"I like to look for things no one else catches...

...and I hate the way nobody even looks at the road in old movies!"
from Amelie

Reason enough to look to the road.

And usually I divert excessive attention to minutia.

There are very few mosques in our neighborhood, constrasting with the higher concentrations in other parts of the city. But the muezzin's call is never too distant. It is amazing to think millions, upon millions, if not billions, of Muslims across the Middle East (provided within the same time zone, I believe) turn to Makkah (I have a thing about Anglicized words) at the same exact time each and every week. I can't conjure a comparable religious act. Perhaps I'm bias. But a make-shift mosque formed upon the corner of Muhammed al-Marshaali and al-Bitar after noon. I didn't feel comfortable photographing them during prayer. People from around the area migrated towards the carpets gradually.

But as I was initially walking into the area, I tripped over one of the carpets. An elderly man shouted at me. I could have cried. I had been trying to be careful, between the mats and traffic. But I trampled over their place of prayer. I profusely apologized in gestures and a little Arabic, but the man shook his head. I don't want to imagine the impression I left upon him, "stupid American, masquerading, walking over our carpets."

This aside, I am always struck by the range of men, who will sit on street corners, in restaurants, even while on guard at the Egyptian Museum, with Qur'an, reading, singing, solemnly, it's very beautiful.

And a shout-out to Jackie on the quote. Serendipidity on how that fit.

And a fitting article I came across the morning.