There is one waitress, the only non-Asian, she's from India... she's a Buddhist. She wears a Buddha medallion. I wear a Buddha medallion. We showed each other our medallions. She asked if I was a Buddhist. I said, "I practice." She asked "How?" I said I meditated, and that was about it. She told me that was perfect. As a Buddhist you can practice Buddhism as you see fit. You are in charge.
It was one of those moments. Something important happened between us. We smiled, we really "saw" each other. We made some kind of deep connection, a real, unknowable, mysterious connection. Anyway, I am on a Buddhist kick, and lately my favorite song is Alex Chilton's Dali Lama... "30,000 monks at his direction, practicing things like Astral Projection!"