Pir Zia

I went to see Pir Zia without a great deal of enthusiasm for the encounter. I had met him once before, talked briefly with him at a salad bar and thought he was OK, but he was not a pir. Not then. Of course that was a long time ago and he was still a teenager. Now, some twenty years later, I went down to pay homage? Not sure it would work.

For me there was only one pir. That was Zia’s father, Villiyat. PIR Villayat. He initiated me into the Sufi Order. He married Karima and me. He sang, he played cello, he philosophized and recited great poetry. He spoke many languages fluently and brought the great spirits of eternity into being before our eyes. He also has been dead now for three years. I felt in some ways like the Sufi Order had died with him. Now I went to see what was left.

Three days later, we drove north out of Sarasota excited with the new possibilities Pir Zia had discussed with all of us. The great torch has been well passed, and it may well become a beacon for the world.

Now in his mid-thirties, Pir Zia has come a long way from that old salad bar. He has studied Buddhism under the auspices of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Sufism in the classical Indian tradition of the Chisti Order. He holds a doctorate in Religion from Duke University and is editor of "A Pearl in Wine: Essays on the Life, Music, and Sufism of Hazrat Inayat Khan" (Omega Publications, 2001). He too, speaks many languages fluently and clearly has absorbed much of the magic displayed by his father and grandfather.

The aura I perceived coming from him was that of confidence, joy, and intelligent concern. I sensed the presence of access to different options and unexpected tools. There seemed to be an “awareness” of a different way to do things and of access to new avenues.

The world is always changing, but that pace is quickening because of mankind's access to new technologies. Religion is also being confronted with deeply probing questions, even from many of its faithful members who seek new ways and new options to accommodate their new understandings of a different concept of life. Somehow, a great threshold seems to have been passed over, and we are slowly becoming aware that we are entering into a vast new capacity. The old answers are still there, still coming from all the old churches and they are as strongly presented as they ever have been. But the questions have changed and they don’t seek new answers so much as they seek to develop a new understanding of who mankind really is as our species begins to form a new relationship with the Great Mystery we sense as being both beyond and within us.

For more information about Pir Zia and his work click here http://www.sevenpillarshouse.org/

Old Hickory Tap Room, Hickory, NC

Shortly after moving to Hickory last year my wife and I went to the Old Hickory Tap Room, ordered a beer and sat down to enjoy the atmosphere. We left before we finished our drinks, leaving because of the cigarette gasses that pervaded the place, and we did not come back.

In 2009, the North Carolina Legislature abolished smoking in eating establishments. Yea. It went into effect this January the second. We waited a couple of months to let the second-hand and third-hand gasses more or less dissipate and dropped in again last night after seeing a play just around the corner at the Hickory Community Theatre.

Wonderful. Good home-brewed beer and a classy group of waiters. The band did not stop the entire time we were in there, yet we sat in the other room and were able to carry on a conversation. We not only enjoyed some really good beer, we also ordered a serving of their special chips. Wow. I didn't get their name, but don't worry, they are at the top of their "Appetizers" menu. Get'em. They're good. They are really good. Our waiter brought us some small servings of dips - not that they needed any dip at all - but we had a "ranch", a "hot" blue cheese dip, and a "beer cheese" dip. Which was the best? Hah! We couldn't figure that out. And we tried hard.

Best of all, we talked to two waiters about the difference in patronage after the smoking ban went into effect. Had "attendance" dropped or maybe held steady? Both said that many more people were now coming in and that they had noticed that beginning with the first week.