In his Huffington Post editorial, I feel that Eboo Patel really hits the mark on his points when he shares his emotional thoughts of the time with us, the readers. One of the biggest parts of having a strong literary piece is to forge an emotional connection with those who lay their eyes on your work. He’s frantically looking for solutions to the problems of the world that he wants to change and make a difference of, but struggles to find a simple solution, or even a place to start his quest to fix a world that “needed more than flimsy tape.” Talking about “flailing about wildly” and having a “frantic outlook,” you can sense the tension in his thoughts, and how worried he was for the world that he lives in.
One of the classical ways of telling a story is to have your protagonist find a path to discover who they and what they’re meant to do with their life. By being directed to the St. Jude Catholic Worker’s house, even as a non-Catholic, it was the first step for him reaching a new inner peace for himself. After visiting his Grandmother in India, and discovering a new person on the couch, who they call Anisa, who sought out refuge after being beaten by her family, life became all about becoming a good person to all, regardless of religion and beliefs. Religions should be used to get people into the door, not the reason for being a good person to one another. Being nice to all should be a given, it shouldn’t be something we’re religiously contractually obligated to do, it should come from the goodness of out hearts. Because, if we’re not good to those around us, do we even have any humanity left inside us?
I agree with your commentary about Patel using religion as a guiding tool to be good instead of a using religion as a scapegoat of sorts.
Interesting view point here Jacob! I agree with you about how the author uses religion as a moral compass for being a good person rather than scolding region instead.
I thought you did a great job explaining how Patel used religion as the route to discover who you are in life, and how goodness should come from within regardless of religion. I enjoyed how you questioned the existence of humanity, if we are not good to those around us. Great job.