This wonderful book arrived in the mail today. Alessandro Pronzato , Meditations on the sand.
For one like me who is in total awe of the desert , who is fascinated by Bedouins , and feels a curious sense of coming home in strange places, this is a book that vibrates with me.
And the author answered my question about how to respond to well meaning friends who hope to see me turn into a Muslim completely .
He says:" I approve of the alpinists who remove the nails from the mountain face after them so that those who come later will not be able to take advantage. It is not selfishness. It is respect for the creativity of others. The same should be true about prayer."
The book had a small bookmarker in it. A folded receipt from a fast food shop in Newcastle, Scotland, dated 1995.
And the former reader had underlined this very passage.
I have already lost his bookmarker. And got my own, a Segafredo receipt dated 2016.
God bless Abe bookstore for finding rare used books out of print in the oddest places.
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