Samhain                                               New (Thanksgiving) Moon

Spent two hours in the Southeast Asian galleries talking to docs who came through during the Fairview Southdale corporate event.  A group of four wanted information about Cambodia.  One guy had lived in Thailand for a year and a half, “a long time ago.”  Another man, maybe Pakistani, and I talked about the Buddha.  “A peaceful religion.  Right?”  “Yes, in principle.  But look at the Thai.  They’re Buddhists and they’re killing each other.”  “Yes,”  he shook his head, “I’m a Muslim and we’re doing the same.”  It was a weary observation.

On the way home I stopped at the Holy Land restaurant for a to-go order of gyro.  While in there, I experienced a fleeting moment of “OMG.  What if these people are here to kill us.”  I squelched it both as an unwelcome and an unworthy thought, but it was there anyhow.  The other side of me, the side that delights in difference, wandered looking at hookahs, mounted recreations of Quran pages, elaborate mounted photos of the the dome of the rock.  All the middle eastern foodstuffs, female staff in headscarves.   There were, too, a Chinese couple, a Caucasian couple and African couple eating at tables alongside several middle-easterners.

Now, even here in Minnesota where the skin color is almost the same as winter, diversity has begun to seep in.  Thank god.  No matter what I thought earlier.  Thanks god.