Samhain\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New (Thanksgiving) Moon<\/p>\n
Spent two hours in the Southeast Asian galleries talking to docs who came through during the Fairview Southdale corporate event.\u00a0 A group of four wanted information about Cambodia.\u00a0 One guy had lived in Thailand for a year and a half, “a long time ago.”\u00a0 Another man, maybe Pakistani, and I talked about the Buddha.\u00a0 “A peaceful religion.\u00a0 Right?”\u00a0 “Yes, in principle.\u00a0 But look at the Thai.\u00a0 They’re Buddhists and they’re killing each other.”\u00a0 “Yes,”\u00a0 he shook his head, “I’m a Muslim and we’re doing the same.”\u00a0 It was a weary observation.<\/p>\n
On the way home I stopped at the Holy Land restaurant for a to-go order of gyro.\u00a0 While in there, I experienced a fleeting moment of “OMG.\u00a0 What if these people are here to kill us.”\u00a0 I squelched it both as an unwelcome and an unworthy thought, but it was there anyhow.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 All the middle eastern foodstuffs, female staff in headscarves.\u00a0\u00a0 There were, too, a Chinese couple, a Caucasian couple and African couple eating at tables alongside several middle-easterners.<\/p>\n
Now, even here in Minnesota where the skin color is almost the same as winter, diversity has begun to seep in.\u00a0 Thank god.\u00a0 No matter what I thought earlier.\u00a0 Thanks god.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Samhain\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New (Thanksgiving) Moon Spent two hours in the Southeast Asian galleries talking to docs who came through during the Fairview Southdale corporate event.\u00a0 A group of four wanted information about Cambodia.\u00a0 One guy had lived in Thailand for a year and a half, “a long time ago.”\u00a0 Another man, maybe Pakistani, and I talked … Continue reading An Unwelcome Thought<\/span>