Sunday, February 24, 2008

My Passion about religion

My Passion about Religion




To all my fellow bloggers: I do not intend to offend anyone by writing this blog. The only thing I intend to do is express my own opinions and beliefs.


Religion is topic that always boggles my mind and yes I would consider myself compassionate about it.
Religion is suppose to help people get through their toughest times. Believing something beyond ourselves is in control of our universe, makes us somehow seem more secure. It makes us feel as though, our mistakes will somehow be erased. Have you ever looked at the earth? Have you ever compared it to the other planets? Have you ever looked at how small, our earth is compared to the whole universe? Considering that, there are 6.5 billion people on the earth and over 100 religions. What makes Christianity any different than than Islam or Buddhism? They all believe in their own God. Some of them believe in the same God. But, they still argue and fight over whose religion is better. Whose religion is right? Take Christianity, for example, although I believe that several people of several different religions will read this, Christianity, according to:

http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html

is the religion of choice by 33% of the earth's population, which is more than any other religion. The next being Islam, which is observed by 21%.


Religions

So, let's take Christianity. There are at least 5 different branches of Christianity. Each one believes that their form of Christianity is the “right” form. And then you break down each form, let's use Baptist, for example. You have the northern Baptist and the southern Baptist, disagreeing with each other over who is right. I choose to believe that religion is a figment of everyone's imagination. I do believe that there is some sort of supernatural being in control of everything, or there are a lot of coincidences that make our existence possible. But, I do not believe that a person who believes in Buddha or Allah are going to hell, either. Most people believe what they are “brain washed” to believe, from birth. Very few people are independent thinkers. I am one of those few. I am the type of person who says “Prove it to me!” and even though I am only 37 years old, I have not had one person, “Prove it to me!” When they say they have proof, I keep asking why, until eventually they get to the standard answer which is “Faith”. “Faith” is something that we believe even though we can't see it, feel it or touch it, we just believe.

I will use my son for example, who I am proud to say, I have raised to be an individual. He is 16 years old. And the best teenager, ever. He gets very frustrated with religion. We live in the South, which makes it worse for him. He was engaged in conversation with a boy on the bus who claims to be religious. This boy smokes, does drugs, has sex and drinks alcohol. My son ask the boy, “ How can you say that you are religious and do all of those things?”

The boys reply to my son was, “Well, I go to church, every Sunday and repent.”


What??? And unfortunately, this is the way that a lot of people who call themselves religious believe. I can get drunk, beat my wife, belittle others, curse, and fight, but as long as I go to church on Sunday and say that I am sorry to “God”, I will still go to “Heaven”.

I apologize to anyone who is offended by my beliefs, but I am willing to listen to anyone's argument. If people believe that their God is a loving, forgiving God, then everyone will go to “Heaven”. If they believe that their God is an angry God and that those who don't follow their religion to exactly, will go to hell, then everyone is going to hell, because, I don't care WHO you are no one follows their religion to the exact word and who could.




bible

The bible, which was written over 2000 years ago, was written in Hebrew. It has been rewritten hundreds of times, with each author's interpretations of what it is suppose to say. Take the game, “Telephone” played by children. The children sit in a line, and one starts the sentence and each child whispers the sentence in the next child's ear. By the time the last child repeats the sentence out loud, it is a totally different sentence. So, whose interpretation of the bible is correct? And then every Sunday, the preacher at the various churches throughout the world, interprets, his religious book, as he sees it.

I am just about done with my blog on passion. Even though I know that I have made some very good points here, people will argue with me, people will say that I am going to hell and some will pray for me tonight. But, I do believe that whatever happens to me when I die, is the same thing that happens to everyone else, when they die. Hopefully we will all be with our loved ones again, and we will still be able to remember our lives on earth. But, I do not believe that anyone will burn forever.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

"FOUL"

Before I begin, could someone please tell me why, when a child hits a foul ball at a little league game everyone yells, "Heads-up" ? Should you yell something like, "Heads down!! or Cover you heads, foul ball!!"


Anyway, now that I got that out of the way. Foul could take you in so many directions, just like all other topics. But, I think that I will stick with my favorite one..... Sports. It makes me think of my years of softball.

Prior to sixth grade, we lived inside the city limits of Baltimore. Other than the school I was required to go to, my mother pretty much kept me at home, which wasn't really the best place for me to be either, but she did the best she could with what she had. I was not involved in sports or any other activity that would require me to be around the "drug-infested" rec centers.

I am not sure exactly how old I was, I just know we moved the summer before I went into 6th grade (around 9 or 10). We moved to Anne Arundel county. Which is a county just outside of Baltimore. What culture shock it was to move to the county. I was popular and well known in my elementary school, I gone to the same one since kindergarden. All of a sudden I was with rich kids who wore designer clothes and did the "Jordache" dance outside at lunch time. To me, jeans were jeans, whatever was being sold at the local Good Will or yard sale was what I wore. I remember when I finally got a pair of Nike shoes, they were the wrong ones. I think they called them "Fish-Heads". Anyway, back to the story of how I got involved in Little League.

nike



My dad was blind, but who I spent most of my time with because my mother had to "Make End Meet". And even though, my dad was blind, he would listen to sports on TV. So, I often found myself sitting at his side watching the Baltimore Orioles or the Colts, until they moved to Indiannapolis. I had found out the the little girl around the corner, who was a mean red-head, played softball. I told my mom that I was tired of being an athletic supporter and wanted to be an athlete. She talked to the "Mean Red-Head"'s mother. Since my mom was busy working and going to school, if I were to get involved in sports, she would need to find someone to take me when she couldn't. So, I began sharing rides with the mean girl and her mother. And OH MY GOD did I SUCK. I had never played organized sports in my life. I didn't understand why, even though I was right handed, I had to wear my glove on the left hand. This made no sense to me. I didn't understand that I couldn't hold my bat with crossed arms and still hit the ball. Since they weren't allowed to make us sit out for more than 3 innings a game, I got to play half the game. The games were only 6 innings total. I was last in the line up and played out field or left out. My first team was called the Harundale Humdingers, and my first coach was Ms. Joann. My favorite part of my first year was the pool party at the end of the year. You would think after suffering the hummilation of the kids who had played ball since they were 5 years old, laughing at me every time I went up to bat, I wouldn't play the following year. But, since I love self distruction, I apted to endure this one more year, just to see if things got better.

As I told you earlier in my blog, my dad was blind, so for obvious reasons, practicing with him was not an option and my mom was very busy. So other than throwing myself "High-poppers'' in the back yard, I had no one to practice with. But, during my second year, I had a turning point. This turning point was when I was standing in the outfield, bored as usually, someone actually managed to hit it out there. Suddenly my heart started pounding. I saw the look of fear in my team mates faces. "For sure" they thought, " This was a home run." I back up, I really had trouble judging where the ball was going to go, but this time was different, I was going to catch it. And I did. I didn't realize how important this out was until, I found out that I had earned, "The Game Ball" that day. It turns out, we were a head by one run. It was the bottom of the last inning and the opposing team had two people on base. Had I not caught that ball, it would have rolled forever. My team would have definitely lost.

It is hard to believe the smallest things can make such a difference. I played ball for another eight years. I moved from the outfield to first base and even made the all-star team my last two years. But, it all started with my first catch, in the outfield that surprised everyone including me.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Miscellaneous

God, miscellaneous is a strange place to start when I haven't written for so long. It is funny, because I have always loved to write but I never really enjoyed reading. Very few write well enough to keep my attention longer than 5 minutes. I have a tendancy to get distracted easily, "Oh, look, there is a bunny". Sorry, back to my blog. Anyway, maybe, since I have written much, I will write about me. I am 37. I live in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I spent the first 33 years of my life living in Maryland. The first 10 in Baltimore. I still love the Ravens and believe it or not I am an Oriole fan. And the rest in Glen Burnie. I have 3 children. All 3 are smarter than me. I have been married for almost 17 years. My husband is a computer tech. It is interesting being married to a geek, when I am such a "Tom Boy". Explaining foodball to a 39 year old man is an exhausting task. "What is a safety", "What is a two-point conversion?", "What is forward motion?". He can explain to you, however, the computer technology that goes into putting the yellow and red lines on the television that distinguish the line of scrimmage from the 1st down mark. As you can guess, our lives are very interesting.

I have worked for the same company for almost 19 years. I was fortunate enough to have gotten a job right out of high school with a very good company. Luckily I work for a company that has offered me the opportunity to many different things. I have been a cashier, a customer service representative, a marketing manager, and most recently the payroll clerk and human resource representative for my building. Human Resources and payroll is by far my favorite, most rewarding, occupation of my career.

My biggest struggle is my weight. Over a year ago, I did lose about 25lbs and I have kept it off. My problem is I need to lose about 70 more pounds . Hopefully, I will manage to accomplish that in 2008. But, we will have to wait and see. Sometimes my self esteem is so bad, I don't feel that I have the right to smile at someone because they will think, "Why is that ugly girl smiling at me?" I know that sounds horrible and even as I am writing it I am thinking, "Wow, noone should feel that way". There is a lot of history that has lead to my low self-esteem, but I will keep that history private for now. I will figure it all out some day, hopefully sooner than later. The one thing I do know is that I am a good mother. When you have a 16 year old that repects you, communicates with you and actually enjoys your company, you know you have done something right.


Anyway, that is all for now, I intend to write every week from now on, so I am sure that you will learn more about me and my family in the future.

Monday, May 28, 2007

intelligent life

I think that it is very naive for us to think for us to think that we are the only intelligent life in the universe. When you look at how small the earth is, it would not make any sense that we are the only beings that exist. Who are we to say that the other planets could not support life? In fact, that in itself, is a non-intelligent statement. Human could not live in water because they would not be able to breathe. But, there are in fact animals in our universe that can survive in water. Therefore, who is to say that their are not intelligent beings living on other planets who could survive in an atmosphere that we, as humans could not survive on.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Simple Pleasures

When I think of simple pleasures, it is kind of weird. I deliver papers at night and work a full time job. To get my mind off of the fact that I only sleep about 4 hours a night, I try to see the simple pleasures of the night. As I am traveling my 15 miles to pick up my papers at 2am, I see a shooting star. It is amazing how low in the atmosphere the meteor will get before it actually burns out. It is kind of like watching the tail end of a fire work, only much more spectacular. I see a white tailed deer duck into the woods. Luckily tonight, she is not playing in the road. I have seen deer vs car before, the car always loses. As I travel a little futher, I see a racoon. They are so cute and mischievious. It is amazing how fast they can scurry up a 20 foot tree. Deliving papers isn't as simple as you think, riding around in a car throwing out papers. There are lots of places where I actually have to get out and deliver to the door. This one area is actually very dark and creepy. Of course, I have to get out in this dark, and creepy area to deliver about 3 papers. This morning I have decided not to where shoes, big mistake, the misty rain brings out every frog in Myrtle Beach. And, wouldn't you know it, I stepped right on one big slimmy frog. Sometimes when it rains, the frogs are so bad, you would think that it is actually raining frogs. I get to one area of my route and the frogs come to mind again. This time it is a sound. A very, very loud sound coming from the marsh. It is the frogs, it must be mating season. The sound is so loud that I can not hear my radio unless I shut the window. I honestly don't know how the neighbors could sleep with their windows open. But, I guess that it is just like living near an airport, you get used to it. I pull into the next condo parking lot and I see a fox. I have never seen a fox in the wild before. He has a huge bushy red tail, just as decribed in books. I honestly never realized the abudance of wild life, that live amongst us and find ways to just disappear when the sun rises. Speaking of sun rising, we are getting to the end of my route. The last neighborhood I deliver to has a simple pleasure that I probably wouldn't have really thought of as a simple pleasure unless I had been summoned by this site to write on such a topic. But, as I pull in, I smell an over whelming smell of honey suckles. This is the probably the sweetest smell ever. The smell will fill my car and last the rest of my trip. Now, it is 525 am, and here comes the sun. The favorite part of my trip is watching the sun come up as I go home to get my 2 hour nap before I go to my day job. Sometimes, I will actually go to the beach and finish watching the sun go up before I head home. Even though I am exhausted, to enjoy one more simple pleasure makes the day that much better.