X-mas Reflections –Part 2

Back home, it's Christmas eve.

Here in Malaysia, it's Monday morning but not a normal Monday morning.

It's a national holiday.
For me, it's just another day.
I normally don't work on Mondays.

No, I don’t celebrate it anymore and I don’t have the same jaded view of it that I had as a child. I once read in a bible that we should not copy the pagans by going into the forest and chopping down a tree then decorating it with gold and silver…I believe I read this in Leviticus. I can't tell you which version of the Bible I read it in. (I wonder how many versions there are) Nothing in the bible says to celebrate his birth. He never told his disciples to celebrate his birthday. There are many Christians who don’t even celebrate Christmas so I don’t see it as a religious holiday.

Maybe some would say I think this because I am not a Christian and I am somehow confused, however, there is no conflict inside me about it. Muslims love the prophet Jesus , peace be upon him. Because most of my family and colleagues/friends celebrate Christmas, it does find its way into my life and I can't escape it. I live in a Muslim majority country but there is a tree bigger than the one in Rockefeller center in the KLCC Suria mall at Petronas Towers. I rush past it (I find malls gaudy anytime of year). Then when I reach my destination, I don't wish people merry christmas, and I find it comical that people wish it to me knowing that I am a Muslim. I look at this day without any spiritual confusion. The reality is that there are many faiths in this world and we are all sharing this earth. I like to focus on what we have in common.

It’s all peaceful for me. You see, I believe that when many people celebrate Christmas, it’s not about any particular holy scripture, or believing that God was born on December 25^th. For many people Christmas is about focusing on the love and peace Jesus (peace be upon him) taught us to have and show others. For them it’s about giving gifts to make others smile from the inside out. For them it’s about receiving something special from that special someone. It’s about sharing time together and having a delicious meal, and looking back on the year that has passed and looking forward to the year ahead.

So, enough lumps of coal. Let me close with a few quotes that I hope will calm whatever rumbles I may have stirred in you above.

"I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year. As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year. And thus I drift along into the holidays, let them overtake me unexpectedly, waking up some fine morning and suddenly saying to myself: 'Why this is Christmas Day!"

Ray Stannard Baker

"I do come home at Christmas. We all do, or we all should. We all come home, or ought to come home, for a short holiday -- the longer, the better -- from the great boarding school where we are forever working at our arithmetical slates, to take, and give a rest."

Charles Dickens

"Christmas! The very word brings joy to our hearts. No matter how we may dread the rush, the long Christmas lists for gifts and cards to be bought and given, when Christmas Day comes there is still the same warm feeling we had as children, the same warmth that enfolds our hearts and our homes."

Joan Winmill Brown

"Time was with most of us, when Christmas Day, encircling all our limited world like a magic ring, left nothing out for us to miss or seek; bound together all our home enjoyments, affections, and hopes; grouped everything and everyone round the Christmas fire, and make the little picture shining in our bright young eyes, complete."

Charles Dickens

"It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air."

W. T. Ellis

Wishing you all, the best of health
and true spiritual enlightenment in the coming year.

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X-mas Reflections –Part 1

warning: this is not going to be a sappy X-mas blog entry. I’ve inserted a few lumps of coal amidst the poinsettas.

When I was a kid I thought Christmas was about celebrating the birthday of Jesus Christ.

Now that I’m a forty year old who has been Muslim for about 15 years, I don’t quite see it that way. For one thing, I know that scholars (Christian ones included) don’t know the actual date that our prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) was born. So, to call it a celebration of the anniversay of his birth wouldn’t be accurate, but it is a time when people remember his birth and celebrate his character and teachings. For some it’s religious, for others its commercial and for others it’s a combination.

I warned you. Here’s one of the lumps of coal. It appeals to the Marketing major in me.

“From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it.”

Katharine Whitehorn, Roundabout

For me, Chritsmas is a part of my past that I enjoy sharing with others because it gives me a chance to reminisce about a time when my family was shaped a bit differently and held together more tightly…..or so it seemed to a naïve little girl…..

A friend asked me yesterday, “Do you miss (celebrating) Christmas?”

My reply: No, I don’t’ miss celebrating it at all, but I do have the fondest memories of it.

What kid feels like helping to clean up a dusty old three story house? Well, knowing that it was to welcome Christmas made it easier. Somehow the dusting and washing and vacuuming and sweeping (and sometimes shoveling) seemed less like a chore at Christmas time.

“Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall. We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space.”

Dave Barry

It was fun when my parents gave us what seemed like a whole lot of money and sent us to the mall to buy gifts for our relatives. Christmas was celebrated with my maternal relatives and there were sure enough of them. God blessed Willie and Nicie with 12 kids and by the time I was born that meant spending Christmas with about ten uncles and aunts and their children. I really loved the way our house was packed with relatives.

"Oh look, yet another Christmas TV special! How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food, and beer... Who'd have ever guessed that product consumption, popular entertainment, and spirituality would mix so harmoniously?"

Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes

Need I talk about the food? Let’s see, if I was serving myself now my plate would be filled with some sweet potatoes, turkey (dark meat), stuffing, collard greens, a bit of cranberry sauce…..and for dessert it would be a tough decision….that white cake with the melt in your mouth chocolate icing (God Bless Aunt Lene) some coconut cake (God Bless Aunt Lene some more) or how about the sweet potatoe pie…..I don’t’ know, best thing is to eat some now, have some more tomorrow, maybe freeze some.

Christmas cheer, yes I remember that wonderful feeling, but there’s always a scrooge somewhere…

"Bah Humbug! Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer...? If I could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' upon his lips should be boiled with his won pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!"

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Oh don’t be such a scrooge, Scrooge!

It was fun “playing Santa”. We had this family ritual where two children would distribute gifts by announcing the recipient and giver, then making our way through the crowd of relatives to deliver it. The recipient would then open the package and react accordingly. People often exclaimed “oh, just what I wanted!” Next, the recipient had to stand up and show the gift to everyone announcing who it was from.

It is said that one year, a certain “stone faced boy” held up his gift and said

“hmm….just what I didn’t want!”

LOL! ( I love you “Stone Face”)

It's X-mas day here but still X-mas eve back home in New York. I guess I'll give Mommy and Daddy a call.

More reflections tomorrow, God willing.

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Death and Taxes

Well, death is sure to come.
Taxes...
I used to think there was no way around them.
They were just a fact of life to me.
Now that I'm abroad I don't think much about US income tax.
Then one day I came across an intersting fact.

The Supreme Court ruled that our government has no authority to impose a direct unapportioned tax on the labor of the American people.

(when i read that i thought about all the money I have paid in taxes over the years...)

You don't believe me? You think I'm crazy? I didn't make it all up. Take a few minutes to view this video...

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When Palm Trees + Petronas Towers = Paradise

We're on a term break and most of the teachers have left town to celebrate the holidays back in the UK or elsewhere. I don't have any travel plans so I'm doing three days of placement testing this week. (Students take a written test followed by a short verbal test with a teacher, in order to confirm the validity of their written test score).

I usually start off with:
"Hi, My name is _ _ _ _ _, what's your name?"
(I could look at their test paper to get their name but the point is to get them to talk, and check their listening ability).

Then I sometimes say:

"I'm from the United States, where are you from?"
Again, I could see it on the test paper. I only ask this question when the person is not Malaysian. Sometimes they are from a place where the US is busy sticking its nose, you know..... a place that's got oil or some other interesting resource. If they are from a place where the US military is "busy" the person and I often laugh out loud with eachother. We realise that we are suppose to be enemies yet we are sitting there helping each other, ignoring whatever is going on back home.

If the person is not Malaysian I then ask:

"How long have you been in Malaysia?"

That tense may be a bit confusing for a beginner.

If I get a blank stare, I use hand motions and change my question to:
"When did you arrive in Malaysia?"
People usually answer anything from 3 days to 6 months.

Naturally I then ask:
"What do you think of Malaysia?"
The Koreans and the Iranians always answer:
"It's very hot!"
In general people say that "it's very beautiful here" and "the people are very kind"

Today, I was on my own for the afternoon testing. I had 17 people to assess. There was a cute little girl sitting waiting for her dad to finish his exam. I almost forgot she was there because she was so quiet. When I got near the end of testing, a very handsome man with a wonderful smile on his face, came to the table and sat down. (It was his cute little girl waiting). He sat down and handed me his paper. Right away the letters "I" "R" "A" "Q" bounced off his test page. I introduced myself as usual and immediately asked how long he'd been in Malaysia. He had arrived quite recently.

I then asked what he thought of Malaysia.
He looked me straight in the eye and said...
"Well, the difference between here and the place that I come from is like the difference between heaven and hell."

At that moment...I felt there was not much more I wanted to ask.

There was a moment of silence that felt more like a few minutes. I thought of those brothers in Tayaran square. Unlike some men who sit around waiting for a job to find them, these guys were out looking for work, only to have someone lure them over to their vehicle with hope, and then massacre them. Here this man sat in front of me and I never asked myself if he was Sunni or Shia or even Muslim at all. I looked at him and saw a man, a father, a human being. I looked at him and saw someone so grateful to be alive.

I've said to myself that if I wake up one day and don't think the palm trees are beautiful and exotic anymore, it means I've been here to long. Every day I pass them I think to myself: wow, this place is beautiful. What a blessing it is to be here. What a blessing it is to have my job, to have a few good friends to have my kids, to have our health.

I asked this man, "how long do you plan to stay here?"

Again he looked me straight in the eye.

He responded with a very serious look on his face, "Forever".

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2 Minutes of Fame - Revisited

When it was being aired at a lunchtime staff meeting I practically hid under the table.

Sure, I wanted a copy of it to send to some special people in my life, but I had no real interest in watching it myself. I had no interest in reliving that corny comment I'd made about food being an expression of love. I had no interest in seeing that bright lip gloss I had let them paste on my routinely low-key lips.

Reezal passed me a copy at the office today and tonight, I finally got up the nerve to watch it.
Watch what? The recording of a television interview I participated in with some colleagues over a month ago.

I watched it with the kids. My eldest daughter (the one everyone insists looks just like me) couldn't watch the whole thing. She said it was to weird seeing Mommy on TV. The 13 and 9 year old watched eagerly and enjoyed it (or was it just another excuse to avoid bedtime...).
For me, well I liked the music at the beginning. I've always liked Latin percussion. Tom, he looked half his age. The camera didn't do Susanna or Mina justice. As for me....well, that wasn't me. I mean that's not the person I see staring back at me when I look in the mirror. That's not the person I hear addressing a class of 20 EFL students every day. Who was that woman masquerading as me, wearing my clothes and using my name?

Of course I recognised her. She did a really good impression of me. She probably teaches parts of my lessons when my mind is not where it should be. But really, that was not me on the screen. The person I saw sounded different somehow. It was her voice that gave her away. I'm not just talking about the tone of the voice. Of course while we are speaking it distorts the sound somewhat for us but when I looked at that recording, it was like I was watching some girl from New York, some girl who....

Yes, I'm from New York but it was some other girl, not me.

Really...really strange.

Have you had this experience to?

We can look at ourselves in the mirror every day. We recognise that person looking back at us.
We can hear ourselves talking to others. It's the same voice we always hear.
Yet, when we see and hear recordings of ourselves it's like we are meeting someone somehow different.

Why is that?

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