He led her through two large wooden doors, into the unknown.
She walked the tiles of the Japanese floors inside the Temple;
pondering about and peering on the wonders of a new world.
She almost swooned at the sights! Wanted to faint in exultation..

"What a beautiful place," she exclaimed, then continued with:
"If only I could live in such a place, and even that wouldn't suffice
all that I have missed in my own corner of the Earth, all these years.
All should see what I see here! All should experience
such a different way; the way which I have seen now; here."

He looked down upon her petite structure with confusion
and said "You have safety in your home; people die here
every day; struggle to survive; try to escape a hell
each morning rise again. This is no place for you.
Do you know what it is like to fear for your life?
Do you know how much training it takes just to know
you are safe from harm?"

She absorbed his sentences, but remained
unchanged in her thoughts. She responded with dignity:
"But it is an honest life.
Where I come from, we are living in a lie,
and more than half of our people don't even question it;
or even realize such things.
Sure, your body is not safe here, in this place,
but where I come from, your soul is not safe.
And the way I see it -- I'd much rather a sword
strike my back,
then a thought
haunt my being.
Everyone is escaping something."