Are you a Michigander ??

I live Michigan and I'm not at all ashamed of that. Our economy has taken a beating and 3/4 of the year is basically winter, but it's home away from home.

Despite the fact that this winter has sucked a big one, I'm proud to say I'm from Michigan.

What's a Michigander? Let me give you a taste:

1. No matter who you are, you use your hand to map out where each city is.

2. You may use both the heat and air conditioner in the same day.. NBD.

3. It's not soda, it's pop. You drink pop and bake with soda. 

4. Anyone who lives in the Upper Peninsula is a "Yooper". 

5. Nobody likes Michigan left turns but when you see someone screw it up, you automatically know that they aren't from Michigan. 

6. If you don't have one person in your family with a truck/four wheel drive vehicle, you're fucked.

7. "Up North" is an ideal vacation spot. Gorgeous lakes and trees for days.

8. You should know how to get your car out of a snow rut without a tow truck or even getting out of the car. (rock it back and forth baby) (twss)

9. Halloween costumes are picked out based solely on whether or not it will fit over a winter coat.

10. Car accidents are more frequently caused by stupid deer. Watch out for the stupid deer.

We're resilient, proud, and dedicated because we're from fucking Michigan. 

Also...we gave you cars, motown, cereal, and Madonna. You're welcome. 

Oh God – Where art thou!

Sitting in the waiting area of a car dealership, I heard an old lady ask me “Do you have trust in God??”, and to be honest, I could not react to this question. Perhaps a bit shocking for many of us, considering I’ve lived in India and belong to a religion which believes in the actuality of 33 crore Gods!!! Possibly many of my peers are facing the same predicament, do we truly believe in Divinity? It’s true that we attend religious rituals, visit temples and bow in front of idols, also make a wish or two but then, how many of these actions are an individual faith and how many just to respect the custom or elders in the family?

As children, we were taught to respect God, to fear, pray & believe. Our predecessors told us stories from the folklore, all glorifying the Deities as we know them now. Growing up, we know our traditional mythology, but then are we certain those events actually occurred? We have grown up associating ourselves to a particular religion, instructed to follow its customs, and expected to stay loyal to the religion of our birth. But how appropriate is it to our actuality? If whatever my religion says is true, if my God is true, then does it imply that other religions are false, that their God is false? Then won’t they believe in the same? That my religion, my God is false?

I know from personal experience that not all things that happen around us is under our control. And for the times when I really don’t have an explanation for a particular occurrence!  Depending on the significance of that event in my life, I term it God’s grace, luck, destiny or whatever. But a lack of explanation does not prove the existence of God, does it?

Personally speaking, I am a believer, not in a particular entity or religion, but I do believe that there are some things beyond my will or control and in such times, I just wait and watch. I believe in the positive energy and I believe in doing everything in my power. Maybe that is what some people describe as God. Maybe for some, the personification of this energy is necessary in order to believe. But then how does faith have anything to do with this??

My science teaches me not to accept anything without a rational justification. But this same science is still unable to explain a number of natural phenomenon. Does that mean I shouldn’t trust in science? Or should I generalize the same logic and believe in the existence of God?

I met with a small accident due to the Snow Storm in Detroit. I wasn’t hurt, but it could have been much worse. The incident freaked me out, to the extent that I stopped reading a book on atheism that I was carrying in my bag at that time. I still haven’t touched the book. In retrospect, it seems silly now, or probably makes it look like I do believe in God. I was scared then, for my life, for my family and such strong sentiments turned me into a believer, I was thankful to be safe and alive, and I expressed gratitude to God, not a particular God, but to me it was the energy of the universe, the power of the good, as I like to think.

Perhaps that is what makes people have faith in too, the fear of the unknown, of the things they can’t control, the hesitation in their world. Maybe believing in some higher power gives them the strength to move on no matter what. Maybe that’s why, people believe in God!!!