things you might not expect...

On Sunday I walked downtown to go to the library and remembered it was the day for the art festival. So I decided to check that out and was pleasantly surprised to see it actually was a
"real" festival with a very respectable sized crowd. We've been to a few things downtown, including the alleged art walk, which were just kind of lackluster and not very well attended and just seemed sort of depressing in general. But this was a nice art festival, the usual kind of arts and vendors, you know, ceramics and jewelry and photos. There were a lot of people and 2 different
groups of musicians and lots of food booths too. After I had walked around and looked at everything, I was going to walk back home. But approximately one block from downtown are the train tracks and I could see there was a train, or really multiple trains (freight) barreling down the line, so it would probably take a while til that was finished. I was standing at the corner, debating for a few minutes, whether I should just mill about there while waiting for the train, or go look at the art some more. I must have looked more lost than I'd thought, because after a couple minutes I saw a woman approaching me, with a sort of determined, purposeful look on her face. She was handing me something, at first I assumed it would be some sort of coupon or advertisement for one of the local stores, but instead she hands me a card, and says something like this "I want to give you this chant that will help you release your greatest inner potential". The card has a flower on the front, and it says "The Key to Unlocking Your Highest Potential" It also says Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.
Okay well the internets tell me this is called the Lotus Sutra, and is a Buddhist meditation.
I think the woman said a few more things to me, although none of it was about Buddhism or anything specific. The back of the card says Buddhism for Modern Living and gives a website.
I have to say that was unexpected... i wouldn't expect too many Buddhists in Ames but who knows... I wasn't sure what to say to her, since I don't know that much about them but it didn't actually seem like she was interested in having a conversation, just telling me about meditation, I think.