03/07/2024
DIVERSITY OF MIKE GHOUSE - YOURS?
If you can shed the bias towards others, you'll love the connections with every human that God or his systems have created. This creates a sense of freedom and brings meaning and joy to life. Embracing and respecting how people dress, eat, and practice their beliefs becomes an enriching experience.
Here is my diversity, and I hope you can write about yours and share or at least think about it. The other day, while driving home, my mind ran a reel of all the people I have worked with for over 50 years. Each person's name came with a clear face. I was happy like a baby when he walked three steps without falling. I distinctly remember my grandchildren's happy faces.
I grew up in a diverse environment, thanks to my parents. My father, who was the mayor of our town, and I, along with my sister, celebrated festivals across different religions, including Hindu, Christian, Jain, and others. I carried on this tradition with my children, taking them to various places of worship in Dallas, including the LGBTQ church and Pagan gatherings. My mother conversed weekly with a Zoroastrian lady, while my father and maternal grandfather regularly discussed Shia-Sunni theology. I absorbed much of this diverse knowledge in pluralistic terms (respecting the otherness of the others).
In addition to this, my father's flour mill attracted people from various backgrounds, including Adivasis (tribals), Gypsies (Banjara/ Khandari), Dalits, Sikhs, Christians, and Hindus, all of whom came to get their grains (wheat, millet, and rice) ground. As a teenager working with my dad, I learned to respect the diversity of our community by listening to and asking questions of these diverse individuals who stayed in our mill for over an hour. I was probably 14, and every year, a Kandharni came to the mill with a baby hanging on her side; she was so beautiful, she spoke Pushto, and I couldn't communicate with her, but I was infatuated and interested in her, she looked similar to that famous Afghan girl on Time magazine several centuries ago.
During my teenage years, I engaged in interfaith dialogues with Christians, Hindus, and Muslims, including my college professor, Dr. A. Ramachandra, and Fakhru Bhai, a weaver in these conversations. Both of them had expertise in Hinduism and Islam.
Friday was spent at the Mosque, and Saturday nights were spent singing Bhajans (Hindu devotional songs) at the Hindu temple on my street in Yelahanka, my hometown. Every Wednesday, I went to the Mahabodhi Center for Buddhist teachings, and once a month, I went to the Church.
I worked as an admin in a catering college called Food Craft Institute in Bangalore. There, we interacted with students from many countries and enjoyed different foods daily, over 200 cuisines in one year for three years. There is a lot of diversity in cuisines and cultures.
I worked in Saudi Arabia as deputy controller of the largest ($5.3 billion) project in the mid-70s for Fluor Arabia in Shedgum and Dhahran. It was a gas gathering project converting into Liquified Natural Gas - I managed 5 sites. I interacted with 44 nationalities from South and South East Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americans who worked there. I loved their different accents in English, and now I can hear anyone speak English and understand it fairly easily.
Between Food Craft Institute and Fluor, my ability to hear and pronounce different names and listen to different accents has increased tremendously in communicating with anyone.
I have gained enriching experiences in various facets of real estate, including home building, leasing, mortgage brokerage, and property management (50 years). Throughout that time, I have had the opportunity to build six new homes and reside in diverse neighborhoods before finally settling in an all-Black community in Southeast Washington, DC.
Within the Center for Pluralism, I have taken the initiative to organize and lead four annual events featuring workshops exploring 12 distinct religions and engaging radio shows. Do seminars on 12 different faiths and produce and anchor 780 hours of radio shows on religions. Dallas Morning News has published about 250 articles on interfaith and over 100 articles in the Huffington Post. Over 300 newspapers have published my work across the world. I aspire to encapsulate these remarkable experiences in a book.
One of the most fulfilling aspects of my life has been officiating over 400 weddings between individuals from different faiths (9), races (4), and ethnicities (over 50). Additionally, I have liaised with more than 500 families to ensure seamless and joyous wedding celebrations. These experiences have also allowed me to travel to over 50 cities across America and Canada and even partake in destination weddings in Mexico, with plans for Spain and other locales shortly. Additionally, I have conducted Nikah (Muslim wedding) ceremonies over Zoom in Sweden, Norway, the UK, Germany, New Zealand, and India (India: three Muslim-Hindu and one Sikh-Muslim).
I believe embracing diversity enriches life and brings a profound sense of joy and meaning. It fosters an environment where we can appreciate and celebrate the distinctive ways people express themselves through their attire, culinary traditions, or spiritual beliefs. By learning to respect and acknowledge the uniqueness of others, we pave the way for harmonious coexistence, thus diminishing conflicts and giving rise to viable solutions. This, to me, is the epitome of pluralism at the Center for Pluralism.
The above is a summary. God willing, I plan to write a book in the hope that it will provide insights into the joy of living in peace "with a bias towards none (Lincoln)." I know that we are tested when genocides are happening around when tyrants harass their people. I feel that I can answer my grandkids that I have made every effort, spoken, written, and continue to write to do my share of Tikkun Olam, Islah al Alam, or repairing the world to restore Dharma. You will not believe this: I am a bold, assertive man who dealt with Sean Hannity on Fox News and many extremists who spoke in rallies, yet I did not have the guts to tell two women that I was interested in them; I am glad it all happened for my good.
I am 72 and on dialysis, and I am thankful to God every morning that I am alive and active, put in more than 8 hours a day, even on my Dialysis Day. My greatest happiness is my wife; she did not hesitate to be friends, knowing that I was on dialysis. She believed that I would get a kidney transplant, and she got someone she knew who was the best fit, but she chose to go with another guy for money two weeks before the transplant. The doctor has assured me that I should get the transplant this year, as I have crossed five years now. My wife, Fatima, is a God's blessing; we love our life together and appreciate our families, friends, and well-wishers. A motivational message for you. In football, the quarterback launches the ball precisely to the running back. The running back's singular purpose is to navigate through the field, overcoming obstacles and opposition and aiming to reach the coveted end zone. Despite the physical challenge of being tackled by formidable opponents, including dragging or piling up on him, the running back remains unwavering in his determination to reach the end zone.
You can imagine how tough it is—like on the football field, life throws us unexpected challenges. Fatima and I have decided our end zone is harmony and happiness. We have an unwavering determination to keep reaching this end zone (Harmony) every time we are tackled.
Set your end zone to be happiness and harmony.
Mike Ghouse
Thank you.
Mike Ghouse
Cell/Text: (214) 325-1916
Dr. Ghouse is an Interfaith Wedding Officiant. A Muslim, Pluralist, activist, speaker, author, and a social scientist. President/ Center for Pluralism, Director/ World Muslim Congress, and partner at InterfaithMarriages.org - Google search for more
