for the sake of

My best childhood friend texted me a YouTube link to a video of a hometown hero, a local educator with a major regional following. I had no clue who this was. “You’re gonna have to remind me who this is and why he is running around” the entire county, I replied. She marveled at my ignorance. He’s an original local personality! she told me. He’d been in “every parade since before we were born,” she added. “He taught me hot potato when I was 41!” Their intertwined personal mythologies were apparently extensive. Even thirty years later, the educator had always recognized my best friend at public events—would pleasantly joke that her mother had never given up on trying to convert him. “He is unfortunately still an atheist,” my best friend concluded. A burst of indignation surged through my body, as if on the man’s behalf. Hmm. “Yeah he seems pretty Buddhist,” I replied, trying to play it cool. I shifted around in my seat at home, struggling a little. Finally: “I think sometimes it can be…