A few years ago, I made it a point to focus my reading list around books on Canada. I certainly knew more than the average American about the “True North”, which can no doubt be credited to me living there. But I didn’t really know Canada. I didn’t know a lot about the history, what it means to be Canadian (a feat I hope to achieve in the next few years). I was creating my own “Canadian History and Culture” class.
I imagined myself reading at least a dozen different books; most are still on my “To Read” list on Goodreads. But I did read three fantastic books: “The Promise of Canada”, “The Morning After: The 1995 Quebec Referendum and the Day that Almost Was” and “The Inconvenient Indian”.
I’m proud to say I now know everything there is to know about Canada. (This is a joke)
The reason I wanted to make that reading list is that there was something so fundamental to my life, and yet I knew nothing of importance about it.
Backstory
This past May, I sent my mom this song:
I send songs to my Mom now and then. I usually either don’t get a response, or I get something along the lines of “oh, that’s nice.” But this time I received:
I nailed it.
I have an excellent relationship with my Mom. However, she’s very religious, and I’m very not; this has proven to be testy in the past. The last time I went back home, we were talking about one of the things where we adamantly disagree with each other. It was a beautiful night, just the two of us were sitting outside on the patio talking. However, In the end, both of us were sitting outside crying; this was all because of the hurtful things I had said.
Looking back, I’m full of dread from that conversation. I don’t regret the stance I took in that conversation (it hasn’t changed), but I do regret how I handled it. That conversation was pretty much the embodiment of how much contempt I held towards people who believed in any religion.
The dread from that conversation came in quickly, but my contempt, more or less, stayed the same for some months. It was something about being locked inside during this pandemic that forced me to reflect.
I called my Mom a few hours before I sent that text and told her about a meditation course I was doing with one of my friends whom she has met before. To my surprise, we had found some common ground here.
Though it wasn’t my intention at the start of the call, before I hung up, I apologized for the hurtful things I had said to her the summer before. My Mom is the strongest person I know, much stronger than I could ever be, she doesn’t hold grudges, and she appreciated what I said, but she honestly didn’t understand what I was apologizing for.
When she texted me back saying she loved the song, it felt indescribable. Honestly, I’ve been trying for a few minutes to explain what it meant and I just can’t put it into words.
On that call, I also told my Mom about the newest reading challenge I had set out for myself. This time it was about religion. I was approaching this challenge mostly for the sake of expanding my knowledge about the world.
If my Canadian reading list was about being able to understand my new home, then the religion reading is about understanding the people in my very diverse city.
After the phone call with my Mom, the intent of this challenge shifted to a place of love and empathy. I’m not doing this to find a religion I want to convert to and I certainly don’t want to be trying to tear people down by poking holes in what they believe in. I want people to be able to feel like they can be who they are around me, no different from what I want.
The Reading List
For the start of this, I’ve chosen four religions and five books.
Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?: Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World
by Brian D. McLaren
Finished August 8th, Read the Post
This is my first book and I’m not counting it as my Christian reading. I was raised Catholic and I figure something talking about living in a multi-faith world from a Christian perspective would be a good way to get my feet wet.
Also, conveniently, the title makes a nod to the four religions I’ve chosen to focus on.
Essential Judaism
by George Robinson
This book scares me the most because of how big it is. Based on some of the reviews, I likely won’t be able to read it all the way through because of how much ground it covers. But it’ll be a great book to keep around for reference.
The Book of God
by Walter Wangerin Jr.
This book also scares me. It’s a long book. A novelization of the bible (also a long book) and written a while ago. So it’s a novel (not usually a fan), uses old-ish language and is super long. At least I got the audiobook version!
No God But God
by Reza Aslan
Several years ago, I stopped by the National Mosque of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. That was my first significant exposure to Islam. They paired me up with a guy who was my age and from the states. He was either studying or doing some sort of training at the mosque, I can’t remember, but he knew a lot. He was very patient, showed me around also answered a lot of my questions. I still don’t know anything beyond the fundamentals, but this book came recommended.
What The Buddha Taught
by Walpola Rahula
My one exposure to Buddhism was a Meetup event in Dallas of all places. I can’t remember how much I learned from that, but I was surprised to find out how many Buddhists (at least in Dallas) were into bungee jumping.
This book, once again, was one that came highly recommended. I’m trying to be open-minded when reading all of these books, but this is the one I’m going to be the most open to when starting. I meditate on a semi-regular basis, and I’m generally into woo-woo stuff.
After This List
I have a few other books I want to read within this challenge, but I might not get to them. There’s also a lot more religions to learn about, so I’m just scratching the surface here. Baby steps.
As a final word, I sent my Mom another song yesterday that she liked: