So....
I went back to the thrift store.
I bought all the koala bears.
I waited until Nathan was asleep.
I snuck in his room.
I stuck them all in his bed, next to him, staring his way.
BAAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!! Isn't that funny????
When I came in that morning they were all thrown on the floor. He said they freaked him out when he discovered them. I'm so funny. No really. I am.
So Bo...He is pure raw talent....in all sorts of crazy areas. He was writing his Valentines for his friends when he came up to me and told me he made a new list. And he was going to cross them out on this list when he wrote them on his cards.
Here is his list. He wrote EVERY. SINGLE. NAME in etch a sketch.
Seriously...amazing, right?
We have had some flu stuff going around here. Kate came to remind me AGAIN that she didn't feel well. And she had to pause and have a good little nap on the stairs. :)
She never rolled off. It was impressive.
So my awesome culture class...
Here are a few more things we learned today from it. Today we were discussing some Hinduism reading.
The reading we did was this....The Bhagavadgita (“Song of the Lord”) is an influential Indian religious text. In quasi-dialogue form, it is relatively brief, consisting of 700 verses divided into 18 chapters. When the opposing parties in the Mahabharata war stand ready to begin battle, Arjuna, the hero of the favoured party, despairs at the thought of having to kill his kinsmen and lays down his arms. Krishna, his charioteer, friend, and adviser, thereupon argues against Arjuna’s failure to do his duty as a noble. The argument soon becomes elevated into a general discourse on religious and philosophical matters.
All of these readings (Two a week, usually 30ish pages long each) seriously twists my brain. And then we write a two page out line on them which helps me understand, and then we discuss them for an hour and a half in class. And it is awesome.
So take this for what it is worth and realize some is likely getting lost in translation from class to my notes to my blog. It is just food for thought and not necessarily fact or gospel truth.
So some of the differences between us and the Eastern culture is that we work and work and work so that we can die with lots of money to leave to our children.
They work until they are about 60 and then they give their money to their children while they are still alive. Then they seek the good things in life like spiritualism. Their children will take care of them.
Some other thoughts they believe...
Choice isn't there for you to do whatever you want. Choice is there for you to make the right choice.
We concentrate so much on how we are doing and how we are feeling. They don't do that. The surest way to be unhappy is to sit in your room and think a lot about if you are happy.
Eastern people don't sit around contemplating themselves. They also don't spend time trying to figure out who they are. Who they are is made up of community and they are who the community is.
The one thing about that is they aren't alone. They don't feel alone the way we often times do. Because they're never alone because they have their whole community.
In our country we grow up and move out early and go out to forge our own way in life. We take our spouse and begin our new life with them.
In their culture they bring their spouse and add a new members to their family.
This teacher is so interesting. I really like him and his soft spoken way. He is funny and makes jokes. He is gentle and has smiley eyes. He said that he misses living in the Eastern countries because he had connection with other people.
He talks about how we are often surrounded by people but still feel alone here in America because we are missing that connection.
A lot of time we want people to stop being sad because it make "us" uncomfortable when we are suppose to be mourning with those who mourn.
In our country often times negative emotions separate people.
In the Eastern when you say you are sad they are sad with you and you share it together because you are connected.
I felt this way in my therapist's office. I remember telling him once I knew he couldn't fix my problems. I just needed someone to carry them with me. And he did. And I didn't feel so alone. I felt connected to him. Sometimes people thought that was bad, for some reason it worried people. But he mourned with me. And he wasn't scared of my sadness and he was sad with me. And why is connecting with another human being bad, anyway?
In Eastern countries..... of course you feel something like being connected. When you feel connected it is because you are! That is not a surprise to them.
Then we talked quite a bit about God. And why we do the things we do. Do we do the good and honorable things because we want rewards or blessings? Often.
Often we go to church to get what WE can get from it. It makes "me" feel good. And if we don't get personal gain then we don't want to go. But it is really about going because we can serve there. Or give back.
Are your works the things that earn you redemption? No. your works are the reflection of how you feel for what God has given you.
Salvation is FREE. God's whole intention was to save you from the beginning.
Interesting class!
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