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{"id":395,"date":"2007-06-06T01:01:32","date_gmt":"2007-06-06T01:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/akramsrazor\/2007\/06\/06\/the_best_of_rur\/"},"modified":"2013-05-07T18:47:13","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T23:47:13","slug":"the_best_of_rur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/akramsrazor\/2007\/06\/the_best_of_rur\/","title":{"rendered":"The joys of namaaz alfresco"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We\u2019re not really in the Sticks yet. It\u2019s a wooded subdivision on land on the outskirts of Athens (technically, we\u2019re in Winterville) that until recently was farmland\u2013but at this rate, I\u2019ll be hunting for a log cabin next time we move. (So long as it can get broadband.)<\/p>\n

Today I discovered perhaps the best argument for living far from the Big City:\u00a0 Fajr<\/em><\/a> on one\u2019s patio in the open air, with crickets a-creaking, birds a-chirping, leaves a-rustling and no anxieties about perplexed neighbors ringing up Homeland Security.\u00a0 It was so peaceful and invigorating. (It also made this \"ronin\" wish he had a wird<\/a><\/em> of his own, but that\u2019s another discussion.)<\/p>\n

Before you get overly impressed at this report, I must concede that Fajr and I aren\u2019t nearly as well acquainted as we ought to be. As Shabana can confirm, I\u2019m a particularly heavy sleeper, a sun-averse vampire who feeds only at night\u2013I\u2019m built for fjords, not beaches\u2013a Rip van Winkle who can sleep for absurdly long periods if allowed, and an all around indolent individual whose cognitive faculties are severely impaired until a mid-morning carafe of coffee has been consumed and a tongue inserted into an electrical socket.Suffice it to say that Fajr has always been a struggle. This is of course the idea, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s supposed to quite <\/em>such a struggle,\u00a0 much less one so often lost. <\/p>\n

Anyway, I\u2019ve always marveled at how some Morning People can not only get up at the crack of dawn, but engage in vigorous, outdoorsy activities\u00a0 (Tai Chee, Yoga,\u00a0 Katas<\/a>, jogging, chopping wood, powerwalking, \u2026). Having actually ventured onto the surface world so early in the day for the first time in a while, I guess it\u2019s not so crazy after all.\u00a0 Now I just need to invent a Rube Goldberg<\/a>-style alarm clock that dumps a bucket of ice water on me, zaps you with a cattle rod, sends me through a wudu<\/em><\/a> \"car wash\", and then drops me out a shoot onto a jai-namaz<\/em><\/a> on my patio. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"