Introduction
Aashirya is a charismatic and energetic 58-year Indian woman working in the local beauty salon in Kabul, Afghanistan when we met. She is a dedicated Hindu and a widow who began working for the Army and Air Force Exchange Services (AAFES) after her husband died. She is the mother of two sons and eight grandchildren all living in El Paso Texas. Her sons who were both in the Army were the reason she became a member of the AAFES staff. Aashirya’s family was her number one priority. She loved to travel, she enjoyed meeting Soldiers and spent most of her time making them feel beautiful and as she would say, “I will make your hair look great if only for a few moments.” Everyone loved talking to her, and she was the most favorite beautician in the store, according to the owner, both male and female customers would ask for her by name and would wait if she was busy. Aashirya would have dinner with my coworkers and me at the local Italian restaurant very often, and like myself, she preferred vegetarian meals. She would share stories of her childhood in India, her love for Indian music and movies from Bollywood. The family was quite large, and they spent most of their time together. Religion was a big part of their lives, and she spent quite a bit of time in the Temple. She had heard about Jesus Christ, however, in reality, she hardly knew him nor did she have much knowledge about Christianity. She believed in honoring her religious beliefs, its customs, and traditions.
The following theories will be used in this paper to complete a personal assessment on Dasani: Fowler’s stages of faith development, Stimulation theories, control theories, and the practice orientation verses culture of poverty. Each theory will be summarized and then applied to Dasani in this assessment. The goal is to understand Dasani through spiritual and cultural dimensions and her physical environment.
Joni describes her views on life from before her accident. She had always thought what most girls and women thought about their lives: They had to have the “ideal look”. As she told her story, Joni said, "For one thing, my life values have gotten turned from wrong side down to right side up." Even more, she wants people to know that there are so many other things like friendships, relationships, and love that matter much more than that “ideal look”. Instead of focusing on what she wanted herself to look like, Joni devoted her life to her faith, her marriage, and to her artwork (“Joni’s Life Story”). During her depression, Joni relied heavily on the Bible to give her hope during the darkest times. Likewise, she didn’t give up on her faith and just throw it out the back door because her life suddenly got extremely difficult. On several occasions, she went to the Word of God for the answer to her questions and troubles. Joni has not only remained devoted to God, but also devoted to her husband, Ken. He is constantly supporting her, taking care of her, and showing his compassion and love. One thing Ken does every day for his wife is flip her over in the middle of the night to prevent pressure sores from forming on her body. It is often hard for Joni to display her affection for her husband through a simple hug or kiss. Even though she can't physically show her devotion to him, she praises and
Mina’s family, of the Indian culture and deriving from Africa, are very proud of their heritage and their traditional, conservative beliefs and morals. An unwritten tradition that is practiced by
This entry is about a woman on a journey to discover her religion. The author felt that she fell behind the religion department, compared to her friends that already had a set religion given to them by their parents. She discusses how she was afraid she would never find a religion that will suit her. She started researching churches and religions to find one that fit her beliefs and values. She believes that you shouldn’t do things out of revenge and that you should act on things you notice needs to be done. After visiting numerous churches, she is left her faithless and different perceptions on religion. In the end, she discovered her religion is Deity, a Christian religion that means to live a decent life that appeasing to the higher power. I found that this entry is related to me as well because I grew up with a strict set of beliefs my dad enforced on me. Growing up, I didn’t have the opportunity to live out my beliefs because of Apostolic beliefs of my dad. Being Apostolic, means that girls aren’t allowed to wear pants, makeup, cut their hair, wear skirts above the knee, wear hair extensions; unless bald, and listen to music that isn’t gospel. Additionally, you can’t work on Sundays, not allowed to have Christmas trees or seasonal decorations, girls have to place a prayer cloth over their head during service, boys can’t have their heads covered in church and boys can’t have long hair.
Much like O’Connor, the grandmother in this short story was raised in a religious setting. This contributes to and defines the way in
On the first morning to follow, the sun was yet to come out, I was dressed in my finest traditional clothes. Than I lay on the floor and was stretched by a female relative, other than a male or my father, but by my mom. It was a symbol of remolding myself, joints smoothed, and muscles massaged. As I got ready for that day, my hair is tied in a deerskin string and than my mother touched my face, she smiled and grabbed pieces of my hair in front and let it dangle on the sides of my face. Than I ran
In the United States of America people belong to different society, religions and nations live respectively. This is the primary motivation behind why this nation is more novel than different nations. One of the principle challenges that health care team confront consistently is to recognize and comprehend diverse religions. Christianity and Sikhism are the religions discussed by the writer in this paper are not extremely distinguished from each other. Every religion has its own principles and regulations and rules so one must think what will fit in with that religion. As a health care provider we are not obliged to know each and every point of interest of all religions. However, in the meantime we shouldn't disregard the basic concept of all
When I met Aine, I was deeply moved by his story. After his alcoholic father left, his mother worked tirelessly to support five children in rural Uganda through labor intensive farming. Aine and his siblings were orphaned at a young age as his mother eventually died from HIV/AIDS. I met him in Tokyo through a cultural exchange program run by Ashinaga, one of Japan’s largest nonprofit organizations. Ashinaga’s mission statement is to provide educational funding and psychological support for Japanese and African children who have lost one or both parents, primarily through traffic accidents or HIV/AIDS. I lost my mother over a year ago in a freeway accident and participated in Ashinaga’s summer camp as a way to cope. Aine attends Waseda University
A religious family in the story Why I am a Pagan by Zitkala-sa, talks about how this little girl was taught certain things that her family has always gone by. What she was taught, she now holds close to her life dearly, while also relying on it every moment of the day. Her life shows us a different view on cultural identity, how she was taught something important not only to her, but in everyone else’s as well. By showing her what the kind of men in her life mean the most to her. She says something about her religion, how it reflects her past, present, and future, along with what she stands for. She says, “I was taught long years ago by kind missionaries to read the holy book, these godly men taught me also the folly of our old beliefs.” (Zitkala-sa 2) In her culture, and
Death. Death is everywhere. I can smell, see and feel death’s presence around me; the smell reminded me of that one time when mother forgot to throw away the dead rat so she left it in the bathroom bin for days, the odour diffused fast, and soon the whole house was fulfilled with the smell of rotten flesh, and now I have to live with this smell every single day. I keep trying to run away from it but I never succeed, it feels like death is following me; haunting me, and slowly smothering me, I feel like it’s impossible for me to run away from it, no matter how hard I try.
Sia Furler, more commonly known by her stage name Sia, has been around since the late ‘90s. Furler’s discography spans from her first solo studio album OnlySee, released in December of 1997, to her most recent This Is Acting, released in January of this year. Except for the last two albums she has released, Furler’s albums have received mediocre success in sales. Although when it comes to her music, critics rarely have negative things to say. All of Furler’s fans can agree her albums showcase her talents as a vocalist, songwriter, and as a musician. Her album Some People Have Real Problems showcases these talents in a way that makes her fans argue this is probably her best album out of all seven.
In our society today, culture is not what it used to be hundreds of years ago. There is no more “pure” culture. Our culture today is enriched with many different traditions and customs that are being shared and adopted. Due to emigration and immigration, a variety of diverse customs, beliefs, and knowledge moved with every exiting and entering human being. Thus, changing and shaping the culture of many. Throughout the world, the beliefs and religious views of culture are dissimilar around the world. By taking the time to read, listen and learn about certain people’s culture, there will be knowledge and understanding that will be gained.
“Next stop will be New York Penn station, I repeat New York Penn station.” The loud voice of the conductor echoed. I have just woken up from my long nap from New Jersey, and opened my eyes with the vision of people rising up from their seats in unison as if it was a rehearsed dance piece. It took me a moment to realize that I am about to step into the streets of New York City, the Big Apple. This has been a dream of mine since I was a child and a streak of excitement shook me as I rose from my seat. The train comes to a screeching break, bringing all of us to a harsh stop, and the hissing doors open welcoming us to Penn station New York City!
My interviewee Tony Khanna, a fellow co-worker, took me to his temple he goes to worship, on a Sunday evening. He took me to the Sri Meenakshi Devasthanam located in Pearland, Texas. The first thing I noticed upon arrival at the temple is the beautiful architectural building design outside. I was in amazement of how beautiful the temple was. I had not seen something so beautiful in quite awhile. The temple is visible from a quite a distance away and has two stunning white towers. When coming up to the temple from the parking lot Tony indicated to me that the temple was established in 1977 and was a replica of a famous temple in India. There was a huge white gate we had to walk through to get to the main temple. Once inside I was greeted by many Hindu's that were quite pleasant and talkative towards this outsider that I was. Before the visit one of my questions to Tony was if Hindu's welcomed outsiders within their temples. He indicated that Hindu's are very open and that I would be welcomed. I was quite surprised for this to be so true. With in the confines of the temple there were many different kinds of symbols that I was not quite familiar with. A couple that I noted was a Diya, Om, and Swastika. There were
Many of us individuals face conflicts almost everyday in our lives. People of all culture have challenging in their lives that they come across a certain incident and get confused in what decision to be made. These conflicts could be a conflict between oneself and another person, an inner-conflict, a conflict between oneself and nature, one and society, or oneself and God. There are positive and negative intercultural conflicts that occurs every day. An example of a positive conflict could be two different cultures compliment one another on the way they dress or how good their food is in the way they prepare it in their culture, or just communicating and respecting one another with the issue that needs to be addressed openly. A negative conflict is when someone has a lack of communication and unwilling to compromise. According to lecture 6, “intercultural conflict occurs when differences in goals, expectations, and values stem from broader cultural differences” (COM-263 Lecture 6, 2017). This paper will describe an incident that happened in France with a Muslim women on how the conflict arose, the best way to handle the conflict, and one recommendation that comes from a Christian Worldview.