What Makes People Tick?

 Is there one great truth? One thing, or several things, that connect all religions? Is there one great universal truth? If there is... What is the great universal truth?  Certainly there are themes that seem universal, that come back in many different creeds and many different religions. But really, is there one universal truth that we can glean from the world's religions and spiritual systems? Trust and believe in something greater than yourself. Be kind to the needy. Be kind to the poor. Be kind to the orphans. Be kind to widows. Love your neighbour as yourself. Treat others as you'd want to be treated yourself. Don't lie. Don't kill. Treat your parents well. Have faith. Be kind. Do good. Show kindness. Be compassionate. Treat others well. Be kind to those who are less fortunate than you are. Those are themes that seem to come back time and again in the world's major religions.  Knowing only what I know, I want to write that the one great universal truth is this:...

 My friend died. And I am sad. A friend of mine died on Friday. She was a good person. A mother. A wife. A daughter. A sister. A friend. A colleague. And an all-round really awesome and amazing human being.  She died. And I'm alive. It feels unfair. Sometimes... The world feels unfair.  This is not a post about religion, about world politics, about big things that matter to many people. It is a personal post. A post about my own feelings. Because I'm angry, I'm sad, I'm hurt, I'm trying to understand why, when the death of a good person feels like it makes no sense.  My friend died. A good, kind and loving person died. Someone who was loved by many. She really was a light to so many who knew her. Someone who always made an effort to make the world a better place, one kind act at a time. And she should still be here. She should.  It feels wrong. It feels unfair. While I've cried a lot these past few days, I've also tried to make sense of her death. And to be ...

Lately, I've been reading a lot of books focusing on religion and spirituality. Books written by believers and practitioners, but also books written by outsiders and scholars - religious tourists, sociologists, anthropologists... One thing that strikes me over and over is that so many accounts from different religions have common elements or are even a re-telling of the same story but updated or changed to reflect the history, religion, language or culture of the ones telling the story. Reading accounts from different religions in regions that, as far as we know, never interacted before white Europeans started sailing around the world, laying claim to lands that were never theirs to lay claim to, and seeing how similar these accounts are, how many common factors there are, it makes me realise that when it comes to how we view religion and the divine, when it comes to the stories we tell regarding not just our own creation but the creation of the world and all living beings, we are ...

I would like to tell you the story of a girl who was one of my best friends when I was a teenager. I'll call her Anon (anonymous) and keep the details vague to protect her privacy. Anon was born in the part of Kurdistan that lies in Iraq in the days when Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq. After several family members and friends were taken captive and/or murdered by Hussein's regime, Anon and her family fled Kurdistan before they too would be murdered. The initial flight to safety took several weeks if not months while it would take years before they found a new home in the city where we met. My friend was a young girl when she left Kurdistan, yet when she talked about her childhood it was clear to see that the memories still haunted her. She'd get this far-away look in her eyes, as if she was looking at a movie of her own life, replaying images from her childhood on a screen only she could see. Anon is one of the kindest and gentlest people I've ever met, someone always ther...

The Dalai Lama writes an amazingly inspiring and insightful piece which puts into eloquent words that which I stumblingly hope to confer to the world in my own way through this blog - we are all human, we all think and feel, we all need to learn to share our planet and we all deserve to live with dignity and respect. I originally started writing this post in February 2015, then attempted to continue it later that year, before abandoning it again. It is now October 2017 and after resetting every password for this blog and the associated Twitter account, I've come back to it after barely thinking about it for more than two years. There are things I want to say, things I want to speak out about, things I want to write about... Doing that under my own name isn't always the smartest idea in this day and age, which is why I created this blog in the first place. What I write about however isn't all that controversial - equality for all, humans from different backgrounds underst...

I thought I was doing reasonably well. Honestly - I did. Walking around, talking, moving, doing my thing... I didn't lose a friend or family member. I know people who lost friends and loved ones. I think 99% of The Netherlands probably knows someone who knows someone that died... I am shocked, saddened, angry, hurt... I am a lot of things, however not personally involved. I didn't lose anyone who meant the world to me, I didn't lose the love of my life or my parents or children or my entire family. Then earlier today I read a newspaper article that made me sad, almost out of the blue. While a moment ago you would have sworn you were coping fine, suddenly all you can do is cry, cry, cry. Cry for the unfairness of war and loss and pain and cry for those poor people who died (What must their last seconds have been like?) and perhaps even more for their loved ones who have to learn to keep going, knowing they will miss those who died every day for the rest of their liv...