So I wasn't going to blog about this tonight, but I'm up so I think I will.

For me, I find refuge among stacks of books. Around 7:30 or so tonight, I decided I needed to get out of the apartment and headed to Barnes and Noble. Now when I'm at home, I head there in order to meet up with friends, but when I go here, I certainly don't expect to run into people like at home and certainly don't expect to strike up conversations with strangers.

I usually start out in the magazines then head upstairs to the religion and philosophy books spending a little time at each. The religion books I like are on one side of the aisle and the philosophy is on the other side. So I'm standing there, having made one selection, and I pick up a book from the philosophy section. I've already looked at some random philosophers, but the book I had in had was one where you can do little tricks to sort of freak yourself out. One I can remember was sitting alone in a room and calling out your name repeatedly. Even though you're the one who is saying it, eventually you get the feeling that someone really is calling you and the only way to stop it is to say "I'm coming!"

So I'm standing there minding my own business when this guy walks up and says hi. He gets progressively closer to me and I'm like... woah. Too close to me to not be talking to him. So he strikes up a conversation that goes something like this...

Him: Hi, how are you doing?
Me: (looks up) Fine. (looks back down at book kind of irked that someone is disturbing me)
Minute of silence.
Him: Do you know where I could find the book the Buddha and Jesus?
Me: (Standing in front of Buddhism books) Probably around here somewhere but I haven't heard of it. (still trying to ignore him)
Him: What do you think about philosophy? Like do you think these books have any validity? (Points to books on the Hare Krishna and Dalai Lama)
Me: I think that God has interesting ways of manifesting our relationship with him. (Crap, I've opened the God door)
Him: Well I was a philosophy major at UNM and found that they really opened the doors to things that aren't good. Like studying philosophy is a gateway into things like this. You know, like marijuana is a gateway drug into other drugs. (I'm sure my background in Nietzsche would have freaked him out entirely)
Me: Well actually my degree is in religious studies so I know all about philosophy and religion and I think there are definitely some valid points to religions outside of Christianity.
Him: So you're Christian?
Me: Yeah, and actually I'm a missionary with the United Methodist Church.
Him: So you're saved and here I am trying to witness to you. I was down getting coffee and thought I should come up here and witness to someone reading new age books.
Me: Well that's nice of you.

We made a little more small talk before Tara showed up, but for the most part I was laughing inside during most of that conversation. I do have to give the kid some mad props for being willing to start a conversation like that, but honestly if I weren't Christian I think he might have freaked me out a bit. So thanks random guy named Chris for talking to me tonight. I know it was probably difficult for you, and you didn't get to add a checkmark to "people I saved today" (you get the true cynic in this one), but you certainly opened my eyes to interesting things with this one.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 05, 2006 at 12:21 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.