I heard an interesting story about local events recently that kinda inspired me. Upon moving here and getting to know Spain a little better, I was surprised to find that there are strong enclaves of Seventh-Day Adventists here. Whole *towns* are composed mainly of Seventh-Day Adventists, who are viewed by many of their neighbors as a little restrictive in their religious beliefs and in their lifestyles, even a bit Puritanical and cultish.
In one of these towns with large numbers of Seventh- Day Adventists, a yoga studio opened and began teaching meditation and yoga and other such things. The Seventh-Day Adventists didn't exactly approve, and occasionally were pretty vocal about expressing their disapproval. But then one night the yoga studio burned down. It wasn't arson or anything like that, just an elec- trical short that started a fire. And so what did the local Seventh-Day Adventist group do about this? They volunteered to help the yoga teachers rebuild. Dozens of Seventh-Day Adventists came out and worked side by side with the yoga students to rip out the charred wood and replace it with new wood and get the studio up and running again. WHY did they do this? Because these folks were their neighbors, they said, and this is just what you *do* for neighbors, whether you approve of their lifestyle and beliefs or not. A lesson to be learned here, I suspect...
