Sunday, August 12, 2007
Respecting God's Creation
I was 'schooled' by a six-year old a few days ago. I was sitting with my host family at dinner, we were all just politely chatting and someone brought up how they never see fish served in restauraunts here like they do in the Gulf. I commented "ana ma baHab asSemach," (I don't like fish) in a Kuwaiti dilect to be funny. The laughs tapered off as Sa'id, the six year old son, opened up a long tirade about how you should never say that you don't like something from God's creation. God created fish and all the animals for our benefit, so if we say that we don't like something from his creation we are disrespecting him by not receiving his gifts. Needless to say, I was dumbfounded. Next time I will be sure to say that I prefer not to eat something because it makes me sick!
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2 comments:
Yikes, sounds like he's been paying a little too much attention on Fridays...
Yea. There seems to be a pre-determined polite way of speaking in Arabic and it's easy to step into a puddle of fish eggs unintentionally. I would've said it exactly as you. I've been reprimanded for many things, but never not appreciating God's creations. Interesting.
I especially like answering 'How are you?' with 'al hamdu-allah'. To me, it means no matter how I am: sad, mad, good, bad, tired, sick, euphoric ... it's all good.
I also like 'bismallah' as grace. It's short and sweet and you can eat sooner.
;)
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