I have been struggling with religion for my children. I do not want a doctrine without question for them, like I was given with Christianity (thank the good Lord it was tempered with my mother’s probing Hindu mind). I just want a template for what my family considers right and wrong, good and bad, acceptable and unacceptable. Was watching on prime time TV, our President Uhuru Kenyatta being congratulated outside the Hague by no less than 100 supporters – that many adults going all the way to prop up the Dutch economy ( hotels, carbon footprints) for what? Unacceptable my moral compass suggests; very strongly. This then begs the statement: Religion cannot give you a total guideline as to right and wrong for my family – only I can do that through my example and my vociferous condemnation of something that seems to everyone acceptable, but to me, is unacceptable. This view was further cemented by a movie – AGORA – dramatizes the destruction of the library at Alexandria and the murder of Hypatia around AD 370. Why? Christians took the letter of St Paul to Timothy literally without thought … – “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over man, but to be in silence …… in full submission”.
“Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.” Hypatia
An example of taking scripture literally is from our little fish pond of class 4, Deusche Schule Nairobi - Ilana completed some running math-a-thon thingy last term – you run a round, you get asked a question, you answer and run the next round. 3 times. She got all her answers wrong. She struggles so and gets disheartened (don’t we all) but, as I had asked her to, she tried to see the good or the lesson to be learnt from the experience.
Ilana - speaking to friend - ' I am so proud of myself - I managed to run 3 rounds of the field without getting winded'
Friend 'Pride is a sin, you are prideful, therefore you have sinned'.
Great.
So Ilana is in tears - her friend, who can do no wrong says she is wrong, nay, she is sinful ... a delicate balance. I explain, your friend is right; to a degree - too much pride, wrongful pride is useless and a waste of energy but pride in an achievement is excellent.
There endeth the strife in my poor head about religion. I am a good human being. I know I can give my children a good moral compass (checking myself - ‘to heel, boy, to heel’).
On a really hilarious note – Arno’s weekly project is different types of dwellings in class. Eskimoes live in igloos, Maasai live in manyatta’s and Red Indians – Indianer as opposed to Indish/der Inder as I keep getting corrected. He really got into it – obviously, as it is not maths or writing! Decimated my miniature bamboo, (sliced pricked his finger with the Panga and that caused some drama) covered it with bedspread (later replaced with dog blanket – poor Bongo keeps circling the teepee, trying to fit in and under his blanky) ‘borrowed’ my goshawk feather, put on sunscreen war paint and named his tribe – Hintern. http://dict.leo.org/ende/index_de.html#/search=hintern&searchLoc=0&resultOrder=basic&multiwordShowSingle=on
Papa – The great chief stinkenahintern
Ilana – Kleinepoops which she did not like so she is Ganzefliegen aka (deep breath)Goose-that-flies-across-the-lake-on-a-full-moon-just-skimming-the-water
Arno – Sottlekopf (no idea how this fits into the poops/hintern tribe)
Mummy is married into this tribe so can retain her maiden tribe.
Mummy - shrieking cow/crow
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