Mail Call

So today was a fantastic mail day. And no judging me, it is a small town and sometimes it is the little things that mean the most. So I came home after a long day to find not one but two packages! The first from my wonderful family, and the second from my best friend and her wonderful family. In the package from my family #2, was a small envelope that had traveled a very long way. All the way from Istanbul. Family #2 had been in Istanbul and Greece for a wedding and my best friend's mom (knowing me so well) sent some prayer beads she had gotten while there. When they were in Paris last year they brought back a rosary from Notre Dame Cathedral (I live vicariously through them). If you could not tell religious traditions fascinate me, and I love learning about them. When I went to the Hari Krishna temple for the Festival of Colors I also got a string of prayer beads and learned from the couple that runs the temple about their significance and use. So I thought, why not share what I learned about these new beads, also called tespih. Now there are two kinds of strings that you can use. The longer strands have 99 beads, or the shorter strands have 33 beads. The tespih comes from the word supha, which means to recite the glories of God. Each of the 99 beads represents one of the 99 names of God in Islam. When using these beads the first 33 you recite the entreaty Suphanallah, which means praise be to God. The second 33 you recite Elhumdulillah, which means glory be to God. The third set of 33 you repeat Allahuekber, or God is most great. If you have a the strand with 33 then you go around 3 times, until you end with one final prayer totaling 100. These strands can be made out of a number of materials including mother of pearl, gold, silver, ivory, amber, ebony and fragrant woods.

Now I apologize if I have gotten some of the facts incorrect, you can never be too sure when you are searching things online, but this seems to be the very basics of this tradition. It is amazing to me how similar we can be, yet as human beings we focus so much on our differences. For instance the Hindu prayer beads I got at the Hari Krishna temple are each carved out of wood and have the symbol of the mantra on it. You go through the beads, usually consisting of 108, but if not usually divisible by 9 and recite, chant or mentally repeat a mantra or the name of deity. I was told that it is through this repetition that you become one with deity and become closer to self realization. When I was young, I learned from my Catholic friends about their rosary. Which was used to count the series of prayers that make up the rosary. The prayers here consist of repetition of the Lord's prayer, followed by ten recitations of the Hail Mary and a single praying of Glory Be to the Father. Now I do not mean to over-simplify these sacred rituals, but I am amazed at how similar many of our religious customs are. In a time when there seems to be such animosity and hate for our differences, we are missing the things that connect us. Whether that be the belief in a higher power, in the desire to live happy lives or in our innate desire to love and be loved in return. On the scoreboard of life, our similarities seem to be pulling far ahead of our differences, and that is a side worth rooting on.