'Radical' Dude

Yesterday, I covered an English class for a friend who had a wedding to go to. I had a great time with the class. We played pictionary and talked about money and how its the root of all evil. Well, not really, but we say that it is. It was cool because we discussed that really its all about what's in a person's heart and not the neutral object that is evil.

After our break a few of the guys were talking about some kidnapping in the desert awhile back. And they asked me what the word 'radical' meant.

It was an interesting experience to sit and look at this small group made up of Muslims and Chrisitians, and figure out what I was going to say. I started off with a bell curve image and explained that people that are out of the norm can be considered radicals, or extreme in any category. Like art, music, politics, and religion. They thought it was a bad thing to be a radical and I explained that just like the issue of money, it comes down to the person.

I was suprised to find myself saying that even when it comes down to religion we have people in Islam who are radicals but in America we have Christian radicals that kill doctors. I dunno what they thought of that, but it is true isn't it?

I did close with saying that the term radical is a neutral adjective but it depends on the individual being refenced and what kind of radical they are. Basically it means extreme. They seemed happy with the explanation and I went on to the next topic as if it was no big deal. Inside, I was glad it was over and I had kinda kept cool.

I personally love talking about intense radical topics but not with people I just met and barely know.