Another Favourite Christmas Story

Here is another one of my favourite Christmas stories; also true.
[my previous fav is here http://dereksdharma.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/my-favorite-christmas-story/]

Back when I used to do travel planning for Namgyal Rinpoche, the travel agency I worked out of was in downtown Toronto. One December, just before Christmas, I went to the convenience store across from the office that was run by a Muslim family. Reflexively, I said “Happy Holidays” to the proprietor, and then said “Do you folks close over Christmas?”

“Yes, we’ll be closing” he answered.
“But I thought you were Muslim, not Christian?” I said.

“We are Muslim,” he said, “but we have duties that day as well.”

“Exchanging gifts like we’ll be doing?”

“No, not exactly,” he said. “Last week, at the mosque, our Imam talked to us about this time of year and what it means and how we should observe it. And he asked us all to do something on this day.”

“What are you going to do?”

He was silent for a while; he seemed uncomfortable telling me, but he eventually spoke quietly: “Our Imam asked us all to go out and to  give blood, because this was a gift that would be given to others without distinguishing whether the receiver is Muslim, Christian, Jewish–we cannot be selective. We should not prefer this person over that one. We just must give.”