new language unit

So I started my new unit of language on Monday and after the first week I think I may be beginning to scratch the surface on the complicated system of beliefs going on here. Lots of different faiths going on and there is a clear majority. Lot of different areas to this country that have really different backgrounds and they are held together by a desire for unity. This is really something because when everyone is so spread out it seems to me that it would be hard for a national government to be meaningful and service so many people. But they seem to be managing ok, I mean what do I know really. But by and large the thing that they can all agree on is the power that the physical ground beneath them holds. No kidding.

Let me elaborate in a fashion. So what we can all agree on whether we are Jew, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or whatever else is that the universe cannot be related to directly. This whole universe thing is a big concept to me and I'm not entirely sure that I have the proper translation on the concept, so we'll stick with calling in a universe and agree that I'm learning language here. But we all agree that beyond whatever interpretation of God, YAHWEH, ALLAH or whatever else you believe in as superior, that you first have to get past the physical incarnation of the spirit world that exists in the earth. So you may have observed all of the laws of the Jewish faith, you may have followed the teachings of Mohammed to the letter, you may think you are experiencing the grace and freedom of Christ but you are still subject to a goddess in the ocean that can send tidal waves. You are still subject to the force of magma in the ground. You still need to honor the trees. And the gods and goddesses that control those forces need to be appeased and that is your duty, before you get to your religion.

I'm not trying to simplify this whole universe relationship thing or offend anyone's faith. Truly this is the half of the lesson I understood today. I don't think I would still understand it if they told it to be in English. I'm not so sure I'm smart enough to wrap my head around this in any language. I'm trying, I need to anyway because I have an hour presentation tomorrow in language and this is one of the concepts I'm supposed to be explaining. Certainly what makes this whole culture learning thing more difficult is the fact that it runs through my own American cultural filters.

So this is what I'm wrapping my head around in another language. I'm waiting for the unit on particle physics in the local language. I'm pretty sure I have just as good a chance of understanding that.