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CreativeChicGrl
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Name: Karen
Country: United States
State: Louisiana
Metro: Shreveport
Gender: Female
Interests: singing, poetry, God, playing the piano, rollerblading, dancing, art, nature, friends and family, cirque du soleil, watercoloring, cats, listening to music, languages
Expertise: i would like to say music, but i'm still learning!
Occupation: Student
Industry: Entertainment
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
1/4/2005
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| i've found over the past well, while.. that one of the answers to some the biggest questions of life... like where did we come from? is there a God? what happens after we die? why am i here?.. one of the answers is "faith in what you personally believe". every life is individual, every fingerprint is different, so why not each person's answer to the big questions be different and individual. maybe we all don't have the same kind of afterlife.. surely we all have different reasons for being on earth at this moment. maybe this is just dealing with the power of the mind to manifest what it believes.. but why not? why fight and argue and stress out over who is right and who is wrong.. who's answer is better, or more faithful or religious, or more scientific, or more or less logical. in many ways, our religions of this world have brought about more conflict and disagrement than peace and understanding, which seems to be a consistent belief and goal in alot of world religions. this doesn't only happen with religion either. intellectual and scientific knowledge have also brought about debates of who is right and wrong. different groups and factions are going to be created in the world because we all are different. in my view, that's not the issue. the issue is judgement and persecution and prejudice and the need and want for others to assimilate to what each of us is and believes.
as long as government is our best way of bringing people together most of the time in a civil way, maybe this living together without judgement or persection or assimilation will never happen. but people can believe individually and accept differences. people can make that choice if they see the benefits of doing so. the biggest benefits i can see are peace and love and the ability to believe and act as one chooses (unless harm is done to others). it's like a "hands off" approach to other people's ways of life.
and feeling this way doesn't necessarily make a person morally degraded by classic american moral standards. that's the beauty of this system of belief. you can choose to do what you want without fear of others judging you or persecuting you (no matter if it's seen as moral or not.. as long as harm isn't done to other people); the hard part, though, is reciprocating this belief in "the faith and belief of others". inner peace is one of the best things one can wish for.
eh, anyway, just a thought. ~ karen | | |
| "Anything Goes" finished its run in shreveport, and now i'm back in pittsburg for a couple of weeks before school starts again. oh yeah, and i'm going to cincinnati wednesday through sunday for my cousins wedding.
thanks to my wonderful boyfriend, stephen, i now officially enjoy Star Trek: TNG... hmmm. for some reason, i always thought that star wars and star trek were almost the same thing. probably for the obvious reason involving stars... yeah, anyway, not so much. just as stephen suggested, i am very intrigued with star trek's constant sense of exploration and community. i used to not tell many people, but now i will openly and proudly proclaim that...
jalepenos ate my toes.
ciao ~
karen | | |
| so, i'm back from india.. have been for about a month. it was hard to get adjusted to the u.s. again. i miss india.. i miss the tibetans and the mountains and the adventures.
performance time has come for "anything goes" .. a cole porter musical. it's being performed at the performing arts center in shreveport. yet another show that in which i'm in the chorus, but i do have one line "I'm a sinner!".. tee hee. it's been great fun, especially with stephen doing the show as well. i didn't have the same sentiments in the beginning, but sometimes you have to look on the bright side and have fun even when you were expecting something completely different.
i don't even know who all is still doing the xanga thing.
wishing well to everybody!
~ karen | | |
| wow.. i really don't even know where to begin, so i will start with today i suppose
today we are in a town called mandi. it's pretty busy, seems a little shady. but it's GREAT for fabric, all kinds of colors, textures, patterns. in about an hour, our group is going to go out and get saris made for the females and something for the guys.. i already have my heart set on a deep watermelon pink color for my sari. but.. if i can't find that color, i can be flexible.. maybe ^_^
this trip has been kind of weird because i've been away from home so many times and been out of the country. i've never before experienced the kind of homesickness i have felt here. i think the difference is that i feel singled out sometimes because i'm white and i don't speak hindi or understand a bit of it. i have a more extreme respect than before for people living in the u.s. that are not american or don't speak english. for the most part, indians speak english because of the british occupation in the late 1800s early 1900s. most foreigners in the u.s. don't even get that luxury.
another thing is that i've been minorly sick quite a few times. eh, heat exhaustion, food poisoning, allergies, bad cold, food poisoning again... along with the upset stomach that every person in my group has gotten at one point or another. BUT it's all good now. i woke up this morning saying to myself that i will actully miss india when i leave. an idea struck me while we were riding in the jeep this morning. i miss home because of family and friends and just because i'm not home... but i've been struggling with trying not to just automatically say the u.s. is better because i don't necessarily believe that. so the idea hit me this morning. why should i be ashamed that i miss the culture that i call home? yeah, things are wrong with america, but things are wrong with every place in the world. so, you do what you can to help people and change the world wherever you might happen to be, but it's okay to still have that special place in your heart for home.
okay, blah blah... if you still reading ^_^ besides that we've done alot of cool things, like visit buddhist nuns who live in caves (nonetheless, caves with refrigerators, electricity, beds, kitchens, doors w/ locks, etc.... ), climbed and hung out at the summit of a mountain in the himalayas... we're going to see the taj mahal.. such exciting stuff.
so, long story short.. i'm really not that homesick anymore. i talked to my parents last night.. gave a little bit of a taste of home... AND i'm not physically sick anymore.. hopefully it will stay that way for two more weeks. so, i come back from this amazing trip and then go on with my life. you know, nice american home life with daily showers and ice cream. eh, sounds frivolous, i know, but sometimes you've gotta treat yourself
anyway, alot to say, but really no time to say it.. ttyl!
~ karen | | |
| so, now in dharmasala... much cooler. mountain town by the himylayas.. just ate an italian food restaurant. haha, actually pretty good italian food in india.. that's pretty wild. it's such a welcome relief from delhi, though. not nearly as dirty or as much pollution. thanks for everybody's comments!! it is a wonderful experience, so different than i ever imagined, though. the poverty here is just unweildy at times. the traffic is horrible!! people driving every which way, lanes really don't mean much. bikes, mopeds, buses, cars, everything on one-lane road. that's even when there are divisions in the road. i'm still getting used to the culture, the atmosphere. i can say delhi was an experience with beggars, cows, poor city life in general, but welcome relief from mountains. this is the hardest trip i've ever been on, emotionally, physically, mentally. but i know i will grow so much from it and come to understand and learn so much about people and problems people have in general.. like poverty and pollution. i'm sleepy, but i'll post later : )
god bless,
karen | | |
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