I need help! (You have no idea, son.)
I visited Cave of the Winds yesterday with a bunch of family members (10 out of 10 would do it again!) and was surprised by the diversity of tourists!
Slicing the pie religiously, there were Amish, Jews, Muslims, at least some Team Jesus (Us) and possibly some Hindus and Buddhists. As their uniforms are not as distinct, it can be hard to tell.
If you slice it along national origin lines, by my guess there were Arabs, Chinese, Koreans, Bengalis, Malays, Indians and likely a passel of “something-Americans.”
Here’s my quandary: I wanted to say hi to many of these people, find out where they’re from and see what they think of trying to breathe at 7000’, you know, all the normal stuff! Trouble is I was stumped to figure out how to start!
Two of my go to’s, “Excuse me, can I ask what language you were speaking?” and “Where’s that accent from?” needed more time, proximity or official connection than I had. As I sit here writing, it occurs to me that asking, “Have you been here before?” would have worked in a couple of situations, and hopefully not sounded like, “Come here often?”
Will you help me with this? Let’s make a list of good conversation opening questions for a setting such as this. They might be similar to ones that work at a business convention, a school assembly or maybe even a park.
Here’s the deal: For most of us, in most of the places where we live, the onus rests on us to initiate conversations with Muslims. Not always, of course, but mostly. I for one, want to be better at it.
Got a good opener? Have some great ideas that you’ve tried or hope to try? Let’s get a list of thirty on this google doc. Screenshot it and give it a quick look before you go to the mall/park/Cave of the Winds next time!