Hwk 18

My family doesn't celebrate thanksgiving. Instead of devoting one day to feasting, consuming a meal with family, and being thankful for all of what we have, my family does all this everyday of the year. Alhumdulilah we are all thankful to Allah every day of the year for what he has given us and lucky for me, I take part of a family that consumes their meal together each and every night no matter what. Thanksgiving was no different in my house when compared to any other day of the year.

Coincidentally the Muslim holiday Eid Ul Adha (Festival of Sacrifice) fell around a week before thanksgiving this year. During this holiday each Muslim family is responsible for the sacrifice of one or more animals depending on how many animals a family is able to afford. A family that can afford the sacrifice of one or more animals usually sacrifices their animals in the name of the husband and the wife (my parents). If the family can afford more animal sacrifices then they can choose to sacrifice animals for relatives that have passed on. My family gets an animal sacrificed by the name of my father, and then we set up the sacrifice of three additional animals by contacting the Edhi foundation. The three additional animals sacrificed will be fed to the poor and needy. These three animals are each sacrificed for an individual being; in my case it would be for my mother, my grandfather and my grandmother. I asked my mother why we had to sacrifice an animal for our grandparents if they have already passed on? She answered that because doing so inshAllah we will be recieve many great rewards in the future and so will your grandparents.

I spent my thanksgiving outside shopping with my mom, later on I was at home for the rest of the day spending time with my family. I felt like I was aware with my body and all the other bodies surrounding me. When I was at home I smelled the food my parents were cooking, I heard the TV while my dad was watching the news, I touched the fork while I was eating my meal, I tasted the meal that was prepared, I saw the meal sitting in front of me. But if I look at all of this through a different angle, all this would change. Even though I am able to use my five senses while I am living, I feel that I don't really pay close attention to them. I have become so used to using them that i have forgotten about them. I realize that I take my body for granted. If I were to suddenly become sick only then would I start to worry or ask myself "what is wrong with me?" I feel that even though we are living, we don't realize all that we have been blessed with, but the second we feel sick we start to question ourself; "are we alright?"..."is everything going to be okay?"

My family cooked a nice meal on thanksgiving, but it wasn't meant to be a thanksgiving meal. I am used to having a nice home cooked meal placed in front of me every night, but I guess this meal was extra special since it consisted meat from the animal that was sacrificed. We ate a meal consisting of marinated goat meat cooked over the stove, rice cooked with cumin, and a side of salad. The food did take some part in dominating the event. Because the food was special it caused the time spent with my family even more special and memorable in a way that next thanksgiving break I will be recalling this meal eaten with my family.

I usually go on the computer , have a conversation with my mom or spend time with my family after dinner. It's usually my dad who watches the news after dinner. Our dining table seats six people; we had 5 people (including me) seated around the table while we were eating our meal. My dining table is set up against the wall, so there are two seats that are taken away from the table (my sister takes the fifth seat which is in between my mother and my father). So there weren't really any empty seats. The whole table was filled with plates, glasses and food, so I wasn't able to see the pattern on the table cloth. There was no point during the meal where I felt that there was someone or something missing. I guess I have become used to eating a meal with my direct family only. I would really like to share many of my meals with my extended family, but they are all back in Pakistan. When I eat a home cooked meal I always feel as if I am eating a balanced meal. I never feel that I am eating something that lacks nutrition or will have poor effects on my body. Alhumdulilah I didn't have any family members that were sick, only seasonal coughing and sneezing but nothing that would affect our meal eaten together or our time spent together.

Hwk 17

I think this unit will help us think deeply about a very important concept which is shared throughout the world, yet not looked into deeply enough. We all connect to illness in dying one way or another. We have all been through a phase many times where our bodies suffer from sickness; some of us have also experienced close encounters with death or had relations with people who have passed on. Many times throughout my life my body has been through a state of sickness, and I have had one or two close encounters with death, but I feel as if it is only then that I am aware about the physicality of my body. When I am not in the state of sickness or I haven’t recently had a close encounter with death I go along with my life as if taking my physicality for granted. I feel that this applies to others as well. Many of us only have concern about our physical being when we are sick, when our body is not functioning properly, or when we have a close encounter with death.

On the topic of illness and dying I would like to point out that I have never attended a funeral and I don’t think I will be attending one in my whole life. This has to do with my religion and my culture. One question that keeps coming up in my mind is how do our social practices of illness and death compare to those of other societies? Do we all follow the general concept? Or has each society built their own set of norms which they strictly follow? In our culture we usually come across the scene of the doctor and the patient who is on their death bed. I would like to know is this the same with all societies? I personally feel that this idea of a doctor treating a patient is confusing. We are taking a risk with our health when we hand ourselves over to a doctor. This shows how we lack information on illness and death; this is why we turn to a higher educated individual. Shouldn’t we know how to care for ourselves by now? We always refer to others to help ourselves…why can’t we do something on our own for once? Or just accept the fact that we are going to die soon. The doctor won’t be able to do much except tell his/her patient about their problem and how long they have to live. In my opinion the whole doctor idea is a waste of time…the doctor isn’t handing out a magic pill that will keep us alive forever…but we act as if this is the case.

Each religion and culture has a certain set of rules they follow and believe in which are carried out through the time of illness and dying. Some believe in reincarnation, some believe in herbal remedies instead of prescription drugs, some don’t believe in anything at all. I feel like I keep jumping from one place to another, but this is because this is the first time I am actually taking time out to think about a topic which can relate to all of us but it isn’t given much concern at all. When many of us think about illness and death we have a certain scene that pops up into our mind, but I feel that we need to do better than come up with a scene. We need to figure out the why’s and the how’s…I am personally interested because I have never been close to a person that was very sick or had his/her days numbered; well I guess we all have our days numbered….but I mean specifically having their days numbered to a few months, weeks or even days in some cases.