The Moon

This is what I cannot stand about our community. The Lunar Calendar drives me absolutely nuts. For those of you who are Muslim, some of you can probably relate to what I'm saying.

I know that the Muslim Calendar goes according to the Lunar Calendar, and that the new moon signifies the beginning of a new month. For Eid, the new moon tells us that its the new month, which marks the end of the old month (Ramadan), thereby telling us that its time to celebrate Eid. What I do not understand is why our community is so incapable of applying a little bit of logic to this whole process. I can't help but think that some people in our community have a little bit of the fundamentalist thinking going on.

I mean really, there is a bit of science that can be applied here. We do know when the new moon will be. But even if you didn't want to go by that, even if you didn't want to use the scientific projections of when the new moon will be, there are places like Australia for example that should see the moon before we do. So, wouldn't WE here in North America be able to at least have that to go on? Why do we have to wait around the night before to see if someone in North America has determined if the moon was sighted in this part of the world? I mean, what do we really think- that the moon, if sighted in Australia will suddenly decide to pack its bags and go on vacation to Jupiter for a day and show up on this side of the world a day late? I mean REALLY- how stupid is that? Honestly, I am ashamed to be affiliated with such stupidity. I actually had to take Thursday AND Friday off work because I was too embarrassed to admit to people that I belong to such a stupid community with such incredibly idiotic thinking. What the hell is wrong with us?

So here I am- its Thursday. I'm sitting at home, and the Toronto community stands divided yet again. Half of Toronto is celebrating Eid today and the other half has decided to celebrate tomorrow. My family is celebrating tomorrow and my friends are celebrating today. This is idiotic, and our community is made up of a bunch of moronic fools. How incredibly embarrassing.

On the bright side, this did give me the opportunity to spend some one on one time with my daughter. I dropped my son off to school and was on my way to drop my daughter off when I suddenly realized- I have the day OFF. I'm not working today. I can actually keep my daughter with me (nobody died from missing a day of junior kindergarten). She was absolutely delighted when I made the suggestion. She was telling my mom that this is a special mommy and daughter day. Silver lining amidst a stupid process :-)

Another great thing is that today is actually a beautiful day outside. My daughter and I went for a walk, hand in hand, and she found a ladybug. She was so excited with her new "friend" that I couldn't help to marvel at how adorable she was. I guess that's the good part- in the middle of all this frustration, I get to spend some quality time with my little princess. This is what really matters. So, for today, I'm going to forget about my frustration with the community, forget about my ex, forget about tomorrow's upcoming family visit, and focus on today. Today, I get a whole day to spend with this angel. Now there's an Eid gift, just for me. An opportunity to smile, an opportunity to be happy, an opportunity to be reassured once again, that I'm doing the best I can, and that everything will be ok. I can still hear my daughter's song from this morning ringing in my head. "Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, please shine down on me"....