Bliss in Ignorance?

Now you'll have to forgive me if this post may hurt the emotional sensibilities of some but I cannot contain myself from writing this note and furthermore to protect the identity of the individual involved in the to be mentioned narrative I shall use a hypothetical name and refer to her as Simone, in an otherwise non-fiction incident. October of last year, Muslims all over the world observed the Holy month of Ramadan and as most people are aware, it involves fasting from sunrise to sunset. So it came as a complete surprise to me when I was at work one morning while observing my fast when more or less the following conversation ensued in Simone’s office,

Simone: "Hey Suphia, you should try these cookies, they’re good!"

Me: "No thanks (my stomach already rumbling at the very thought of the cookie), I’m fasting today so I can’t eat anything till sunset"

Simone: "Oh really? must be hard, how long do you have to do this for?"

Me: "Ramadan lasts for a month"

At this point I have to add that Simone is short of hearing and one often finds themselves talking louder than they otherwise would in order to be audible to her so perhaps in her defense she did not hear me? Anyway before I could respond, in walked another co-worker into her office.

Coworker (turning towards me): "Hey Suphia, how’s the fasting coming along?"

Me: "Good, except that I tend to get thirsty"

Simone to coworker (with a very incredulous look on her face): "Can you believe it? They can’t eat anything for a month" and turning to me added “how do you survive without food for so long? DON’T YOU DIE?"

At this point the two of us couldn’t help but break out into laughter and told Susan that the fast is to be broken at sunset following which you can resume eating. She then heaved a sigh of relief and I guess realized (hopefully) how silly she had been in making that assumption in the first place. Now, I realize that Ramadan is an Islamic practice however truth be told, it saddens me to think that even though we live in the 21st century and enormous amounts of knowledge and information is available to us at the click of a button, some of us choose to live in ignorance and thus choose to not know.