Today we went to Lori's house for lunch/dinner, or whatever, but mostly just to hang out and talk. A lot of people that I wished could have gone couldn't go, and that made me sad, like Hortense, Haley, and Jen. Lori is my professor for CAS 100H and she's really awesome. Very alive. Haley and I, since she's actually in the class with me now, used to talk about how awesome she was and how we should Facebook friend her and go hang out with her on the weekends.
We came and had some vegan pizza, and then some vegetarian baked goods, and then went downstairs to play Wii and talk and not play pool, and then went upstairs to have a short concert, and then just proceeded to talk for a long time.
By the end of the evening it was just six of us or so sitting around the dining room table with her, and Stef mostly talked, mostly about her relationship with a Muslim boy who wasn't allowed to see her because she was not herself a Muslim. She gave her first speech in the class about this topic too, and it was clear from the way that she talked about it that it still gives her massive amounts of trouble and heartache. At one point I wondered if she might cry because I asked about it. I felt bad for asking about it at first, but then she talked more about it, and I thought maybe it was good that I asked.
I brought up arranged marriage, I think, but maybe it was Stef or Lori that did. In either case, I talked about how at first I thought it was a really silly idea and it made me uncomfortable to think about. Then I met my best friend at school, Tarik, this really bad-ass Muslim dude (as I described him to the table), who was pretty excited to get an arranged marriage. And I said eventually as I talked to him about it, I sort of came to understand why: He doesn't feel like dealing with the whole stupid annoying courtship crap, and he trusts that his parents are going to pick someone awesome for him. I said that even though my dad would never arrange a marriage for me, I saw his point, because I'm positive my dad would pick someone amazing for me, too, given the chance. [KEEP THIS IN MIND, DAD, IF YOU'RE STALKING MY BLOG. ARTS AND MATH.] And then I mentioned that I thought it was really cool that arranged-marriage societies all sort of make a statement about love, as a society, that it's not some crazy thing out of your control, but a choice. You can make the choice to love. Your parents will find someone who is good, and you'll spend the rest of you're life with them, and you'll be good to them, and they'll be good to you, and you'll love them. And if you have the right attitude, you can love anyone, because it's something you can control.
When we were leaving and saying our goodbyes, I leaned down to say goodbye to their dog and said, "Bye, Linus! Make the choice to love!"
Peace out.
