In PE at our high school, you are required to wear either shorts or sweats. One day in a PE class that I had with Jay, he forgot and was left with slacks that might possibly could be passed as sweats if you didn't look hard enough. We stuck to the wall and out of the way hoping that Coach Turnbull wouldn't see. At one point, Turnbull was walking out the doorway we were standing beside and looked at Jay. He looked closer at his pants, bending backwards to get a better view. We both stood there, absolutly paralyzed, as though if we were really still we would become invisible. The worst that could have happened was that he would have given Jay a demerit or whatever, but there was something about Coach Turnbull that made us fear interaction with him, much less rebuke.
I don't have to tell most of you this, but in the blockbuster film The Matrix there is a suspenseful scene in which Keanu Reeves is trying to evade the Agents. At this point in the film, little is known of who the Agents are and what they want. All you know is that it isn't good. It turns out, of course, that it's worse than "not good."
When driving along the freeway, you find a police car behind you. You check your speedometer and you're not speeding. But when you turn, the cop turns with you. You don't think he's following you, but you have to ask yourself how long before you screw up and his lights turn on. The more your concentrating on him, after all, the less you're concentrating on the road.
I had that sort of feeling today. I've never had a Mormon officially try to sell me. On one hand, it could be a very enlightening conversation. I am genuinely curious about the faith from
an academic standpoint. Who better to inform me than a Missionary? Of course, while I don't know how the conversation would go, I know that it would get very uncomfortable during the "close" stage of the transaction. I don't know how, I just know that it will be. I also fear that my genuine interest would give them a false hope. I could keep up a lack of curiosity for a bit, but like with the cop behind me, how long till I screw up and sound interested?
They were talking to someone on the other side of the building. A couple of them flanked out and started walking around the bend to our side. I ignored them as best I could, talking to Dundee about his release from prison. Like Jay and I in the high school gymnasium, I was hoping that I would just turn invisible.
They came for Strang. They knocked on his door for a bit and when he wasn't there, they left.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Dundee went in and turned up very offensive rap music as loudly as he could (most offensive rap song I've ever heard, which is saying something). I wasn't sure if Strang was there only target (he actually struck up a conversation with them not long ago, proving that he is indeed insane), if the rap music did it, or if it was because apparently the last time they came by Dundee told them where they could put it.
I'm not sure, but I think that by associating with Dundee they may get a similar impression of me.
Dundee and I have a pretty reciprocal association. I loan him my phone, he feeds me when he has leftovers. But I think this is the biggest gift he's ever given me.
Ah the blessed mormons. Leah was a mormon. While married we even had missionaries come over to the house to try and "hook" the children and me, as well as bring her back to the church (the church that shunned her for being an unwed teenage mother).
Quite frankly, of all the christian religions, Mormons tend to piss me off the most. Pentacostals seem to be right up there, but they don't seem to be as in your face as Mormons. I throughly enjoyed the South Park episode that blatantly points out some of the most strange things about their religion.
All I can say, as that while with Tanya, I loved every minute of having 2 unfriendly to stranger dogs. Kept the Mormons at a nice distance, though they would still yell at me across a parking lot if I had found the Lord God.
I keep looking.
I had no idea that she was Mormon.
I have a soft-spot for Mormony when compared to some Christian sects. The church, for all its faults, walks the walk in ways that few churches do. Moralizing, sure (most successful religions are), but their support group (out here at least) for those who walk the path is phenomenal. While I have some strong theological and ideological problems with their faith, I have some respect (so far).
Comment spam is an ongoing problems that we're trying to address. Previously we required people to create accounts and log in. I am thankful to say that is no longer the case. We're giving Captcha another try and are playing around with a text-based Q&A variant of Captcha. So bear with us as we try to figure out how to best get a handle ont he problem. Please note that any comment on a post more than 30 days old will go into the moderation queue, where I will get to it when I can which could be once a week.
