“I decided this year I wouldn’t do the dance of seeing whether I could fast like everyone else. This is the fourth Ramadan I’ve experienced while living in Muslim countries (one in Morocco, three in Senegal). I usually fast for at least a few days.
“That was when I was playing at integration: fasting for the entirety of Ramadan, dating a Moroccan guy and doodling Arabic in my notebooks. I loved haggling endlessly in the markets, drinking ultra-sweet tea, and doing things that made me feel like I fit in.
“Ultimately, no one is asking me to be —or pretend to be — Senegalese. I’m not Muslim, and no one is hoping I’ll become a religious convert. The experience of fasting made me more understanding of Ramadan’s meaning and more respectful of the dedication it requires. But of the things I’ve learned, one of the most important is knowing when to stop proving yourself to others, and most of all, to yourself.
“The anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss said that in an encounter between two cultures, you have to find the right distance in order to really get to know each other. There is wisdom in that.”
9 months ago