A Fast for Ramadan
As Ramadan begins, Muslims around the world will fast and prayer, make confession and repentance. Ramadan celebrates, among other things, the giving of the word. For the People of the Book, it is a time to express reverence and thanksgiving.
I have not expressed thanksgiving for the book of my people for a long time. Somewhere along the line my holy text got turned into a rule book. It lost its lore, it wonder and its intrigue. I don’t want it to be a rule book. I want it to be…..my grandmother’s scrapbook–full of notes, half-formed poems, handwritten recipes, ticket stub, yellowing newspaper clipping, a corsage from a ball with a date unknown, the dried wing of a butterfly.
So, I am fasting for Ramadan. I cannot fast from food, or my migraines would be impossible. But I am doing that faithful Protestant substitute, fasting time. And with my time, pulled from household chores and writing project and too many hours of must see TV, I will honor the book.
This is a journey with siblings estranged. A hope for reconciliation. A bid for understanding. You, oh, Lord have relationships offered in the palm of your hand. You offer the holy triumvirate: right relationship with the created word, with God, and with humanity itself. This small fasting of time and feasting on words is the first unknowing step on a leg of a journey towards your palm. May it not be wayward…at least, not for long. May it be true. May it take me to you and your offspring. Amen.
I think that is truly wonderful that you’re deciding to fast on Ramadan… the thought of doing it myself has occured to me, though it was usually cancelled by the fact it’s not part of “my religion”.
I find it sad that we can find so much difference between us and people of “other” books, and what you’re doing makes me rethink my choice. I wonder sometimes if we can honor them and make a cross-cultural, maybe cross-religious experience with them if we just try to honor God the way they do—and maybe we’ll all find something truly, wonderfully meaningful in it. Love it! ^_^
BTW, this is Blair Anderson’s son. I was at the eastern Generous Orthodoxy conference (kid with big jeans and long blonde hair)—I think I saw you, but unfortunately didn’t get to say hi. So, hi! ^_^
[…] Rachelle’s metaphor of Scripture as family scrapbook […]
[…] Having failed on the cross-cultural bridge building front, I turn my intentions towards the half-assed Fast-of-Time and Holy Book Attention Reclamation Program that I engaged in last year – namely, doing lectio divina on scriptural passages and responding to them with collage. […]