When I come back this way this guy is speaking into a microphone. He’s on a rant against Islam. Islam attracts people who desire “fleshly living,” he tells us. Oh yeah? Talk to some of the Muslim women I know, who wake up before dawn to fit in one of five daily prayers, some of which they practice in stairwells off their offices at work. They wear head scarves that expose them daily to racism. They put up with men who expect them to carry the burden of soul.
I don’t speak, I walk past. I remember the rule (which I have often broken, once or twice to good effect)–never look a crazy person in the eye. Certainty is certain. That’s what it is. It isn’t tolerance and there is no leap, no bridge, between them.
ps Masochists? What about sadists?