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baroque_mongooseI miscalculated my medication, so I had to return a day earlier than originally planned; and I'm seriously tired, largely because Sibyl got me up around 4 am. I woke up and thought, "ah... I'm going to have to take her to the loo right now or she's going to blow". Then I rolled over to turn on the bedside lamp (which my sister kindly provided after the incident the other night) and... she did. There was no major harm done as I'm well protected, but nonetheless I did have to go and change her, obviously, and that is not something anyone needs at 4 am.
Having said that, I did have an excellent journey. The taxi driver was very nice; he was chatty, quite opinionated (fortunately I agreed with him for the most part), very well-informed, and perceptive. He was also a Muslim. I didn't realise that at first, because the way he was talking I thought he was a Christian, especially because he always referred to "God" rather than "Allah". He was a particularly laid back and open-minded Muslim who was basically delighted to talk to anyone else who worshipped one God and was serious about doing so, and therefore we got on extremely well. I also learnt something about Islam I didn't know before. It was about Satan.
Judaism and all the religions that stem from it believe that Satan is basically a fallen angel, but Islam puts its own special spin on that. In Islam, Satan was not originally an angel; he was some other kind of being (I'm not quite clear what kind, but neither human nor angel, at any rate) who was created out of "smokeless fire", to quote my educated informant. However, initially he worshipped God so devotedly that he was raised to the company of the angels. But then God announced that he was going to create a viceroy on earth, and that all the angels were going to have to bow down to him. So God created humanity from clay, as per Genesis, and all the angels duly bowed down to them... except Satan, who refused. God then asked Satan why he had refused, although he already knew the answer, because he wanted the answer to be recorded. And Satan explained that he wasn't bowing down to humans because he was better than they were. He said, "I was created from fire. These people are only created from clay, so of course I'm better!"
So Satan was expelled from the company of the angels, not so much for his disobedience (though that was bad enough), but for the attitude that had led to it. He had become arrogant because he'd forgotten that his entire life and everything he had came from God, so nobody could claim to be better or worse than anyone else, because the same was true for everyone. And, while there would certainly be minor disagreements about the story of Satan, I think this taxi driver and my pastor would be 100% in accord about the nature of his sin. There are very many things Christians and Muslims don't agree on, but it was really nice to find a point on which we were in complete harmony.
It was a long journey, but it passed surprisingly quickly for both of us; and I was home in reasonable time for tea (my mealtimes do vary quite considerably, but it was quite a while since I'd had lunch, so I was ready for something to eat). Since then I've been too tired to do much other than write up my journal, send a couple of e-mails, and spod a bit. I also can't get either the webcam or the headset working at the moment, but perhaps they'll be better once I've rebooted this thing (I slept it over the journey so I didn't lose my Spelling Bee words). Oddly, it looks as if it has a webcam built in, but I can't get that to work at the moment either. Oh well. Not urgent.
Tonight I shall be enjoying an early night.
Having said that, I did have an excellent journey. The taxi driver was very nice; he was chatty, quite opinionated (fortunately I agreed with him for the most part), very well-informed, and perceptive. He was also a Muslim. I didn't realise that at first, because the way he was talking I thought he was a Christian, especially because he always referred to "God" rather than "Allah". He was a particularly laid back and open-minded Muslim who was basically delighted to talk to anyone else who worshipped one God and was serious about doing so, and therefore we got on extremely well. I also learnt something about Islam I didn't know before. It was about Satan.
Judaism and all the religions that stem from it believe that Satan is basically a fallen angel, but Islam puts its own special spin on that. In Islam, Satan was not originally an angel; he was some other kind of being (I'm not quite clear what kind, but neither human nor angel, at any rate) who was created out of "smokeless fire", to quote my educated informant. However, initially he worshipped God so devotedly that he was raised to the company of the angels. But then God announced that he was going to create a viceroy on earth, and that all the angels were going to have to bow down to him. So God created humanity from clay, as per Genesis, and all the angels duly bowed down to them... except Satan, who refused. God then asked Satan why he had refused, although he already knew the answer, because he wanted the answer to be recorded. And Satan explained that he wasn't bowing down to humans because he was better than they were. He said, "I was created from fire. These people are only created from clay, so of course I'm better!"
So Satan was expelled from the company of the angels, not so much for his disobedience (though that was bad enough), but for the attitude that had led to it. He had become arrogant because he'd forgotten that his entire life and everything he had came from God, so nobody could claim to be better or worse than anyone else, because the same was true for everyone. And, while there would certainly be minor disagreements about the story of Satan, I think this taxi driver and my pastor would be 100% in accord about the nature of his sin. There are very many things Christians and Muslims don't agree on, but it was really nice to find a point on which we were in complete harmony.
It was a long journey, but it passed surprisingly quickly for both of us; and I was home in reasonable time for tea (my mealtimes do vary quite considerably, but it was quite a while since I'd had lunch, so I was ready for something to eat). Since then I've been too tired to do much other than write up my journal, send a couple of e-mails, and spod a bit. I also can't get either the webcam or the headset working at the moment, but perhaps they'll be better once I've rebooted this thing (I slept it over the journey so I didn't lose my Spelling Bee words). Oddly, it looks as if it has a webcam built in, but I can't get that to work at the moment either. Oh well. Not urgent.
Tonight I shall be enjoying an early night.
