Ross Wanted to Visit The Holy Lands... and The Rest...

Ross was unhappy about the Middle East... He wanted to visit Jerusalem, but he was scared about the political situation... I had consented that I will accompany him, if and when he decided to visit the Holy Lands... 

He was furious about the war in Iraq... It jeopardized his dream trip... he was against the intervention in Afghanistan... It scared him... He could not comprehend the idea of "suicide bombing..." As a Catholic Christian he believed in the sanctity of life... He was absolutely against killing...  He had internalized "Thou shall not kill..." and upheld it... he was against the death penalty... Suicide, for whatever reason, was abhorrent to him... 

Wars kill, suicides kill... and wanted to visit the Holy lands... and on the way he wanted to visit Rome too... 

Ross did not have any dispute with organized religion... But he knew that I shied away from organized everything... He was kicked around and was abused... He was taken advantage of... but he endured... He had faith... that was his upbringing... that's how he was nurtured... 


He wanted to visit the Holy lands to anchor his faith and wanted to walk in the Vatican to consolidate his life long learning...
He loved the simple "fisherman's" life of Jesus and wanted to contrast that with the opuance of Rome... 
He just wanted to experience the contrast... and tell about it after...

On the other hand I wanted to visit the Holy lands to affirm my solitude... my "alone"ness... and spirituality... Later I desired to cross over to India... and continue the experience of harmony and peace in one of the ashrams... I wanted to extend Jesus to the simple Indian ashram of peace and harmony...

Ross wanted a special trip to India... He could not inhale everything with a single breath... He wanted to have time and learn through experiencing it...

Whenever Muslim Imams began their diatribe against Western culture and Christian beliefs... Ross was ashamed on their behalf... 
He insisted that religion, any religion... cannot be mean and belligerent...
I told him that Islam is based on spreading the religion through wars... They wanted to conquer through the sword and I did not like it...
Check below this Imam in Canada... "preaching"...

Imam Shaban Sherif Mady: “The Prophet Muhammad told us that Constantinople would be conquered. This was the capital city of the Byzantine Empire. I am talking about prophecies from the sunna. Where is Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine Empire? Today, it is in Turkey.   “Turkey, Montenegro, Kosovo, all the way to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia… All these countries were ruled by the rightly guided Caliphate, the last Caliphate of the Muslims. [It ruled] about half of Europe, in the East, and then the other half, in the West, the countries of Al-Andalus: Spain, Portugal, and part of France, all the way to the Ural Mountains. All this was an Islamic Caliphate. “Constantinople will be conquered. It is the Prophet Muhammad who said so. And what was Constantinople? Just like the Vatican today, it was the capital of all the Christians in the world. It was conquered and became Turkey. The Hagia Sophia became a great mosque, where Allah is worshipped. “The prophecies of the Prophet Muhammad came true. But some prophecies have not come true yet. Look forward to it, because the Prophet Muhammad said that Rome would be conquered! It will be conquered. Constantinople was conquered. Rome is the Vatican, the very heart of the Christian state. When and how? You and I, who suffer of psychological defeatism, cannot fathom that. But people of faith have will, power, and understanding, and they know that the Prophet’s hadith is true, for he does not speak on a whim.”

I told Ross that organized anything is projection of power... I did not believe in organized religion... But he could not divorce himself from the clutches of his life long learning... We had serious discussion about Jesus... telling; "Go and preach the word of God..." I told him it was abused and that's how colonialism was justified... "The White man's burden..." He listed and I knew that deep down, in his heart, he agreed with me...
I often times contrasted the love-based Christianity to the "eye for an eye..." Judaism... I tried to show him that the New Testament is a radical and revolutionary departure from the Old... and wandered why the Bible lumps them together...

Islam was another issue... I told him that Islam is believed in the forceful
spread of the teachings of the Prophet... I told him; "They believe that virgins are waiting for them in heaven... That's why they go for suicide bombing... Their religion preaches that..."

"Who is waiting for them if the suicide bombers are females...?" He questioned... 

I did not know the answer for that... ! Maybe the Muslim preachers do not know the answer for that too...!

But Ross was supportive of the kids in The Middle East... He said; "They are victims and the violence is not their fault... It is not their doing..."

He wanted to help them and at school he helped the Muslim students... He brought them together and facilitated their prayer during the day... He gave them time during the lunch break to bring their prayer mats to the chapel and pray... 

He helped them in any way he could...  
He was full of love... and he wanted love... peace... and harmony in the world... He hated the wars... he hated violence even as a sport...

***

... And a Heart Warming Moment...

This young fan in a photograph that spread on social media has been identified as Murtaza Ahmadi, a five-year-old boy who lives in a Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan...
The kid is a football fan... admires Messi... The shirt was made by his brother, from a plastic bag...


Murtaza, whose father admitted he could not afford to buy him a replica jersey, said he had only a punctured ball to play with in his village in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province.


But now he has the real jersey... Once the photo was identified... Messi, the Barcelona forward... signed one of his jerseies and through United nations agencies sent to the kid...

The kid was happy before... I am sure he is happier now... Maybe Messi and his club can sent him few footballs too... With love and compassion everything is possible...

But then... Diogenes walking around with a lantern during the day... Looking for man and woman...

Schlumberger Limited is the world's largest oilfield services company and employs approximately 105,000 people world wide... Representing 140 nationalities working in more that 85 countries... It has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and the Hague... (from Wikipedia)   The oil prices have tumbled world wide... The company's revenue was down 27%... Profit plunged 41%... But still the company earned huge sums of money... They profited... So the CEO of the company, Paal Kibsgaard, in 2015 received total compensation for his services worth $18.5 million... As they say on the street... A shitload of money...! But,  ... the rest of the Schlumberger workers did not fare as well as the CEO... The company cut 25,000 jobs during the year...  The CEO received $18.5 million for cutting 25,000 jobs...!