When Culinary Students Discuss Religion
I thought I knew my friends, but I was wrong
I thought I understood my religion, but I don’t
When someone says that point A connects to point B they aren’t always right
Religion is unclear, confusing, and misleading
My friends are not whom I thought they were
They are even more extraordinary than I believed
Not where you may have thought I was going
See even the writer is not who you thought she was
From an early age I was told what to believe
Religion is engraved within us
My parents may have thought they were letting me be expressive, but that was not always the case
The world was created in six days and Gd rested on the 7th or the world was created with a bang
What about neither
Is there a middle ground
The first story isn’t always the right one
If the concept of Gd didn’t exist what would that say about religion
Being atheist does not mean religion doesn’t matter
Beliefs are expressed in millions of ways
My friends are one of a kind
Even though we live and breathe food
we can talk about what we do not want to say, but need to
Religion makes me uncomfortable
My religion is me or am I my religion
When you read the Bible what are you really looking at
Jesus calms a storm
Jesus heals a woman or a man just by his touch
Myth or fact
Recorded or told through generations
How do I know what is real
When I can’t prove something should I still believe in it
Old or new testament
What lessons can I pull from these stories
10 commandments became the rap song of my life
I am the lord your only Gd, don’t make false idols if you hear me nod
Wars are not just about weapons
When will struggling end
Is it just a part of life that I have to accept and move on from
Can I do something about the unjust in the world
Or am I so small that I can easily be squashed by the next and brightest
Why is religion unfair
When people’s beliefs change why can’t their religion also change
Does the world not work that way
Conversion isn’t easy and it’s not clear cut
To become Jewish you have to step into a Mikvah a ritual bath
Does it cleanse you from your life before
Like washing the dishes so they are new again
Now for the one truth about me
I am Jewish
I may only be Jewish because my mother is, but I am trying to figure out what that says about me
History happened and continues to occur I can’t stop it even if I tried
I wasn’t born at the time of the Holocaust, but I am going to be the last generation to hear 1st hand accounts of survivors stories
Why did I gain so much responsibility
Not sure I can handle the pressure
Do my friends feel this kind of weight
Like someone is pressing on their shoulders
You may be thinking who is this girl
I can tell you that I am not even sure
And that’s ok because
If my friends can ask questions than so can I
I mean our conversation started with questions
That seemed to all fit together like pieces of a puzzle
This is what religion is
Trying to navigate through the mismatched squares wanting to make a perfect fit, but sometimes realizing that it’s a lot more complicated than you may think
http://www.thinksmarterworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Heart-Shaped-World1.jpg