On the day the US toppled Iran's religious leadership, I'm left wondering, amongst many things, the efficacy of Islam as it was implemented in this human political state, and across the world in militant, power-based groups. Both Islam and Christianity emerged from the Jewish faith. And Islam is fine with giving Jesus a non-divine title of Messiah, but they are not fine with him being the "Son of God", mostly because God, in Islamic interpretation, is immutable, inseparable, and absolute. This is also true of the Jewish interpretation of God and Jesus, though even further, Judaism does not confer the title of Messiah at all upon Jesus. As a quick aside, "Son of God" was often used for a highly devout person, even "THE Son of God" for Jewish Kings, titles, etc. And in Islam, again, Jesus could not have been crucified or killed because that would mean a failure of his purpose, though it could have been made to appear he was killed. But the point that sits with me now is, militant Islam groups strongly believe that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, is the deputy of the Hidden Imam whose authority is derived directly from God, not from the public, and that he is accountable only to God, and is therefore protected by the same divine mandate that cannot fail, as it supposedly failed with Jesus. So what does this mean, now that he has been killed? Can you blame Israel or the US for his death, if God was protecting him? Or was it God's will that he die, and the US and Israel were merely God's hand at work, since there is no other way for him to have died? Or was it the Great Satan who overcame God's protection? There really isn't much wiggle room. The strongest logical conclusion is that Iran's Supreme Leader was not a divinely mandated and protected leader, while claiming to be so. And for all of us, this is a stark reminder that the constructs of government and the power that comes with them are embodied, implemented and controlled by we crazy humans, divinely inspired or not. And that no one man, or woman, deserves recognition as "the only one who can" save us. We all, each of us, must bear that responsibility, both for ourselves and each other. I sure hope something wonderful comes out of what's happening in Iran. May the One who created us in compassion guide our hearts toward gentleness. May we walk humbly, seeing the dignity in every person. May peace be upon us, and may we become instruments of peace for others. May our hands bring comfort, our words bring healing, and our lives reflect mercy. And may we care for one another as we ourselves hope to be cared for. ייתן האל שברא אותנו ברחמים להנחות את לבנו לענווה. נלך בדרך ענווה ונראה את הכבוד שבכל אדם. יהיה שלום עלינו, ונהיה כלים לשלום בעיני אחרים. ידינו יביאו נחמה, דברינו יביאו רפואה, וחיינו ישקפו רחמים. ונדאג זה לזה כמו שאנו מקווים שידאגו לנו. لِيَهْدِنَا الَّذِي خَلَقَنَا بِالرَّحْمَةِ إِلَى اللُّطْفِ وَالتَّوَاضُعِ. وَلْنَسِرْ بِتَوَاضُعٍ وَنَرَى كَرَامَةَ كُلِّ إِنْسَانٍ. وَلْيَكُنِ السَّلَامُ عَلَيْنَا، وَلْنَكُنْ أَدَوَاتٍ لِلسَّلَامِ فِي أَعْيُنِ الآخَرِينَ. لِتَجْلِبْ أَيْدِينَا السَّكِينَةَ، وَلْتَجْلِبْ كَلِمَاتُنَا الشِّفَاءَ، وَلْتَكُنْ حَيَاتُنَا عَكْسًا لِلرَّحْمَةِ. وَلْنَعْتَنِ بِبَعْضِنَا بَعْضًا كَمَا نَرْجُو أَنْ يُعْتَنَى بِنَا. باشد که آن یکتایی که ما را با رحمت آفرید، دل‌های ما را به سوی مهربانی و فروتنی راهنمایی کند. با فروتنی گام برداریم و کرامت هر انسان را ببینیم. صلح بر ما باشد، و ما خود وسیله‌ای برای صلح دیگران شویم. دستان ما آرامش بیاورند، سخنان ما شفا دهند، و زندگی ما بازتابی از رحمت باشد. و از یکدیگر مراقبت کنیم، همان‌گونه که امید داریم از ما مراقبت شود.

Writing (and reading) has always been important to me. Over the years, the longest-running platform I used was self-hosted Wordpress. Lately, I've tried several others, including hosted ones and even static site generators. I don't like being used for revenue generation unless it's shared and optional. This led me to some smaller hosted sites but they weren't always the most reliable. So I created my own. And here it is. It's actually the second iteration, because the first turned out overly-complex. I tend to over-engineer. Hopefully this will keep me focused on writing and not feel like I'm fighting a back-end system.