Author: boomingbanter

This special was prepared for our Tuesday Morning Group series on World Religions that is currently running by zoom so I can participate.

We volunteered to do this because Zoroastrianism is a religion we’d heard of but didn’t know much about. So here goes friends.

Zoroastrians believe there is one universal all good creator called Ahura Mazda or the Wise Lord.

The religion is one of the oldest and was founded in Persia, today’s Iran, about 3500 years ago by Zoroaster.

Zoroaster originally followed a Hindu style religion. One day he had a vision of a supreme being and began teaching followers to worship only this single God.

The religion spread throughout Asia via the trade route known as the Silk Road

The key tenants of the faith are truth and righteousness, heaven and hell, freedom of choice between good and evil and a day of judgement. All this is believed to have shaped the major Abrahamic religions.

In a nutshell God is Good but he is opposed by an evil one that we would call Satan.

Six good heavenly beings know as the Amesha Spentas work on behalf of God. They are like our archangels. There is also a very special soul the Spenia Mainyu who is like the Angel of God or our Holy Spirit.

Currently we are all living in a period known as the Gumezishn when the forces of good and evil both exist. When we die our good deeds and evil deeds are weighed but hope is on the way!

One day though the Saoshyant or Messiah will come, or come back, and rescue all of us and we will live in harmony and peace for ever more.

The Jewish community living in Babylonia may have been some of the first to encounter Zoroastrians when the Persian King Cyrus a devotee of the religion freed them. Many returned to Jerusalem and the Hebrew Bible took form which, some argue, had strong Zoroastrian influence.

The religion remained the primary one in Persia up until the Muslim conquest when those practicing the faith were forced to flee.

Today there are only about 200000 practicing Zoroastrians remaining mostly living in India, Iran and North America.

Their place of worship is called a Fire Temple where an alter with an eternal flame composed of 16 elements is burned. The fire is not worshiped it is merely a point of focus on God’s immortality.

Fire and water are seen as symbols of purity and the evergreen cypress tree as a symbol of eternal.

Traditionally a sky burial was practiced where the dead were placed on a pillar until it was entirely eaten by vultures. The bones were then placed in an ossuary.

The text that forms the basis of the faith is like a series of poems in several volumes.

[and here’s the bit that makes me super happy it features dogs and prickly dogs aka hedgehogs]

Today many Zoroastrians are known as Parsis and are great philanthropists

There are many famous Zoroastrians and it has inspired a number of epic dramas. Can you name any.

We enjoyed this little learning experience and have now even greater appreciation of how in each religion there are so many similarities. It all comes down to being loving.

Blessing # 982 – Study

I’m terribly late with my daily news because my secretary has been very busy. Well that’s her story!

It started with ice and freezing rain and has ended with snow and zoom.

We met Auntie Denise as always but didn’t get far as we were slip sliding away. We went just far enough for Ma to dumpster dive.

She found a carpet in the neighbor’s trash and poor Auntie Denise had to go get her truck to get it to our house. Denise is a saint!

I am a mortified one. Beyond embarrassing this woman!

As soon as she got it home she started trimming it to get rid if all the straggly ends. Just as long as she doesn’t take those shears to me I’m OK with that!

That effort was no sooner over, and I was getting good and comfortable, than she took off to the antique mall. The car was full of her treasures including the magic carpet!

She’s been waking up early and that means trouble when she has nothing to do. So today’s plan was to reinvent her booth. Finding the carpet was like divine intervention endorsing today as the day!

She returned, wolfed down two chicken burgers and vanished into zoom. So now she has resurfaced we’re banging this out before she passes out.

While the before wasn’t bad since she’d jiggled it around several times before

the after is definitely better and doesn’t that carpet look swell!

Blessing # 981– Job Done

Sometimes you need to make compromises.

Ma was working this afternoon and was meant to be home by four to take me for a good trot.

She didn’t arrive till five.

She’d made a detour to the thrift store to look for a carpet for her booth to make it look more welcoming.

She didn’t find a carpet but got distracted treasure hunting.

She found the bro an old Manchester United vs Juventus program for his dorm room but nothing for me! Ah well who wants a used bone anyway.

So when she makes it home she asks will I thaw something and we’ll go for a good walk or make the roast dinner. We all yell roast that chicken girlfriend.

So of course you can’t have roast chick without roast spuds. So I had to hang on and then got the four hundred yard compromise walk.

Who cares when you can smack the lips around a good bit of meat.

One of her finds of the Day may object but he’ll forgive us for sure.

Blessing #980 – Bird Lovers

This week we watched a great movie called The Two Popes. If you haven’t seen it try to catch it.

It’s about two men who are as different as chalk and cheese. Pope Benedict and Pope Francis.

Francis is an extrovert who is friends with everyone and likes to dance tango while Benedict is an introvert who had a life devoid of personal friends and plays piano.

Yet over their transition time, as the extrovert prepared to succeed the introvert, they grew very close.

They learned from each other and to love each other.

Something similar happened here some years ago when President Clinton succeeded President Bush with Clinton becoming like a son to the elder statesman.

I never did get to meet my predecessor but I know he was very different from me. He was a pure bred, I’m a rescue. He barked at dogs when out walking while I bark at bikes. He shredded his cuddly toys while I take mine to bed at night. He was so handsome and looked great in black and white while I need full technicolor to look my best.

We share one big thing in common though we both love our humans unconditionally.

There is a big transition underway in the USA. Once again the individuals are very different. There’s no handover happening though so no opportunity for getting to know each other.

Instead the beautiful capital is becoming a fortress.

Soon though there will be one of my kind back in the White House and a very noble looking guy he is too. This can only mean one thing better days lie ahead after all who could do that job without a best friend by their side.

Blessing # 979 – Major Improvement

It’s a bad hair day and it’s only just started. I’m all shook up!

It’s pouring outside so I only got a nip to the end of the street but to make things worse there are even more upending matters at the project. The new heater has thrown a wobbler and sprung a leak!

If mother’s nerves hadn’t already been shattered by previous events they’d have broken now. This whole adventure really keeps us on the edge of our seats. Just as well she white in the head already.

Poor Dad is not exempt from problems either. In the midst of doing all the bills he forgot that today is the last day to submit the prepayment of taxes so he’s rushing to get that ready for Ma to post before she goes to work!

As some clever dude said it never rains but it pours.

There are a few ups to the downs though.

No one got hurt

The leak didn’t do any damage apart from wrecking some coil in the heater.

Since it’s raining it’s too warm for pipes to freeze even if the heat is off.

Even if I don’t get a good walk I’ll get a ride in the car to the post office!

My hair dries fast and I always look better coiffed after a rub down which bus essential for an outing in public.

It’s FRIDAY so any problem is easier to handle when pizza and bubbles are in the fridge and forecast for this evening.

Blessing # 978 – Silver Lining

Still no winner for the big draw. Maybe we’ll try again at the weekend. Maybe not! Her Saturday night fever may have passed by then and sure what would you do with 1.5 Billion?

I thought I’d avert another whirlwind today by sucking up to her and telling a few doggie jokes to lift her mood!

We can’t take credit for any of these.

Some friends shared them with us on Facebook.

In this time of change, when we are all locked up and very stressed, the best thing we can do is give each other a virtual tickle

The bro thought I was really funny so he raised me up too!

Blessing # 977 – Elevations

We didn’t win last night’s lottery. We didn’t get a single number. Tonight’s the night!

I don’t know if it was the failure to win that made her agitated but she’s been spinning like a tornado.

She started moaning as soon as we got up about my toys. « Scooby why are all these critters on my sofa? »

What she didn’t say was she wanted the sofa for her business not mine.

She’s getting ready for a makeover at her booth and so is pricing the new season stock. It was everywhere. Took over the whole living room. Chaos!

We boys decided to get off side. The bro’s classes started online yesterday but he had to go to college to get his new books. Dad said he’d go too so I also jumped on board.

When we got back all my nice doggie smell had gone.

When she finished with her treasures she started vacuuming. She does that only once in a blue moon.

What a reward she received. Dad got the bro to take him shopping for snacks and her wine. Dad can’t buy just one thing he has to get a mountain.

The wine rack is completely filled. Should do her for a month or two!!!!! Maybe though we’ll need it for a party when the draw is made later!

Blessing # 976 – Cleaned Out

The lottery here has reached staggering heights. It’s now 650 million on the Mega Millions and 550 million on the Powerball.

Ma says she’s done the lottery only about three times since moving to USA more than ten years ago but this is worth a go.

I was like sure Ma I’ll put my paw on that. We’ll wear our green for luck. Now let’s choose some numbers and get those tickets.

When she’s decided on something herself is quick on the draw so when we googled to get a pic of the lottery for my message she realized there was a number on it.

What better number than that. Wonder how many other people use it? Statistically she tells me it has as much chance of ringing up as any other number so she put it on both tickets.

I already consider myself a winner. On the way to get the tickets we passed the coyote trail. So, good readers, guess where I got to go hunting?

We hadn’t been there since summer and it looks so different with no leaves on the trees.

It’s a great spot though and as a memorial to a previous trail blazer recognized a great place for a wagging tail even if there isn’t a ball insight.

Blessing # 975– Steps To Success

Apart from our morning walk I haven’t seen much of herself today.

She was playing Van Gogh again painting one of her rescues in the garage.

With summer in mind her theme in “nautical”. Doesn’t matter that we’re stuck about a million miles from the sea.

She thinks it will be appreciated.

Personally I think it looked better before she started.

Of course I’m a little fed up with her and her neglect and silly ideas!

As soon as she’d finished her latest masterpiece she took off to take a friend to the dentist.

While she was waiting for her she went to the nearest Goodwill and bought more junk. “It was close by Scooby”

She just can’t resist. I don’t care if it only cost a few dollars. These expenditures all mount up and could be used for bones or treats.

“Don’t you see it’s my latest theme Scooby?” She needs help! I might bite her ear off to save her any trouble.

Blessing # 974 – Therapists

Herself is super excited because this evening on PBS a new production of All Creatures Great and Small will start.

The story is about a vet who takes care of all sorts of animals including lots of dogs who are the stars of the show. So of course I’ll watch myself since my kind are covered in such glory. I’ll even stick out my tongue if he asks

Ma said she watched the original series with Auntie Carol back in the 70s and 80s when they were both just pups themselves.

The books are great too and were written by a real vet called Alf Wright who for some reason gave himself the name James Herriot.

My Mum and Dad worked in pet nutrition and went to conferences with some people who knew Alf himself.

Seems he was a wonderful man. Very kind and good to all animals including people. Thank goodness he took the time to write down all his experience. He’s inspired me already and I haven’t started watching yet!

Blessing # 973 – Storytellers