"And you don’t think we have a point when we think that the people who’ve done this 9-11 thing have their heads up their asses?"
"A colorful expression… heads up their asses. I’ll have to remember that one. But to your point, yes, of course they also have their heads up their asses."
"And why is that?"
"Well, they are too religious, and insufficiently spiritual. Their religion has fossilized. Far too constrained by their past. You see, in the west, there has been a significant breakdown in religious orthodoxy in the last hundred years, and this has created certain spiritual advantages for the west…"
"What do you mean?"
"There is a certain point when a religion becomes so calcified, so fossilized and brittle that it ceases to be a good vehicle for the knowledge of God. There has developed an unfortunate tendency in modern Islam, a tendency which glories in hidebound and fossilized modes of being. An Islam which is proud, so to speak, of its status as dinosaur. A nostalgia for sand, camel, tent."
"Of course, not to be outdone, at least some of
the Jews long for the time of the Patriarchs, and are intent on extracting an
eye for an eye. And the American Christians? The Evangelicals? Many of them have
decent hearts, but their understanding is that of the average Oklahoma
oil-rigger. Saint Peter as played by John Wayne, with time-outs
for commercials. Did I mention that I knew St. Peter?"
"I saw Diane Sawyer at an airport once," says I, not to be outdone.
"Ah!" says Khidr, wide-eyed. "Diane Sawyer. Whatever was she like?"
"She didn’t quite look like she looks on TV," I says. "Her hair was a little matted down and she looked older I guess than she does on TV, and she was hurrying and although she did say hi to me when I said hi to her we really didn’t talk."
"Ah, yes, yes, yes" says Khidr. "And who exactly is Diane Sawyer?"
"TV news chick," I says, "old news chick," and Khidr says "Ah yes, yes." And then there was an awkward silence. And then I remembered what we were talking about, and asked him:
"So how is this whole clash-of-culture thing going to work itself out?"
"Well," said Khidr, "It will work itself out over hundreds of years, with great pain, and needless evil, ignorance, error and bloodshed. In the same way that these always tend to work themselves out."
"The US will not be able to suppress these
tendencies with its military?"
"Don’t be an idiot," says Khidr. "You cannot effect people’s religious views through military or forcible means. The Romans sought to destroy both the Christians and the Jews, and yet the Jew and Christian are with us still, and the Romans are gone. Thankfully, the Americans do not have the stomach to follow the path of the Romans."
"And so how will it resolve itself?"
"There is a mature spiritual orientation, or at least a not-immature spiritual orientation, which is sometimes found amongst Christian, Muslim and Jew, a spiritual orientation also found amongst Hindu and Buddhist, in which the strength and weaknesses of each orientation are viewed objectively. And by this perception, this perception of the objective truth… comes understanding and compassion. That we are all on a common journey, with somewhat different guideposts. But on a common journey, nonetheless. When this sensibility will be commonly found amongst Muslim, Christian, and Jew; amongst Hindu and Buddhist, then religious contention will cease. But I am afraid, at the moment, that spiritual idiocy is on the increase, and not spiritual ability. This matter will not be resolved in your lifetime."
I kind of felt hit hard. I really do want all the crap to be over.
"And what about you? What will you do now?" I asked.
"Me? As I told you, I’m heading to Canada. Perhaps there is more there than simple limbo. Do you think I might pass as French-Canadien? What do you think? What if I told a story of being the son of a Creole mother who has returned from New Orleans to the lands of his great-great-grandfather?" asks Khidr, stroking his beard and trying to look Gallic. He almost passed muster. Then in a Gallic way, he made hand motions for me to pull over the car to the side of the road to let him out.
"I’d go for it," I says, stopping the car.
"I just think I will," says Khidr.