Welcome!: Religious fanatics are scary in any country.

Saturday 6 June 2009

Religious fanatics are scary in any country.

I found that religion is a personal thing, and although it may be less awkward than asking 'what's your favourite sexual position?', questions and especially, judgment towards one's belief system is extremely inappropriate.

So I only have two words for those people who find it in their gut to stop unsuspecting strangers, like myself, in the middle of the street, to lecture and preach about the Kingdom of God and eternal life: bugger off.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to be harsh. But I was the one feeling offended, honestly. Anyway, I have no problem wasting away good minutes of my life helping out and filling surveys or questionnaires, I really don't. And that's why I smiled politely and stopped, thinking 'hey, today is the day I'm gonna do some good deeds and help out these people.'

I regretted it immediately just after one question muttered by the lady. "Do you believe in God?" she asked. Even after I said 'yes' cautiously, she had this look that made me almost believe she would pass out right there and then if I have answered 'no'.

"Have you finished reading the bible?" she pursued. Oh, heck, no! Transfixing my focus on just completing the survey so I could walk out of there as fast as possible, I chose to mumble incoherently at this question because that was none of her business at all.

She pressed on by pulling out her bible, flipping the pages and from the rows and rows of various highlighted colours, I safely assumed that not only she has finished reading it from cover to cover, she probably had everything memorized as well.

I'd always found these downright Christian fanatic to be more than a walking cliche. I didn't much care about what they got up to in the privacy of their own churches, but it bothered me a lot when it all came out into the open. I didn't like them trying to persuade and affect people on the matter of such sensitive and personal subject, I didn't like them handing me leaflets about the bible and eternal life, and mostly, I didn't like them stopping me in the middle of the street trying to palm off their literature on me.

She asked all sorts of questions, read to me quotes from the bible, and I thought I made myself pretty clear that I needed to walk away by my clearly-pissed-face, but the gesture seemed lost on her. She wanted me to come to her church because according to her, most churches teach the wrong things. "Just look at the priests, and even the Pope; they are wearing something on their head, when in fact, here," she quickly flipped through the pages of the bible and read it aloud, "here, it's clearly stated that it's considered disrespectful to wear something on the head."

She looked at me, rather triumphantly, and I'm so tempted to argue. There's famine, and wars, and poverty, global warming, and diseases in this world. And you think we give a rat's tootsie about some head-accessories and whether it's disrespectful or not? There are probably fiften-hundred-thousand other things that we should worry about before we got to that, let alone actually care.

"Oh yeah, that is horrible. Wearing something on their heads, what a sin. Unforgivable." was what I wanted to say, but I heard myself say, "I have my own church, thanks" instead. I think I handled it pretty calmly, considering. Inside, my blood was boiling. Still, she wouldn't let it go.

"I appreciate the talk, but I don't need to go to another church because I have my own. And I really have to go now," and before she could argue, I left. I was still thanking her? I have such good manner. I said I would help them out with their surveys and that's what I did. The rest was completely unnecessary.

I don't mind talking about religion, really. I'd be more than happy to be able to exchange ideas, tell people about my view on the world, and about God, and listen to the same. But not this way, not through this preaching, and judging, and lecturing, and shoveling the bible down my throat as if they know the best.

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Quotes

There's a hundred million different ways of writing, and it takes you a long time to sort through that stuff. And I think it takes anyone a long time to find a voice.

You must learn to take the good with the bad, the happy with the sad, love what you’ve got and remember what you had. Learn to forgive, but never forget, learn from your mistakes but never regret. People change and things go wrong, but you just have to remember that life goes on.

The day before I’m supposed to be meeting Caroline for a drink, I develop all the textbook symptoms of a crush: nervous stomach, long periods spent daydreaming, an inability to remember what she looks like. I can bring back the dress and the boots, and I can see her bangs, but her face is a blank.

I don't know, I think that if I could just accept the fact that my life is supposed to be difficult. You know, that's what to be expected, then I might not get so pissed-off about it and I'll just be glad when something nice happens.

I can see now I never really committed to Laura. I always had one foot out the door, and that prevented me from doing a lot of things, like thinking about my future and... I guess it made more sense to commit to nothing, keep my options open. And that's suicide. By tiny, tiny increments.

There's a big fucking world out there. It's messy, and it's chaotic, and it's never, never ever the thing you'd expect. It is ok to be scared, but you cannot allow your fears to turn you into an asshole, not when it comes to the people that love you, the people that need you.

Maybe what I'm saying is, is the world might be evolving the way a person evolves. Right? Like, I mean, me for example. Am I getting worse? Am I improving? I don't know. When I was younger, I was healthier, but I was, uh, whacked with insecurity, you know? Now I'm older and my problems are deeper, but I'm more equipped to handle them.

I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived: I've loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough.

Later that day I got to thinking about relationships. There are those that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous.

A woman needs to be held, even, and science has shown this, if its with someone she doesn't care about. Protective hormones are released, and the amount of hormones released depends on the degree to which she is held. The first and best is the complete surround. He wraps you in both arms, whispers how beautiful you are. Second best is the 'arm around.' He is next to you but with one arm around you. Third is he's just next to you on his elbow, but he rests his hand on your stomach and looks at you. Fourth is you snuggling up to him with your head on his chest, while he looks away into space. But when the first best happens, you feel completely, wonderfully like a woman.

So, so what, so fuck off, go home, leave you alone? I'll tell you something Paul, there isn't anything that I've wanted for eighteen years, cause I was a kid eighteen years ago. And if I did still want the same things I'd think I'd gone wrong somewhere, because actually I don't want to marry David Cassidy, I don't want bigger tits, I don't want to do better on my marks. I've stopped worrying about that kind of thing and maybe you should try.

Well maybe there's a big bit of you that's gone missing somewhere, maybe everyone should want something they've always wanted.

Why is it that adults aren't supposed to go mad about anything? You gotta keep a lid on it. And if you don't then people are apparently entitled to say what they like. "You haven't grown up. You're a moron. Your conversation is trivial and boorish. You can't express your emotional needs. You can't relate to your children." And you die, lonely and miserable. But you know, what the hell, every cloud has a silver lining.

I just woke up one morning and didn't feel the same way. Where did it go? It was like there had been a lot of food on a plate in front of us, and we ate it all really quickly, and then there was nothing left. Maybe that's how couples stay together: they're not greedy. They know that what they have in front of them has to last a long time, so they kind of pick at it. I hope it's not like that, though. I hope that when people are happy together, it feels as though someone keeps piling seconds and thirds on their plates.

That is what I have learned: Sex is destructive. Love is nothing to be fooled with. I learned that I was dangerous, not to be trusted. I wondered if my parents were right, with all of their stiff lovelessness. Maybe they knew better. My parents don't dole out love for the deserving or the undeserving. I was learning that love could cost me.

You could say all you liked about reason and logic and common sense and imagination, but when the chips were down, the one skill you needed was the ability to think about absolutely nothing whatsoever.

There is a comfort in never making an effort, but it's a lonely comfort. What keeps you going is the knowledge that you're only playing with only four cards showing. But when you see other people succeeding with their mediocre hands, you have to make a decision. If you turn over that final card you're certain of victory, but it also means you have nothing in reserve.

I’d gone through life believing in the strength and competence of others; never in my own. Now, dazzled, I discovered that my capacities were real. It was like finding a fortune in the lining of an old coat.

Maybe we all live life at too high a pitch, those of us who absorb emotional things all day, and as mere consequence we can never feel merely content: we have to be unhappy, or ecstatically, head-over-heels happy, and those states are difficult to achieve within a stable, solid relationship.