Same Country, Two Different Worlds

[poliphilo]

The local birds haven't figured out yet that I'm back and putting out food for them.

My mother lives in rural isolation and you don't notice the school holidays because there are no children of school age within miles. Here we're on the edge of town; the street is full of kids, riding bikes, sitting on walls. It's noisy but also sort of joyous. Windows are open and the people behind the windows are playing rap music.

We were talking over the wall with Sam. She says it's harder to keep Ramadan in Europe than it is in the Islamic homelands because the days are longer. I gather she fasts patchily.

Moving around the country the way we're doing we seem to be dodging the more extreme weather. I'm told London had thunderstorms yesterday.

Comments

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Ramadan - I've been thinking about that quite a bit because I started the 5:2 diet to lose some weight just a week or so before Ramadan started. I found it tough going just two to three days a week, so every single day (ok there is feasting at night) I can't imagine how that could be sustained.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

What would a Muslim do if they lived north of the Arctic circle where the sun never sets? As the sun doesn't set at all at this time of year, they'd starve to death if they followed the fast properly. The rules just weren't made for northern climes, though I suppose one way round the problem would be to work by the time of sunrise/sunset in Mecca?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Sam says she can't manage the fasting when she's working- at least not in this weather.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ailz was saying that a Muslim guy who was up in the Space Station had terrible problems.

My understanding is the rules are bendable and- in the main- humanely administered. If people risk making themselves ill they're let off with no shame attached.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Islam, like Judaism long ago mastered casuistry so there are always ways round.

Shame Christianity never seems to have learned this lesson (unless, like me, you're a Quaker :o)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Christianity- except at its extremes- has very largely given up bothering.

I'm reading a book about the 17th century Marquis of Newcastle. He and his family had a special dispensation from the Archbishop of Canterbury (a personal friend) which allowed them to dodge fish on Fridays. For every meat dinner they ate they paid out so much in alms to the poor.