This evening the three of us headed over to a local strip mall where a costco is located to pick up some necessities. While there I remembered that I needed some chalkboard paint for a project I am working on, so we headed over to Lowe’s. Anyhoo as we walked out of the store we were flanked by a woman wearing a head scarf and her young daughter. They trailed us to the same part of the parking lot where we had parked and got into a mercedes SUV. A man emerged from the vehicle with a carpet like a small red persian rug. He consulted some type of device (a compass?) and placed the rug on the ground in front of his car. At this point I was like Omigosh he’s gonna pray…he’s a muslim! He removed his shoes, stepped onto the rug, dropped his hands to his sides, closed his eyes, shook out his arms, and centered himself for a moment. It seemed as if his prayer had already begun before he dropped to his knees to genuflect and then Wade drove off and I missed the rest of the ceremony. It was very unique and interesting to observe this tradition right there in front of our eyes. I felt a great deal of respect for him as an individual for his stalwart devotion to his practice, for undertaking it in such a public way in spite of the fact that it seems that religious tolerance is a thing of the past. Wade was aghast that he had put his rug down in the parking lot “on top of all the motor oil” but it seemed to me that the purpose of the prayer was that he brought his practice with him into his daily life so that wherever he was he would still pray and reflect. There was a certain beauty to the act & as I said I did feel a certain respect for this man and his dedication.

However, I would still not convert to it.