OUR REALITIES

                I wouldn’t say I had a bad week, but I would say I spent much of it wishing things were different, maybe that I lived somewhere else or that I would not have to work so hard.  In other words I was feeling sorry for myself and even though I am really into my Jane Eyre novel I would read the same page a couple of times before I would finally be able to let go of my daily grind and fall into Jane’s.  This week Jane finally stands up to her aunt and is sent away to a boarding school for girls.  The school is very rigid and the girls are dressed very plainly with terrible burnt porridge, and lots of bible reciting.   I can almost hear Pink Floyd in the back ground singing, Another Brick in the Wall.  Still it is comfort and stress release to be a fly on the wall in Jane’s world rather than my own.

            My co-worker gives me all of his newspapers and magazines after he is finished reading them, and this week I got, National Geographic.  I was excited to open it because the headline this month was, “The Birth of Religion: The World’s First Temple.”  Upon opening the magazine my eyes caught a picture of a young Indian girl looking into the camera being carried by an older man, a very sweet image.  However the sweetness of the picture was quickly changed once I read the caption, “Long after midnight, five year old Rajani is roused from sleep and carried by her uncle to her wedding.  Child marriage is illegal in India, so ceremonies are often held in the wee hours of the morning.  It becomes a secret the whole village keeps, explained one farmer.”  The article went on to explain the lack of education among these young women and so the cycle continues.  I must also include that there are some girls breaking free of this tradition and going to the police and the court systems to get divorces or tell on their parents before they are married under age.  In some areas even though it is illegal it is still considered somewhat acceptable for girls of puberty age to be eligible to get married.  The reason for these young marriages is for families to get out of debt from other families or to be guaranteed into a good family (such as Rajani, “By tradition, the young bride is expected to live at home until puberty, when a second ceremony transfers her to her husband.”)  This really puts things into perspective because my life is quite the opposite of these young girls and yet I expect and want so much more.