Travel : Random : “What if God was one of us?”

Chris was the second smallest guy among us. It was also Chris who broke the myth about the relation between alcohol consumption and body mass after he defeated everyone in every alcohol/beer contest. It was that Chris who argued that he could prove evolution did not exist by using mathematical equations. It’s very understandable when Chris told people that he is an atheist.

Once, I seriously thought whether I should declare myself as an atheist after deciding that like everybody else I, too, wanted to go to heaven.

“How in the world do being an atheist and going to heaven relate to each other�?, you may ask?

Well, one of my friend asked me if hell was going to get hotter or colder in the future, and after a while staring at me biting my toe nails, he said: “Hell will get hotter and hotter because there will be a lot of body heat. I think that because everyone will tell the other people from different religion to go to hell and vice versa. That means everybody will end up in hell.�?

It made some sense and I laughed hearitly, and still my head was still intact.

If I am an atheist, then I’m more likely to go to heaven than the rest of the human race.

Like my man John Kerry who has an issue of political flip-flop, I also had a history of religious flip-flop dated back to the ribbon-tied-hair five years old when I tried to convinced my family to let me convert to Catholic after listening and singing the choir with a neighbor family. My serious proposal passed through my mom and my dad but failed miserably as my grandmother whopped me on my little butt scolding that I should be proud of and follow the family religion; I am Buddhist by the way.

Not gave up that easily, I still went behind my family’ back to sing songs about Mother Maria and Jesus Christ went with my aunt for a Catholic Mass at a church far away from home. No, I did not forget about my own religious duty at all. I went to a Buddhist temple in the neighborhood and showed my grace every chance I got, skipped school to be with the Buddha and other old women, praying in some language I could not even understand. I thought they were very funny because there was a lot of “r�? sound: a ma ha ra ba ra ba ra at da da da …

The older I get, the more gullible I become as I believe whatever people say and hold whatever belief that they hold. So for a moment, in my world, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Ave Maria, Judas, Mohammed, Saint Alla, Hindu’s many gods, Emperor of Jade all coexist and contently do their routine duties. (I am not so sure what they exactly they are doing, except that they make a lot of people happy.) So I decided that perhaps I should switch to the Cao Dai religion since they believe and worship all saints, gods, fairies.

I went to college. There, they taught me that Buddhism is more or less a philosophy, instead of a religion. We pray with the Buddha, not to him and we don’t ask Buddha for anything because he isn’t god.

They got me for a moment there because I felt I just lost a major support.

“Who am I going to ask for good health now? Who am I going to ask for a good-paying job now? Who am I going to ask for a good-looking boyfriend now? I have no god?�?

After awhile, I made peace with the new knowledge and felt quite content because if the Buddha doesn’t have the power to grant me things then he doesn’t have the power to take things away from me or punish me either. Instead of being that mighty serious God, he is more like a counselor, a big brother who gives me some sort of guidance and moral support.

“Phew, what a break!�?

Don’t you agree though? We tend to be scared and make a big deal over things we thought powerful and larger than life, while fussing over triviality and the ordinary.

If there is no such things as heaven and hell.

If those supreme powerful big men and women from up there–I don’t know where– are not deemed to have the absolute authority to grant us our current lives and the consequent lives after here.

If they are only considered to be immensely great counselors to share our grief, to listen to our troubles, to give us advice, and to offer their shoulders in case we want to cry.

If they have to be the supernatural someone who sit miles and miles above for us to use them as a reason for every single decision we make for ourselves and others, moral or immoral; for every fight we engage in, justified or unjustified; for every misdeed and good deed we deliberately or unintentionally commit.

All of those fears would disappear right? We would relax and not sweat nor scared anymore if only God was one of us.

12/24/05

Music: What if god was one of us ? – Joan Osborne

“Jett sett”

Guess what! I woke up one morning walking the same path from home to work. I stopped by the newspaper stand by the bridge across the city's river and found myself on a woman magazine, Azra, of Sarajevo.

 

Okay, you got me there. I knew my story would be in this issue. Sajda, the one you see in the picture, told me when she got my interview answer from me to give them to the journalist, who happened to be her friend from the faculty. This is cool! I never thought my story would be that interesting to be put on a magazine. My reserved and somewhat introvert nature makes it a little bit strange to encounter this sort of matter.
But what the heck! I will enjoy my one day "celebrity" experience.

So that is my story for today: my face is blatantly on two pages of a city magazine, and I learn a new word: "jett sett" means "elite".

Sorry for my sudden vanity, shallowness, and snob. I'm not like this "all the time", but this is such rare occasion, I have to make an exception for myself.

Cao!