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[ Monday, June 30, 2003 ]

 

Accident, Evolution, & Vanilla

I just came home from DVC (community college) where I am taking a Social Sciences class during the summer. About a block from campus, I slowly stopped as a light turned from yellow to red. A moment later as I glanced in my rearview mirror, I noticed that the Dodge Durango behind me wasn�t slowing down. The driver was actually looking to the side, didn�t notice the red light, and slammed right into me. If we hadn�t been in front of him, the driver would�ve just run the red light. Alhamdulillah, Helen K. and I were all right; we were just shaken up. I turned left into a parking lot and the driver and I exchanged all the necessary information. The driver is probably in his early twenties and he was so shocked that he didn�t even say he was sorry. His truck just has some scratches in the front, whereas our Mitsubishi Galant looks pretty bad. The back bumper got pushed in so that it protrudes on the sides. The trunk also got pushed in, sticks up a little bit, and won�t open. The car drives all right, although it may need a wheel alignment and there may be other mechanical damages that I am not yet aware of. Alhamdulillah, Daddy had just added me and the Galant onto the insurance policy. Daddy says that he may not want to file a claim and deal with the insurance companies if the driver�s mother (whom the car is registered under) is willing to cooperate. I�m just glad that we�re ok. Man, something as simple as not looking ahead for a second can sure have serious consequences when driving. I remember in drivers� ed we had learned that more teenagers die from city accidents than from freeway accidents. Maybe it�s morbid of me to think about things like that, but I�m the one who just got hit so I think I�m entitled to thinking that way. Man, I know that I for one wake up in the morning and go through my whole routine just expecting that I�ll make it through the day. Sometimes wake up calls like I just had are important to rememeber that just because I'm young doesn't mean that I'm entitled to a long life.

Helen and I had just been talking about our class�Social Sciences. We just started the anthropology portion of the class and we were discussing Evolution v. Creationism. Pretty interesting subject. For once out class actually felt like having a discussion. I have to admit that I was very annoyed with the couple sitting behind me. Just because they don�t agree with a certain religion or philosophy doesn�t make it all right for them to be arrogant and make fun of those who do. The teacher had talked about �Scientific Creationism� and how he does not really see science related to the Bible. A couple of Christian students were defending the Creationism argument. The teacher seemed to imply that science and religion does not mix, so I raised my hand and talked about the Qur�an and its many references to sciences, such embryology, astronomy, oceanography, etc. I did agree with the teacher that even though some people say they aren�t religious, or that they are atheists, science is still like a religion to them because it is how they view the world. If you look at it from the flip side, we Muslims know that we were created to worship Allah (SWT) and our whole lives revolve around trying to become the best Muslims we can become�we know our purpose in life and what to expect. Everything we think about is affected by our belief in Islam and our Islamic lifestyle. The beautiful thing about Islam is that it incorporates everything in life: science, philosophy, law, behavior, history�all in one! It makes me appreciate Islam even more.

So like I said, I�m taking a summer class. I was originally supposed to take a Printmaking class, but it had to be canceled due to low enrollment and the disastrous budget crisis. So lame. I had thought that I'd have an extremely easy summer making even more artwork. By the time I found out that the class had been canceled, all the other classes that I was interested in were already full. Social Sciences was still open, though, so Helen K. and I decided to take it together. At least it gives us a class together, and we can both get transferable college credit.

I�ve been meaning to update ever since I graduated, but I just haven�t gotten to it. I can�t say that I�m super busy, because I definitely have more time on hand than before school ended. I don�t know. I make mental notes to blog about things and then later I get lazy or I�m not in the mood to blog. And when I do finally feel like blogging at night time (I�m a night crawler! ), my psycho sis is up typing away with all her gazillion friends. It�s all good; she needs a break too sometimes. That reminds me that I haven�t even been on AIM since I graduated. So weird. I still feel like I'll be going back to high school in the Fall. In fact, I'm just getting used to the idea that I'm on summer vacation.

Anyway, I think it�s about time I explained the whole vanilla deal. I�m warning you, here comes the shocking news: Pure vanilla extract conatins 35% alcohol! The vanilla bean itself is all right, but alcohol is used in the process of extracting the vanilla flavor from the bean. Vanillin is an artificial flavor but it also contains vanilla. So you guessed it: no more food with any vanilla or vanillin in it! A lot of chocolate, ice creams, and desserts contain vanilla and vanillin. I found out about this last weekend at halaqa. Even if the food is cooked, it is still not all right to eat it because as we all know alcohol is haraam, even in small quantities. I had asked about how some people think it�s ok to cook in wine because wine actually evaporates faster than water. I was told about how a student had asked a Shaykh that same question and he replied that alcohol is najasa (impure). I know this is a little gross, but I think it�s important to share the Shaykh�s analogy because it made me rethink the whole vanilla deal. The Shaykh explained that alcohol is just as impure (najasa) as urine, and that one would definitely not eat/drink anything that had even a drop of urine in it. So it is actually very serious. My dad still thinks that I�m being too extreme, but I told him that if he buys anything with vanilla in it, I won�t eat it. I am no longer able to find any excuse to bake Tollhouse cookies or eat the cookie dough, but it�s ok. I�ll just have to make my own cookie dough from scratch or try to find some other brands that don�t contain vanilla/vanillin. I know it is possible to find alcohol-free vanilla extract, because we have always used that. Apaji went grocery shopping to Safeway yesterday, and she came back with the usual fudge cake�alhamdulillah, it doesn�t contain vanilla! I think it�s all just a matter of switching to brands that don�t have vanilla; in the meantime I�ll be scrutinizing the ingredients even more that I normally do.

On another note, I�m going to be switching to soy milk very soon (Save the cows! Really, don�t get me started on that one!). I�ve already got chocolate soy milk to transition me into regular soy milk. Wish me luck!

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