Sustainable Mommy

I have done a lot of thinking and wondering these past few days. Part of it is because I've suddently realized that I have time to read and I've been reading ... btw mom, I'm finished, so you can have it next time I see you. The book I just finished about the girl in Florence in the 1490s made me think about religion and God and His place in my life ... whether He knows things are going to happen or whether He lets things happen. Or maybe it's a combination of both. And has God always known that people were going to become so ignorant and blasphemous and sinful? It's been getting progressively worse, and that is evident from the book I just finished because of how things were for Alessandra and how little she knew when she got married at the ripe old age of 14 to a man who was 48. I don't know. This is why I love reading and why I miss having discussions in class. They make me think, and it's been very nice that I've been able to listen to conversations about this very topic in my training class. I usually keep my mouth shut during the whole thing, but it's like I'm back in class. Yesterday our topic of discussion was Jesus and how the Bible says (apparently, because I haven't read it cover to cover) that if you don't believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, then you are going to Hell. I'm sure it's been a big topic for a very long time, because the big question was, how can a righteous and good person who lives a great life and believes in God their whole lives still go to Hell because they don't believe that Jesus was anyone special? That doesn't make sense. It also proves (well, maybe not prove, but makes a point) that Americans are, for the most part, very closed minded, because Christians do not make up the majority of religious people in the world. Muslim has the most followers, and they don't believe that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior - at least I don't think. I could go on ... but I think you get the point. It's all very confusing and there are so many questions that all we can do is continue to ask because there is NO ONE that really knows if there is a heaven for certain and if there is a hell. There is no one who seriously claims that they have died and been to heaven and back - no one since the time of the book that I just finished! So there you have it.

Today I read "Night" by Elie Wiesel. Yes, I read it in one day ... I'm not downplaying the Holocaust in any way, shape, or form, but I have studied in high school and in college, and this book was just as bleak as the others. Just about the time I finished the book, we got on the topic of this story about a criminal who called a McDonalds pretending to be a police officer and told the manager that one of their employees had to be strip searched. Long story short, this girl ended up being forced to do bad things. So one of the girls in our class questioned why the guy who made the call was getting into trouble because he didn't force anyone to do anything; he just called the McDonalds and told them to do it. The manger is the idiot for actually listening to the guy. Then someone else brought up the point, "So ... what about Hitler? He didn't actually kill anyone - he just told people what to do and it was up to them whether or not to listen to him." The first girl said she didn't think Hitler ever did anything wrong. It was everyone else who was at fault for listening to him, and she didn't really care anyway because it doesn't affect her in any way. She goes about her business and yeah, that's all she had to say. I wanted to scream at her, saying that it's because of ignorance like that that people are going to let it happen again. Not care? NOT CARE about the Holocaust? Wow. Just wow.

On that note, it's Wednesday night and we all know what that means ... PIZZA!!! :o)