The Yazidi (also Yezidi, Êzidî, Yazdani, ایزدیان, Եզդիներ, Езиды) are a Kurdish-speaking ethno-religious community who practice an ancient syncretic religion linked to Zoroastrianism and early Mesopotamian religions.[13][14][15] They live primarily in the Nineveh Province of northern Iraq, a region once part of ancient Assyria. Additional communities in Armenia, Georgia and Syria have been in decline since the 1990s, their members having migrated to Europe, especially to Germany.[16]
The Yazidi believe in God as creator of the world, which he has placed under the care of seven "holy beings" or angels, the "chief" (archangel) of whom is Melek Taus, the "Peacock Angel." In Zoroastrian-like tradition, the Peacock Angel embodied humanity's potential for both good (light) and bad (dark) acts, and due to pride temporarily fell from God's favor, before his remorseful tears extinguished the fires of his hellish prison and he reconciled with God.
Some followers of other monotheistic religions mistakenly equate the Peacock Angel with their own un-redeemed evil spirit Satan,[17][18] which has incited centuries of persecution of the Yazidi as "devil worshipers." Persecution of Yazidis has continued in their home communities within the borders of modern Iraq, under both Saddam Hussein and fundamentalist Sunni Muslim revolutionaries.[19] In August 2014 the Yazidi were targeted by the Islamic State, or IS, in its campaign to "purify" Iraq and neighboring countries of non-Islamist influences. [20]
More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidi
Yazidis, 1920.
Of course I mean no disrespect to the Yazidi people, who believe a strange amalgam of pre-Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and other beliefs -- one of those being Zoroastrianism, an essentially now GONE religion that I actually studied in eleventh grade at Henderson High School, in the World Religions unit of PROBLEMS OF DEMOCRACY class -- taught by the flat-top-headed and bull-dog-bodied Drivers' Ed teacher.
What really caught my eye about the Yazidis last night when I researched them, is that they believe God created EVERYTHING, including EVIL, and their respect for (if not worship of), the "Dark Side", is why many THEISTS (those who believe in one god who personally relates to people and interacts with them in Real Life -- like today's Evangelicals, especially), mistakenly think they are "devil worshipers", but if God really was a self-existent (or existent for reasons we cannot fathom now), singularity, and then contemplating Its own nature created everything out of Itself (all that there was to create from), in a process quite like THE BIG BANG THEORY (the Laws of Science are simply the laws of God's physical nature, which our scientists through trial and error, seek to clarify), then EVERYTHING is in essence 100% God, and the now-existent physical Universe is literally the current Physical Body of God -- said to be expanding infinitely.
Mathematical formula that explains that MATTER is a CONDENSATION of ENERGY, why it is mostly empty space and sub-atomic particles (radiation), are forever zooming right through it. Also, why splitting the atom releases TONS OF ENERGY.
Could there be ANY NEWS better than that???
It's why the Universe cannot and does not collapse on itself. God is Perfect Love!!!
>>> A FEW THINGS ABOUT WRITERS GROUP MEETING, PUERTO VALLARTA, YESTERDAY, STILL TO REPORT:
1. The first thing, pre-meeting, that happened was that Charles-the-Jaw chimed in when someone else and I were discussing the Dysfunctional United States Government, and declared it was time for all the GUN OWNERS, who are the REAL PATRIOTS, to get out their guns, take charge, and FIX EVERYTHING. I snapped right back at his sorry ass that while I do not ever recommend violence, the exception that proves MY rule is that HE and all others who believe the solution is to be found through violence and the Christian Church, should be VIOLENTLY KILLED FIRST.
That was enough to get "it" out of both our systems for the day, and when he read a story (using both "I seen" and "I had saw"), I said nary a word about his grammar, but offered genuine constructive criticism. His story was a good one, but lacked any interesting detail, going from point A to point B without a BIT of enjoyable scenery.
2. When I arrived, the air conditioning had not been turned on and no one could find its remote control. I searched high and low in the Red Room, control booth, several back rooms -- then found it on a shelf in the bar behind the counter. The counter being about three feet deep, and then space before the back wall, I had to crawl through the "man-hole" to get back there, and it was engineered only for the tiniest Mexican, so the squeeze took five minutes and I worked up a TOTAL SWEAT.
Returning to the Red Room and getting the two units going, I was literally soaked and dripping, like not one of the other Gringos ever gets as bad as, and several commented on it. I again explained that my mother's people are from northern Germany and Holland (her Meyer was actually the Dutch Meijer -- pronounced the same -- until agents in Ellis Island changed it. Her German is Wess, pronounced "Vayz"), and I am only moderately hairy like Dad, but my brother, his sons, and Mom's other male family members are so HIRSUTE, you can't find Mike's nipples, and if he doesn't spray his chest with Cling Free in the dry Pennsylvania winters, the lightening snaps of static electricity when he takes off a T-shirt are very painful.
I didn't mention that Mike told me that one summer when they first went to the beach or a pool, my nephews removed their shirts to expose they had shaved their abdomen and belly hair to make big hairy arrows pointing to their WANKERS!!!
And they were then still in HIGH SCHOOL!!!
3. Someone in Writers Group, yesterday -- who shall remain nameless -- declared that Robin gets his biggest yahoos from getting gay guys to desire him. I completely agree, but since he drank three pints of draft beer at lunch and remained seemingly completely sober, he's TOO MANLY FOR ME (and his sweat would all be stinky alcohol).
Max, Taylor, Mike, and Connor Kenan, 2009
OK, I might have exaggerated their hairiness a tad -- but the story is TRUE about the arrows, or at least Connor verified it.
Connor Kenan in selfie as the GAY DARTH VADER, taken about nine months ago while he toured S.E. Asia (largely Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia), for half a year with a buddy.
Connor is actually STRAIGHT (identifying), but has a WICKED sense of humor -- like his uncle Scott.
4.
I was afraid that a teasing Facebook conversation with Andrea, our new Austrian writers group member, who is a great writer and has translated beautifully from her native German to English (admittedly MUCH simpler than Spanish to English and vice-versa), I had scared her from yesterday's meeting, but I caught back up to her in another thread, and she had a HANGOVER from Bacardi -- that she drank at a sort of Harmonic Convergence or Kumbaya, that some younguns (like I used to do in my early twenties before I grew up from my "Feed Me, Burp, Me, Change My Diapers" stage and decided to get PRACTICAL), thought they would do together to cause WORLD PEACE:
Scott Kenan shared Scott Stabile's photo.
Remember this as you're freaking out...
Scott
When I was 2.5 - 6 years old, Dale Evans and Roy Rogers frequently visited Roy's first cousin who lived next door to us on Ebenezer Road in Cincinnati, and dressing in costume, entertained us neighborhood kids -- my FIRST celebrity encouragers!!!
.
No comments:
Post a Comment