Church basements

(Tonight's workout accompaniment: TBA)

This past weekend I was invited to the Midwest Buddhist Temple to give a presentation to the board of trustees of the Council for a Parliament of World's Religions.

I felt greatly honored to have been invited. I was very nervous the entire week before. I wrote a 10-page speech, arrived an hour early and practiced in my car for 15 minutes before I worked up the courage to enter.

I had to buzz in, and the chair of the board sent an employee of the organization to let me in.

As I followed him to the social hall, the anxiety lifted. Why? Because this particular Buddhist church basement looked pretty much exactly like a Protestant church basement, except there were karate trophies instead of bowling trophies on the coat rack.

And the presentation was fine.