Tell me why

“You need to know your religion and community because if someone asks you, you should be able to convince them about who you are?” I have to say I was so shocked when I heard these words. I had no idea how to react. “But religion is personal, it’s my belief in God.” I replied. “No it’s your identity, and you should know it well. What if someone asks you about your religion?”
I heard myself saying “But I could not believe in anyone or anything and that would be ok too.” Although I knew I had already lost the argument. I knew that from the very beginning. Not because I was wrong, but because I was so taken aback, I had no time or clarity to present my case. And even though I’m not normally someone who backs down without making sure their opinion is put on the table, I also felt that whatever I said would fall on deaf ears, and that in a way it should. I realised that I had no right to try and convince her of what I felt or believed in.
As we sipped on our vodkas, I realised that we were both happy to be living the lives we were. Made peace with the decisions to eat, or drink what we had allowed ourselves to, stretching limits where we saw fit and were surrounded by likeminded people.
And although we were very different and our beliefs and upbringings differed as well, we were both from the same city, we were both from the same religion and even belonged to the same community.
The funny part is people can be unified for many reasons. We were two girls who had so much in common including our drinks in hand, and yet were so different. Is it really all about what group you belong to?
A group that’s favourite colour is blue or red can stand unified by their love for that one colour.
In the USA if you pointed to a group of foreigners, they might consist of people from all over the world—India, Australia, China, Nepal, Africa and have very little in common, except for the fact that they are all foreigners here together. Mix them with a few Americans and have them flying on an airplane and they’re just a group of international passengers and that’s now the binding factor.
It reminds me of the game I loved to play as a kid, ‘Four Corners’, where everyone runs around and chooses a corner by name, and your fate to continue in the game, and maybe even win it, depends on the name of the corner you choose to run to at a particular time.
You run around in circles as the music plays, much like we run around with our daily hectic schedules and every time the music stops, you run to one side of the room hoping to outsmart the referee because if he calls the name of the corner that you are standing at, you’re out. However, if you’ve chosen to be part of another group at that time, you are safe, which also holds true for the many terrorist attacks we face today. So really it’s all a question of Luck By Chance.