Saturday morning in the authors' hospitality suite at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville several people sat around a large conference table, one of them picking softly at a guitar. This, I learned after sitting down next to him, was Peter Cooper, author of Johnny’s Cash and Charley’s Pride: Lasting Legends and Untold Adventures in Country Music.
Looking into my author gift bag I found a Goo Goo Cluster, a Moon Pie, and a small bottle of Jim Beam bourbon whiskey.
My session was with the poet and travel writer Richard Tillinghast, a native of Memphis who now divides his time between Hawaii and Sewanee. After our readings, people asked us questions, and Turkey kept coming up in the conversation. Richard has been visiting the country since the 1960s, and speaks Turkish; I noted that it was that rare place that made me feel like a guest instead of a tourist. Richard spoke about the Islamic ethic of hospitality, and put it in terms the audience could understand.
The average Muslim, he explained, is very much like the average Tennessean: They are both devout, God-loving people who act with kindness not just toward their neighbors but also toward strangers.
I had never thought of the connection before, but after this last visit to Nashville I saw it clearly.
