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[Please note: this is from my personal journal while I'm on guard duty...started today.]
The Afghans are very friendly people. I've been thinking lately how I grew up in foster care and never really had any friends and religion. I mean I had friends, but was never so "open" as the Afghans are with each other. They give each other a handshake, a greeting and then place their hands over their hearts. In America, we either have to greet/salute someone with rank or usually the civilians walk right past each other. I wonder personally if it's our jobs or culture that causes us to disregard each other so much. It maybe that the internet has become our social outlet. If that's the case you can't determine motivation beyond a pre-written set of "hello and goodbyes." I like these people more and more as I continue on my guard shift each day. When I get out of service I really don't want to take one of the people's jobs (their source of income and livelihood) but I really feel I want to move to Afghanistan. A funny side note, we have a great (1 of 2) Afghan guards and I've been able to "break" the language barrier and learn Pashto/Pakhto. This may sound weird, but I like to talk their language. I've also learned a bit of Islam and I believe this may be the religion for me. As stated earlier, I haven't really "known" any religion except for studying christianity for a couple of years (being forced to) while in foster care. Christians think they "have the answer" because of a man who died on a cross and cried out to his God, "God, why have you forsaken me?" Those were words of a man. How can the part (if not all of him) be forsaken or removed from God? Maybe he thought he had enough persecution in his life. I find it very hard to believe a god would forsake part of himself, if indeed he was or was a part of God. Not a ranting or rambling...just open questions. The Catholics as well believe we all pray to the same God just giving him different names. That inofitself seems very "wishy-washy." If one is able to be as zealous as the Catholics how can they accept and fold-into their faith (based upon location of the world) such as Dia De La Mortes. (Day of the Dead.) They honor their dead in some parts of the world as Catholics. At the end of the day if I was forced into a religion (growing up or for life) I may not have had a problem with it, but may have questioned parts of it.
I believe it's the openess of the Afghan people that drives me to seek an "acceptance." Typical example, in the Army (American) they preach about "false motivation is better then no motivation." So...if you accept such things and be lazy about it, what does that say about you as a person/ group/ organization. It says they don't want to enforce/ encourage you to have a real/true motivation but rather a false motivation so "everyone's on the same page" and to help each other's overly-sensitive fealings/ emotions. Feelings are a good thing since they reflect/mirror the heart, but, if you simply allow "false hearts" means you don't know the person and will in time either get/ expect a "suprise" if you ocntinue to think/monitor the situation.
The Afghans that we work with on this guard tower know me by name "bow-manh." It's a start. With my ability to learn the language the people may accept me if I learn Pashto over the next couple of years. Again, I do not want to take from the people a job, but I find an increasing motivation to become one of them. I will most certainly miss my Internet & Online Gaming/ chat but an interest in Islam and the Afghan people will continue my drive to maybe become one of them someday although I do not know how after I learn Pashto to apply to become a citizen of Afghanistan.
Let it be, if Allah's will.
The Afghans are very friendly people. I've been thinking lately how I grew up in foster care and never really had any friends and religion. I mean I had friends, but was never so "open" as the Afghans are with each other. They give each other a handshake, a greeting and then place their hands over their hearts. In America, we either have to greet/salute someone with rank or usually the civilians walk right past each other. I wonder personally if it's our jobs or culture that causes us to disregard each other so much. It maybe that the internet has become our social outlet. If that's the case you can't determine motivation beyond a pre-written set of "hello and goodbyes." I like these people more and more as I continue on my guard shift each day. When I get out of service I really don't want to take one of the people's jobs (their source of income and livelihood) but I really feel I want to move to Afghanistan. A funny side note, we have a great (1 of 2) Afghan guards and I've been able to "break" the language barrier and learn Pashto/Pakhto. This may sound weird, but I like to talk their language. I've also learned a bit of Islam and I believe this may be the religion for me. As stated earlier, I haven't really "known" any religion except for studying christianity for a couple of years (being forced to) while in foster care. Christians think they "have the answer" because of a man who died on a cross and cried out to his God, "God, why have you forsaken me?" Those were words of a man. How can the part (if not all of him) be forsaken or removed from God? Maybe he thought he had enough persecution in his life. I find it very hard to believe a god would forsake part of himself, if indeed he was or was a part of God. Not a ranting or rambling...just open questions. The Catholics as well believe we all pray to the same God just giving him different names. That inofitself seems very "wishy-washy." If one is able to be as zealous as the Catholics how can they accept and fold-into their faith (based upon location of the world) such as Dia De La Mortes. (Day of the Dead.) They honor their dead in some parts of the world as Catholics. At the end of the day if I was forced into a religion (growing up or for life) I may not have had a problem with it, but may have questioned parts of it.
I believe it's the openess of the Afghan people that drives me to seek an "acceptance." Typical example, in the Army (American) they preach about "false motivation is better then no motivation." So...if you accept such things and be lazy about it, what does that say about you as a person/ group/ organization. It says they don't want to enforce/ encourage you to have a real/true motivation but rather a false motivation so "everyone's on the same page" and to help each other's overly-sensitive fealings/ emotions. Feelings are a good thing since they reflect/mirror the heart, but, if you simply allow "false hearts" means you don't know the person and will in time either get/ expect a "suprise" if you ocntinue to think/monitor the situation.
The Afghans that we work with on this guard tower know me by name "bow-manh." It's a start. With my ability to learn the language the people may accept me if I learn Pashto over the next couple of years. Again, I do not want to take from the people a job, but I find an increasing motivation to become one of them. I will most certainly miss my Internet & Online Gaming/ chat but an interest in Islam and the Afghan people will continue my drive to maybe become one of them someday although I do not know how after I learn Pashto to apply to become a citizen of Afghanistan.
Let it be, if Allah's will.
in Sharana.
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