My Wandering Mind

Wandering mind.

Those of you that personnally know me, are aware that my mind can link a number of topics in almost rapid sucession.

Sometimes useful, sometimes not.

Today, being Friday and in Khartoum, it is not a work day, according to Sharia Law.

Time must be spent in prayer and I believe, with family.

Are you old enough to remember the "Blue Laws" in Pennsylvania?

Blue laws" were state laws which prohibited non-essential or certain forms of commerce on Sundays, in order to create an uniform day of rest for the community. They had their origins in the colonial period, and were named for the color of the paper on which they were originally printed.

In 1959, Pennsylvania passed just such a blue law, requiring shops and other businesses to remain closed on Sundays.

Since I do remember living in Pennsylvania when blue laws were in effect, a little history about the case is relevant, as I do not work today, Friday, due to residing in a predomanently Muslim city.

The Case

The appellant, Abraham Braunfeld, owned and operated a clothing and home furnishing store in Philadelphia.

He was also an Orthodox Jew; his religion required him to observe the Sabbath, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, by engaging in no work and closing his shop. Because of the revenue lost on Friday evening and all day Saturday, Braunfeld relied on being open on Sundays.

Braunfeld asserted that if he was required to also close his shop on Sundays, in accordance with the Pennsylvania blue law, he would necessarily suffer economic hardship, and would not be able to continue in his business.

The appellant asserted that this interfered with his First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion.

The case was dismissed at the state level and appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The appellant in this case, as well as the appellants in Two Guys from Harrison-Allentown, Inc., v. McGinley argued that the Pennsylvania statute was an attempt to establish a religion, since the blue laws emerged from the Christian practice of refraining from work on Sunday

In 1961, the Supreme Court upheld that "Blue Laws", which force the closing of stores on Sundays, did not interfere with the free exercise of religion.

The Chief Lawyer for the Appellee, Philadelphia Police Department, was David Berger. The Justices for the Court were Hugo Lafayette Black, Tom C. Clark, Felix Frankfurter, John Marshall Harlan II, Charles Evans Whittaker, Earl Warren (writing for the Court). The Justices Dissenting were William J. Brennan, Jr., William O. Douglas, Potter Stewart Place Washington, D.C. The decision upheld Pennsylvania's blue laws, deciding that they did not violate individual freedom of religion.

The significance was that The Court had to consider whether a law which establishes a valid secular goal, but which results in indirect burdens for people of a particular religion, violates First Amendment rights to the freedom of religion.

The Court decided that laws which do not prohibit the practice of a religion, even if they present related difficulties, cannot be considered unconstitutional.

So here I sit, in the outer courtyard watching everyone make their way to the mosque, with or without a prayer mat.

And lots of others sit too. It is not likely to be repealed, as the Blue Laws were.

Enough history.

Relevance

Then I thought, if this is meant as time for God and family, is it not possible to show devotion without the law?

Growing up in NY state, we did not have blue laws. I remember Sunday as the day we went to church, sang in the choir, hung out at church, stopped at the bakery for crumb buns, went home, played, completed homework, etc. No laws.

I had lots of Jewish friends who went to synague on Saturdays.

But, to tell you the truth, I cannot remember if any store was open, other than the corner grocery store, the delicatessan or the bakery.

I do remember not shopping. I never gave much thought to commerce.

So, since it was Friday and I had time on my hands, I thought that I would do something very "pious".

Peity

Webster's defines piety as Having or showing or expressing reverence for a deity.

Since I could not venture into a mosque, I would show my reverence for God by sitting in the sun for about and hour and a half, the time it takes to walk to and from the mosque and to pray.

While sitting, I would pray and meditate.

What I realized, after about twenty minutes, was that I could not imagine walking around in this heat completely covered.

Who was I to complain, when these women were walking about, suffering heat stroke, as homage to God?

I was in the shade with a cold water bottle by my side.

But then, a disruption.

Blessed are the poor

A woman had come up behind me, outside the fench, askng for food. I have seen this woman alot.

So I am ashamed to say, that at first I ignored her.

She did not budge.

I gave her my water bottle. I am so wonderful.

Then, she threw the top on the ground, and I actually thought:

You just littered.

As she walked away and finished drinking, she threw the bottle to the ground.

What was she thinking?

What was she thinkg, what was I thinking?

I was using my recyling brain in a society where recyling is not an issue. Starvation is.

Sami, next door, laughs about my food and cooking restrictions.

No salt, no sugar, no meat, no poulty, no frying, no soda.

He said, people in Sudan eat what is available.

I am such a foreigner.

I have the luxury of deciding what I eat, what I drink, even here.

My brain is not wandering right now.

It is stuck on the fact that I have so much to learn and so much to be thankful for.

God is and has been very good to me.

Peace, Shalom, Salome