Cross-cultural Cooperation - This reminiscence is dedicated to my buddy Jack and all his fellow soldiers in Iraq. May God keep them safe and bring them home safe.
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W. was my Chief Flight Nurse a while back. He's an interesting mix of history and characteristics. He served in the US Army Airborne, went to nursing school after discharge, got his ACNP, worked as a flight nurse and then as our Chief. Eventually, he returned to the military full-time and is presently stationed in overseas. W. is also a convert to Islam.
Not too many down-home Southwest All-American boys choose to become Muslims. To this day, I still don't clearly understand what made him take this step a few years ago before we met. But the story gets stranger.
I am an Orthodox Jew. Most of my adult life has been spent working in religious education and community work. I work part-time as an RN and a paramedic. I am a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces, where I served as an infantry soldier and combat medical specialist. Quite simply, much (though not all) of my contact with Muslims has been antagonistic, even violent and deadly. And now here we were, the two of us working together in close quarters, Chief and crew member.
The truth is that, despite clear religious differences, Islam and Judaism have many shared values. Both are Middle Eastern cultures with a strong emphasis on religious discipline, on devotion to God, on personal modesty. Both cultures expect their adherents to devote regular times each day to prayer and study, and to stick to a particular dietary code. Neither culture is really very well known or understood in most of America.
I don't know if W. was really all that strict about his adherence to the requirements of Islam. I can't tell, and it isn't for me to judge. But I admired his courage in choosing such a path, and I sympathized with the difficulties of staying such a course each day in a Southwestern city and workplace where almost no one could really identify with his challenges. So, in addition to becoming coworkers and friends, we started to look out for each other in little ways.
The Muslim diet is particular and absolutely forbids ingredients such as pork. Until fairly recently, Halal food for the Muslim diet was difficult to find or verify in many locales. But Muslims in America have in the past often bought kosher food marketed for observant Jews, knowing that it won't contain anything forbidden to them as well. I can remember as a young man that Muslims would order kosher airline meals when traveling. With this in mind, I would share my meals with W. I eat only kosher food and bring all my food from home as there are no kosher restaurants for hundreds of miles in any direction. Occasionally, my wife would send along a little something special 'extra'. When we would buy kosher meat, I would offer to get some for him.
Our company often flies long missions, ranging from places in Mexico or South America up into Canada. Since I never know what the availability of kosher food will be, I pack my own along the way. If we happen to land in a city with a large Jewish community, I'll try to get to a kosher restaurant for a meal. I also would try to grab a little something to bring back as a treat for my wife. Now, I added W. to the list.
Similarly, when our flights were extended missions, we sometimes flew back through our home base to get fuel or switch out pilots. W. would always be sure to check if I needed him to go into my stuff at the base and bring me food or maybe religious articles for the rest of the trip.
When we were at the base, W. always made his office available to me to have a quiet place to pray. Observant Jews pray three regular times a day. Muslims pray five. He understood my desire for an undisturbed place for a few minutes to fulfill my obligations at the appropriate times, and always offered it. (I have to say; on this score, I've always been fortunate. Today, in the ED, my best bud is a Baptist minister's wife. She will often offer, of her own volition, to watch my patients for a few minutes to allow me time for my evening prayers. Thanks, J!)
Beyond the technical or formalistic things like prayer or food where we helped each other, we provided a certain sympathy and encouragement to each other. Our need to stay the course of our religious paths, to strive for the faithful expression of our relationship with and obligations to God - all these sometimes need support. W. and I, the Muslim and the Jew, had common grounds to help and support each other in these aspirations.
