i am very excited to be with my newest best friend, eboo patel. i have had a wonderful time reading his book. i'm very excited about having a conversation with him and in drawing him into that -- drawing you when that conversation. one of the delights is his disclosing something of his own spiritual practice, particularly during the holy season of ramadan. he had me when he said that prior to entering the day he would get up, have his small breakfast and then have a time with a poem. one of my favorite poets. i thought it would be wonderful if we all could have a moment of centering around one of his favorite running pomes. how does that sound? all right. thank you for that invitation and thank you all for being here this is a poem that i actually first heard in turkey. come, come, whoever you are, wonder, worshiper, lover of leaving. it does not matter. ours is not a caravan of despair. come even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. come yet again. come, come. a couple of reasons this is meaningful. in the book sacred ground commanders

eboo patel, muslim extremist. eboo patel, muslim radical. eboo patel, muslim terrorist and i'm like, are you kidding me? really, me? you know. and it was, at the time i felt like i was teetering between anger and despair. i thought that america had introduced twilight zone happily, that our nation wanted to believe the uglies, hateful, and twisted lies about a religion that is 1400 years old and it has one and a half -- around the world. it was not a particularly happy or spiritually enhanced ramadan. so a couple days into i think the second week of ramadan i got a phone call from a spiritual mentor in my life, you know, maybe the most well-known muslim preacher in america, especially within muslim circles. he kind of place a st. francis of assisi wrote him a lot and he also plays sort of the mad scientist back to the future movies. kind of jump in my life and he will come to you don't have to read poker go to a conference and 50 will disappear. fully calls and he says -- how are you doing? and i'm like, i'm really terrible. you know, i can