Chapter 17 - "Cherry Trees in the Sand" Part 2

(cont. from part 1)
Later on, I found out that spitting onto people or objects was a way that Muhammad blessed others. I still hold a grudge, though. In America, it's not customary to shoot germs at strangers for no apparent reason. It's illegal in fact, and immigrants should know their laws of the country they're moving to, incase of untended violation (I'm not sorry for sounding like a prick)! A better way is to verbally say, "bless you", but I should be labeled as a hypocrite if I said I approved of these uttered words (I am, actually, without you ever noticing it, but I blame my disorderly bi-polar side--in person, have you ever thought I had thoughts like these? You thought I was a really innocent sweet girl? You make me laugh. No, I'm not really laughing).

I used to be one those "niceties" that passed out "bless you" to anyone that has ever sneezed within my hearing rage, even people that sneezed as they walked past me in Main Street. But now, I think, "What is the point of blessing people when they're never going to bless you back in return?" It's rare to find people that I used to be like that say "bless you" to everyone. If I sneezed, and the person I blessed is right next to me, they ignore it and continue doing whatever it is that they're doing. Wow. I feel so loved. These back-stabbing bastards would just let some sick, twisted soul enter my body as my inner-self is sneezing out bad omens, and then in the spur of a moment, I become possessed by Lucifer! They couldn't spare two seconds of their life to bless me. This is the reason why I stopped saying "bless you", because I guarantee you you're never going to bless me.

"As Mortenson sat down with the men, he saw a pair of well-oiled AK-47s on the floor between their feet."

Image from armyrecognition.com

Can someone ever sit down without running into a Mr. Harvey pedophile or a plump man flaunting his greasy threat underneath his chair?

"'Big and powerful. We had Allah on our sides in Afghanistan,' Gul said, grinning. 'Also American Stinger missiles.'"

Despite some traditions that I don't particularly agree with the religion of Islam, it is remarkable how loyal these people are when it comes to their Qu'ran books with words lit by candle light. They beat me at this one. I have tried to become a Christian, but I'm struggling with this as my thoughts wonder off and I conclude the most Atheist things. I mean, isn't it a bit expected for a person like to me to doubt that there's this superior dude that can create the world off of his fingertips like magic? Isn't it reasonable to take up the possibility that maybe some random, excellently... delusional novelist wrote the Bible and threatened others to "join his religion" in a psycho-induced state, all the while shooting spurs on how they would all roast like turkey in the boiling pot of Hell and woeful eternity if they didn't put up crosses on their lawns. How do most people have the ability to latch onto the most ignorant fantasies of how the world came to be? I do stand by and respect some Christian morals, though.

"'Sweden says it is a peaceful country, but they they sell very deadly guns.'"

Oh, the irony! Hopefully the deadly guns have a neutralizer. Haha! Get it? Get it?

"'We have a great need for schools in my valley,' Gul said, 'Why don't you come back with us and build ten or twenty there? Even for girls, no problem.'"

It is humans' nature to be greedy, and they don't understand that Mortenson isn't Bill Gates. He doesn't have the money to spare for ten, twenty schools in Gul's valley when he was forty, sixty other schools to construct. If I was Mortenson, I wouldn't decline the asking, but I would gently let it off a bit by telling Gul that I was on a budget, and other villages need schools as well. But Gul's village can wait just a little more and maybe there can be more than one school built for them if the money can suffice.

"'I wish Westerners who misunderstand Muslims could have seen Syed Abbas in action that day,' Mortenson says. 'They would see that most people who practice the true teachings of Islam, even conservative mullahs like Syed Abbas, believe in peace and justice, not terror. Just as the Torah and Bible teach concern for those in distress, the Koran instructs all Muslims to make caring for widows, orphans, and refugees a priority.'"

The Bible, Torah, Qu'ran, and other religious readings are usually not direct on what it is trying to persuade the reader to do. I had a discussion with my seventh-grade English teacher, and we concluded that the actions of a person does not necessarily have to be from an impact of their religion. The information may be written, and it might have been filled to the brim with morality and good doing, but that does not mean the person will see it as so. It depends drastically on who is reading it and their opinion and thoughts that eventually intercepts on what they think their God or gods is trying to shoot the message towards them.