When people ask me what my hobbies are I say reading but the truth is, I usually spend way more time watching TV than reading books. And every once in a while, I re-watch a show I really love. This summer, it was Ramy, written by American stand-up comedian, writer and actor Ramy Youssef. The show, which aired on Hulu between 2019-2022, has won numerous awards for its frank and nuanced portrayal of American Muslim identities, and the laugh-out-loud funny way it examines questions of faith and desire.

In season two, the main character Ramy (played by Ramy Youssef) goes wandering late one night on a stretch of disused train tracks in New Jersey together with his Sufi Sheikh (played by Mahershala Ali). They are looking for the dog of a man who went to prison that same day, hoping to save the animal. They’ve been looking for hours, with no luck. Over and over, Ramy flops his arms and suggests abandoning the search; it’s dark and cold and the dog could be anywhere. The dog could be dead already. Suddenly, Ramy’s phone dings with a prayer notification.

Let’s make Isha*, the sheikh says, stopping in the middle of the quiet train tracks.

Ramy hesitates. But we don’t have a mat, he says, how should we -

The sheikh doesn’t reply but takes off his scarf instead and calmly places it on the leaf-covered ground next to the tracks.

Okay see the thing is, Ramy says, I don’t have any water to make wudu**, and also I farted back there when we were walking so I don’t even have wudu ‘cause of the fart.

The sheikh looks at him and says: You look at everything as either a blessing or a curse, Ramy. The truth is everything is both.

And so they pray, on that cold, deserted patch of earth in New Jersey. And then they find the dog, of course. 

Before you start wondering why I’m devoting an entire newsletter to a scene in a TV show where two Muslim men talk about farts and then pray together, let me say: I don’t think this scene is only about prayer. To me, it’s about all the small and large moments in our lives where we are asked to make an imperfect offering in order to follow our values and our love for something. Be it God, our child, or an artistic calling.

If, say, creativity is one of my dearly held values but I’m only doing creative work when the conditions are absolutely right and I know I won’t fail, then my value might as well not exist. The older I get, the more I believe that everything valuable in my life – everything that is saturated with my love – is also what’s messy and imperfect. I often come to the page when I’m tired, when I think there’s nothing to say. I’m so unprepared for this, I think, every single time.

But what if this kind of imperfect offering is one of the best things we can give to each other, to ourselves?

What if lowering the bar would allow us to follow our values more often, not less?

There’s a New Moon in Virgo happening this week, on August 23. If there’s a sign in the zodiac concerned with perfection, it is surely Virgo. And yet, Virgo also understands the power of a concrete action. Or, as a good friend of mine once printed on a handkerchief: Do small things with great love.

What do you love? Whom do you love? What would be the smallest step you could take to express your commitment? We’re not used to include ourselves in these questions, so I want to make it explicit: if you could offer yourself something, a concrete action that would affirm your values or your deeply held beliefs, what would it be? Whatever it is, let it be imperfect. Let your hands get sweaty. Let the world meet you that way.

_{*Isha is the fifth prayer of the day in Islam, occurring after nightfall.}

_{**Islamic procedure of ritual purification before prayer. Wudu entails washing the hands, rinsing the mouth and nose, washing the face and forearms, then the head and the ears and finally the feet, cleaning the space between each toe with water.}