Ramadan Kareem

The cannons went off at 6 PM last night signaling the start of Ramadan. So that meant I couldn’t do my regular breakfast routine this morning. It will be an adjustment. Its amazing as a society how nearly a continent of people can all be so unified in a religious act of discipline. Now whether you follow Islam or not, you have to respect their unity and singularity of purpose. I wish that Christians had that kind of unity on that broad of a scale. A unity where there would be more of a expectation to live your life according to Biblical precepts. Its seems like in the U.S. it’s the opposite. There is more of expectation to NOT live your life according to Biblical precepts. Maybe that is fueled by the media. I believe at one time the U.S. had more societal pressure to do so. Back 50 years ago (in the salad days…or the good ole days) in the U.S. there was an expectation to stay married, to stay faithful, for kids to avoid partying, to avoid drugs. If you deviated from that norm you were often shunned in society. In just 50 years look how much has changed in the U.S. Is the U.S. better for it? When I walk the malls in Houston, and I peak inside at stores like Abercrombie and Fitch, and the fashion that is being marketed to teenagers, it almost makes me sick to my stomach. Maybe Im just a conservative dad with a teenage daughter or is our society seriously in trouble?

What is interesting from a sociological perspective that the rest of the world seems to idolize Americans and the American way of life. There is great respect and envy for the freedoms with America has. Now I believe that America is the greatest country in the world and Im as patriotic as they come. But what are we offering the world in terms of morality and what is acceptable culturally? So while most of America is down on the Muslims with their seeming rigidity. We should look at what they do right. There is no pornography here…very very very few teenage pregnancies, drug and alcohol abuse almost non-existent, hardly any crime and the people are genuinely very kind and friendly. So you have to ask yourself with those results are the great freedoms that America has to offer working? Now Im in a unique situation in Bahrain where there is a more freedom here than most other Arab countries. We can worship whomever, and whatever we want. Other Arab countries are more restrictive. I think we should as a society study the other cultures in the world and figure out what works and what doesn’t work. We can’t just say our way is right and your way is wrong. If we open up a dialogue we can figure out each other and learn from each other. That is what Im trying to do in this blog, and what I try to do for my Monday night group. I have just as many Muslim readers as I do Christian readers. Hopefully, I’ll be able to use the media to spread the message even further. I just wish that Christians had something besides Christmas and Easter to galvanize us all together. We can learn something from the Muslims.

I tried to challenge myself today. I went Kayaking in the heat of the day, at 12:00. I wanted to see how far I could push myself. I realized that maybe I wasn’t too wise. I had plenty of liquids. How hot was it? Well my block of ice (I freeze my bottled water) was thawed and warm in about 20 minutes. I made it all the way to Muharraq (about 30 min. one way) which is across the bay. Yet on the way back, I was exhausted. I didn’t think I was going to make it back. I had to paddle then stop for 5 minute increments. The heat was really taking its toll on my energy level. It wasn’t dangerous…but it probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do. It was neat, there weren’t a lot of other boats on the water (go figure it was 110 with 65% humidity) but there were American Navy patrol boats. Seeing the boat drive by and waving to the Navy guy brought a certain amount of patriotism. I was proud to be an American connecting with them in that way. So the other arabs knew to stay out during the intense heat (though it might have had something to do with Ramadan as well). Next time I’ll be more careful.