The Closing of Week 8

So ends Eighth Week.  And what better way to start Ninth week than with a day off tomorrow?

We are also ending our study of the Rastas.  I'm not going to lie, I really enjoyed reading about them.  Rastafarianism is such a new religion, that we can really see how it evolved, without the centuries of theology and politicking that shaped much of the Western religions.  We can see where they came from, what started it all, and how things have evolved (like from a "back to Africa" to a "free from mental slavery").  We can see how, like all symbols with religious origins, reggae got co-opted by secular institutions.  And, on a more personal level, I actually learned about the the beliefs of the Rastafari, which was a lot more interesting than I originally thought, with my superficial knowledge of what Rastafari was.