Anthropologists seem to be very concerned about where to find religion. For example in the text Indian Mounds of Wisconsin By Birmingham and Eisenberg anthropologists were looking to the Indian mounds to find how the natives worshiped. I think this is just a small part of religion. We may never know the depth of the Ancient Indians religion but we can assume that it went beyond effigy mounds and influenced other parts of their life. This is a pattern that we can see in modern religion. I would like to examine how religion goes beyond simply preying on Sundays and at meals. Religion plays a vital role in daily life even in modern times. Religion helps us recover from the unexpected tragedies that can occur at a moments notice.
I have never been a very religious person. Religion to me as always appeared as an abstraction of various thoughts pulled from different beliefs. For example I do believe in a higher power. I do believe we must go somewhere after we die but I attempt not to concern myself too much with where. I try to focus on the present moment. When I took World Religions last year in highschool I found that many of my beliefs were mixed between Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, and many other religions. This summer something happened that really pulled spirituality together for me. It made me discover that religion is not about individual beliefs it’s about the community. It’s about trust and hope, blindly believing in something and being certain about it.
August 8th started out like any other day in Seattle. I was on my way to the gym, but something was wrong. I could feel an imbalance. As I got out of the car a high school classmate asked me if I had heard anything about the car accident last night on West Port Madison road. I told them I hadn’t and at that instant my phone rang and my mom explained to me that my best friend had been in a car accident and was in ICU unit at Harbor View hospital. The EMT’s thought he was dead at the scene of the crash but they life-flighted him anyways. I couldn’t believe it. I had seen him the night before perfectly healthy. He was supposed to leave for University Colorado Boulder in 3 days.
I was aghast. Word quickly spread around the community. Thousands of people came together and posted on his facebook wall telling him to “believe” or “stay strong”. Hundreds of people came out to the high school football field. We sang his favorite songs, told stories about him, and preyed he survive. The community despite varying beliefs was able to come together and believe as one. This is what religion is supposed to truly represent, people putting aside their differences and finding commonalties. We all wanted Jackson to survive, and heal. We preyed to a power above because it was out of control.
Jackson was in a coma for 21 days. I had to leave for college with the figure of him in a hospital bed superimposed in my head. I preyed for him ever day, as did tens of thousands of people in the community and friends at various other colleges. Jackson’s story is an ongoing a tale of recovery and believing. Although he is out of his coma he still needs to relearn how to walk, talk, and even eating is hard. But his humor and memory are still there, as is the community who supported and believed all along. I don’t want to say the community saved Jackson, but deep down I know the words I whispered to him at his bedside, and the prayers of the community helped in some way.
Kelton, this was an affecting post. I hope or friend improves and I know this would be painful for you. Reflection on this is useful, and I would just add a coup,e of points. Is it really religion that is about putting aside differences? It seems like religion might actually be some of the differences that people have to put aside to respond as a community. So maybe you are saying that community is more iortant than religion? Maybe religion sometimes hurts community of that sort?
ReplyDeleteWow, that was a moving post. Thanks so much for being so open and sharing it. I definitely agree with you when it comes to religion being able to bring communities together to help out others. I am not an extremely religious person, but I do believe that maybe later in life I would join a church not for the spiritual benefits (though those probably wouldn't hurt) but rather for the sense of community. My mom had extensive and painful back surgery a couple of years ago, and the outpouring of support from our church was outstanding. People brought over so much food we didn't know what to do with it, and the church choir even pitched in money to get a house keep for three months while my mom recovered. So yes, a religious group working together to help out a member of the community can really work wonders.
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