Under a tent smack in the middle of the schoolyard, Professor Marquez was posted up, takin' part in a religious ceremony. This where the spiritual side meet up with what it all revolve around and orbit in—where innocence get mixed up with the kinda stuff that go down on pirate land, lookin' like survivors puttin' in work. These the rituals a lil' pirate learn while he still a baby in the cradle. Rituals that turned Marquez into a dude rebellin' against damn near everything, but he still got that deep tie to the land them pirates worship in they wild way.
Whether we like it or not, religions—all kinda different ones—been steerin' folks for centuries, long time now. Don't matter if you religious or not, if you acknowledge faith or not, if you spiritual or straight materialistic—that whole idea of divinity, surrenderin' to some sacred powers, it can flip a person's whole path upside down. Them the ideas monks and regular people follow, whether they acceptin' it or pushin' back.
I ain't here to debate if religion exist or not—'cause it do, even if haters don't want it. Nah, I'm tryna stop on one basic point: How we gon' deal with religion, religious folks, and that spiritual side of bein' human?
Gotta put it out there for the sake of keepin' it real and transparent—the dude writin' these lines is religious, even if he ain't want to admit it sometimes. That's why he pushin' that our relationship with all kinda religions gotta be built on respect, no matter the situation or circumstances. 'Cause every religion, whatever it is, pure and clean at its core—that pure source prove it. Plenty texts—heavenly and otherwise—back that up.
But on the flip side, a whole lotta followers of this religion or that one done committed straight-up massacres documented in history books. Killin', displacin', oppressin'—Muslims fought wars to spread Islam, Christians went hard revenge on others and even they own people in scary ways, and Jews still out here fightin' the world that disagree with they worldview with a racism humanity ain't never seen the likes of yet. Even them Buddhist monks—the whole world saw what they did to Muslims on Asian lands just a few years back. So it cover everybody. We all caught up in it.
Professor Marquez sayin' respect gotta be the main foundation to bring all them different religion followers together. The Buddhist respect the Muslim, the Hindu respect the Christian, the atheist respect everybody... and so on. That only happen when we clear out the bad feelings, purify the hearts and souls. Humanity done had enough of slaughters in the name of God—lyin' and slandering while doin' it. We tired of the hypocrisy, the division, all them bad morals. Everybody gotta enter that real dialogue where we all look at life through the lens of life, and life only.
Before Muhammad a Muslim, he a human. Before Thomas a Christian, he a human. Before Sarkan Yaha a Hindu, he a human. Welcome to all y'all. Ain't it better and healthier for all humanity if we dig deep in ourselves, searchin' for that inner child that extremism and bigotry tryna choke out with they teamwork? What good my life do me, what good my Judaism or my Islam if I ain't respectin' the Jew or the Muslim same as I respect myself?
Professor Marquez ain't never seen no fake hot commodity like folks speakin' in the name of religion, hidin' under God's cover—astaghfirullah. It's rotten goods. The seller lose, the buyer corrupted. That's why a person gotta turn back to they humanity, look at they soul, take the shortest, best, easiest path to wipe away the dirt and stains from they days—'cause them days counted and limited, for real.
That war that popped off at the start of the 21st century between folks of the same Slavic race and same religion—that's the main reason Marquez started lookin' at different religions from new angles. And he ain't found nothin' but respect as a real, healin' solution. Respect, and that's it.