als je me over een half uur in mn kamer belt hoop ik er te zijn...."
En daar is de taxi. *zucht*
Reynier is onder de indruk van mijn schotse accent, hij had geen woord van de arme man verstaan, haha.
Goed, gelukkig staat dit redelijk stressvolle begin niet symbool voor al zijn dagen hier :) Het was super leuk. Voetbal en rugby gekeken, de stad bekeken, botanics, uni, filmpje gekeken in de hoogste bios van eurpa, bij Annemieke en Duncan gegeten en een dag een mini tour van Schotland gedaan onder leiding van mijn lieve college genote Shannie.
Die dag is trouwens en blog op zichzelf waard, zij blijkt echt in het mooiste huis OOIT te wonen! Met een uitzicht waar ik in het donker al van ging kwijlen, alsook van de Aga...
Ik hoop er nog eens naartoe te kunnen om met daglicht foto's te maken, hier eventjes eentje in de schemering:
Wow....de jongste zoon heeft ons ook even in zijn (ZIJN, ja) giga zwarte jeep met MEGA geluidssysteem terug naar Glasgow gereden. De terugweg woensdag naar het vliegveld ging trouwens een stuk soepeler, haha.
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Januari, visitors!
Glasgow central station....zie de verbazing in mijn gezicht. Wát?The other half of Januari was filled with visitors! Hurray! My boyfriend and my best friend were here, with only 24 hours in between :)
I need to read a LOT for class now, so I'll just give you an impression of the fun through some pictures.
I need to read a LOT for class now, so I'll just give you an impression of the fun through some pictures.
Me and my uni
Hurrah! Coooos!
Hihihihi
Pollok house
Rest and be Thankful valley
Fortune telling fish and Christmas hats!
Tarbert and it's castle :)
The lovely couches at the HubI am in love with those couces...with couches in general. I don't have a couch in my appartment. I could cry....
Monday, 9 February 2009
Januari, academia
Wow...that month flew by...
In between all that time that I had people over (tell you about that later)my classes started again.
I am now taking an extra curricular class in Religion in Society. I wanted to take this class in stead of my Sacred Texts class, but since I was told in September I wasn't allowed, I didn't.
Unfortunately i found out in December that i could have taken my electives outside of the department, but that by then it was too late to do so. Sucks to be you, you're stuck with hermeneutics...thanks.
So now, just to piss off everyone in my department :), i'm taking it anyway! I can't use the credits for my degree, but the actual information discussed in class will be 1000 times more useful for my dissertation than random rambling about God in literature. (no offence :) it's just not my thing)
The Religion in Society class is actually an anthropology of religion class, with some sociology thrown in. Oh wait, wasn't that what I wanted to be doing all the time now? So I'm enjoying it :) Very much so. It's just good to be in a class where you actually know the names that pass in the conversation (Durkheim: check, Geertz: check) minor annoyance is that most of the other people taking the class haven't taken classes in religion or anthropology before. But they are all very nice and do see all of it with social science eyes, which is a welcome change from the horde of theologians that I spend most my time (classwise) with.
Before the start of the first class a student came in (I was obviously already there, excited :)) and said: I wonder if there is actually going to be a religious person in this class, that would be so interesting. (as a sidenote: this guy is ruthlessly atheist, thinks everyone who remotely believes in anything is an idiot and is, as far as I can see, definitely gay (or latently so.) Now read the previous scentence again, adding the image described above....)
I said: Well I'd rather that there isn't. That would be a welcome change of scenery for me.
This new classmate then could hardly believe there would be anyone within a university who can seriously ask in class, after reading a text on religious pluralism, how that text could be used to prove Christianity's superiority over other religions. (Which obviously happened in my first semester...I stared at him)
So! I love my social science detox moment of the week, my classmates are nice and more importantly: of the same age as me. The teacher is good (ie, fills most of her class with examples from her own research in...uh Peru(?)) and friendly. I think I have to go and talk to her about my dissertation research.
About that dissertation...my plans are starting to become more concrete. I have a supervisor now and she is very enthousiastic about sending me to Surinam for two months to look at the Inter-faith relations in paramaribo. Score :)
Hopefully accomodation and ethics board permission follow this month. That would mean that I'll be moving back to Holland in May, only to 'move' to Surinam at the end of that month. I'm already dreaming about sunshine and Roti.
Soko,soko!
In between all that time that I had people over (tell you about that later)my classes started again.
I am now taking an extra curricular class in Religion in Society. I wanted to take this class in stead of my Sacred Texts class, but since I was told in September I wasn't allowed, I didn't.
Unfortunately i found out in December that i could have taken my electives outside of the department, but that by then it was too late to do so. Sucks to be you, you're stuck with hermeneutics...thanks.
So now, just to piss off everyone in my department :), i'm taking it anyway! I can't use the credits for my degree, but the actual information discussed in class will be 1000 times more useful for my dissertation than random rambling about God in literature. (no offence :) it's just not my thing)
The Religion in Society class is actually an anthropology of religion class, with some sociology thrown in. Oh wait, wasn't that what I wanted to be doing all the time now? So I'm enjoying it :) Very much so. It's just good to be in a class where you actually know the names that pass in the conversation (Durkheim: check, Geertz: check) minor annoyance is that most of the other people taking the class haven't taken classes in religion or anthropology before. But they are all very nice and do see all of it with social science eyes, which is a welcome change from the horde of theologians that I spend most my time (classwise) with.
Before the start of the first class a student came in (I was obviously already there, excited :)) and said: I wonder if there is actually going to be a religious person in this class, that would be so interesting. (as a sidenote: this guy is ruthlessly atheist, thinks everyone who remotely believes in anything is an idiot and is, as far as I can see, definitely gay (or latently so.) Now read the previous scentence again, adding the image described above....)
I said: Well I'd rather that there isn't. That would be a welcome change of scenery for me.
This new classmate then could hardly believe there would be anyone within a university who can seriously ask in class, after reading a text on religious pluralism, how that text could be used to prove Christianity's superiority over other religions. (Which obviously happened in my first semester...I stared at him)
So! I love my social science detox moment of the week, my classmates are nice and more importantly: of the same age as me. The teacher is good (ie, fills most of her class with examples from her own research in...uh Peru(?)) and friendly. I think I have to go and talk to her about my dissertation research.
About that dissertation...my plans are starting to become more concrete. I have a supervisor now and she is very enthousiastic about sending me to Surinam for two months to look at the Inter-faith relations in paramaribo. Score :)
Hopefully accomodation and ethics board permission follow this month. That would mean that I'll be moving back to Holland in May, only to 'move' to Surinam at the end of that month. I'm already dreaming about sunshine and Roti.
Soko,soko!
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