EneMV @enemv - Tumblr Blog

Is being abandoned by someone any reason for abandoning someone else?

I have always felt ashamed at being witnessed in the act of wanting something I could not have

#so we must meet apart #jennifer s. cheng

Wed. 10/26/2022

Having feelings for someone online is horrible. You keeping talking regularly until one day one of you or both stop talking. See you've no rights to ask them why they don't talk anymore, you got nothing to know about their personal life. you know nothing still you know something about them. That is why you had some feeling in your heart. Now that you both are busy in your life, not taling to each other, not thinking about each other, one day on a random unexpected moment, you will think of them. You never had them, you still lost them. No crossing paths anymore.

My kind of love is the kind that STAYS. When it rushes, and then slows down, and goes downhill—it stays. When there are questions, and there are answers, even how vague it would be or no answers at all—it stays. When there’s more rain, no rainbows, and sunshine—it stays. When it gives confusions instead of certainties—it stays. When the pieces end up scattered, or it no longer fits—it stays. When it gets lost, it still believes, trusts—and it stays. When it wrinkled, becomes grey, and the vision turns blurry—it stays. And when it dried up, withered, and slowly fades—IT WILL ALWAYS STAY. And when it stays… I hope your kind of love is the kind that FIGHTS.

#lavendar pen

unsolicited-opinions

I'm sick and cranky, so no opinions today.

Just a question.

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I like learning about religion.

I like learning about it in academic frameworks, whether that means theology, religious studies, history, sociology, or anthropology. I also like talking with people who are deeply committed to their faith, who can explain how it shapes their daily life and worldview. When someone brings up their religion, I’m usually interested. I want to understand what they believe, why, and how that shapes their reality or relationships.

But there’s an experience I keep having, and no matter how many times it happens, it still surprises me.

I keep meeting people who are emotionally and politically attached to a religious identity while seeming to know almost nothing about their religion.

I don't mean they're unfamiliar with obscure texts. I mean they're genuinely unaware of the most basic facts or core ideas.

And this cuts across traditions.

• Self-identifying Christians who don’t know what the Sermon on the Mount is. Who haven’t read any part of the Christian Bible. Who couldn’t tell you where or when Jesus lived, let alone what he actually preached.

• Self-identifying Muslims who believe that Abraham and Moses were Muslims. Who seem shocked or angry to learn that Islam came centuries later, and that their prophets were Jews. Who can’t define the Five Pillars or distinguish between Sunni and Shia.

• Self-identifying Jews who think Tikkun Olam is the main idea of Judaism. Who have never read any of the Tanakh, couldn’t describe what the Talmud is, and don’t know where the word "Jew" comes from.

This is common, arguably even normal...and still it confuses me whenever I encounter it.

I can't seem to wrap my head around building your identity, your politics, or your sense of right and wrong on a belief system you've never studied. I don’t understand forming metaphysical convictions about the nature of the universe or ethical convictions about how people should live without ever seriously engaging with the ideas from which those convictions originated.

Because the consequences of this show up everywhere.

They show up when Christian nationalists demand a theocracy based on a version of the Bible they've never read.

They show up when liberal American Jews (which also describes me, BTW) use "Tikkun Olam" as a foreign policy slogan but have never studied Jewish law, history, or ethics.

They show up when progressives claim solidarity with Islamists while supporting movements whose theology they've never investigated and whose social norms would horrify them in any other context.

They show up when policy, protest, or war is justified using religious terms that no one involved can define.

This raises, for me, a related question:

What drives people to kill and die for religious beliefs they don’t understand?

Or worse, beliefs they've never even attempted to understand?

Is this just tribalism? Is it about defining the self through opposition? Who you’re not, who you’re against? Ingroups and Outgroups? "Identity politics"?

I'm not being rhetorical. I'm asking.

If you've studied psychology, sociology, anthropology (looking at you, @emotionalsupportgolem), or religion and have some thoughts, I'd enjoy reading them.

How do people get so invested in world-changing beliefs without even sufficient curiousity to sincerely investigate those beliefs?

People say it's not worth crying over spilt milk. It's pointless to grieve over what you've lost; just forget it, they say. But I've come to see that attitude as lacking respect toward what's passed and what was lost.

#Your Story

A parting as sudden as our meeting. Though I still knew nothing, felt nothing, understood nothing, I was immediately terrified that this special thing was going to leave me.

#I will forget this feeling someday

I... have lots of things I reminisce about, I mean, there's nothing where I am at For example, Things like the summer clouds, the cold rain, the smell of the autumn wind. The sound of rain hitting umbrellas, the softness of the spring soil. The reassuring atmosphere of convenience stores at midnight. And, the cooling atmosphere of classrooms after school's out. The smell of blackboard erasers. The distant sound of trucks at midnight. The smell of asphalt during a shower at dusk. I've always wanted to... I've always wanted to experience those things with you...

#voices of a distant star