The stranger from Texas²⁵

In Brazil there was a seven-mile or ten-mile race. I was tired, exhausted, since I had run eight or nine miles that morning, so I didn’t join.

I saw a man with a dog near the start of the race and I said to him, “Excuse me, can you tell me how many miles they are going to run? I see there is going to be a race.”

The man said, “I don’t understand your English!” in a very abrupt way.

Immediately I saw that he was an American. I asked, “Where do you come from?”

He answered, “I come from Texas. Where do you come from?”

I said, “I come from New York.”

He said, “Now I understand your English. Ask me again.”

When I asked him, he said, “I am also a stranger, like you.”

From:Sri Chinmoy,Run and become, become and run, part 6, Agni Press, 1981
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/rb_6