He – standing while I sat – leaned his upper body towards me to utter some form of greeting. I understood neither the language nor the intention of the greeting. Yet, I immediately had the feeling to understand why he had addressed me.
One of my several sketch/notebooks has a Persian structure on its cover, known as “Book of Kings”, and not for the first time I have been spoken to, thinking I am a muslim reading.
Noticing that I did not understand him, he apologized, saying to himself while sharing the confirmation with me that I am not a muslim. At which point I smiled, and showed him the page on which I had been writing minutes before.
A conversation began.
“It is a beautiful design” – he added.
That statement hit me. Although I am not a person abiding by any organized religion, there is a deep essence of respect in me towards states of “believing”, and towards those who abide by any of its forms with sincerity. For this reason I was innerly forced to express my disagreement with his expression.
When I consider the realm of deities, of godliness, layers of the soul, and spheres of the spirit, it seems to me unfathomable to see their symbolisms as design. Design sounds too superficial, too practical a term in such a context.
A wonderful, lengthy, loving conversation continued.
Sila Blume 
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