joie de vivre

Today while I was indulging in the late 18th century/early 19th century British society of Highbury with Emma Woodhouse at Kerckhoff Patio, 2 girls from a Christian group approached me and just sat down and started talking to me. I hate being one of those people who are immediately repulsed by religious zeal and reject them with contempt, because I know how much courage it takes to do what they do. They truly place faith in "spreading the gospel" or whatever the correct term is, so I usually try to behave civilly, and be open-minded and less annoyed. I talked with them for a bit, and answered them truthfully when they asked me questions. But maybe I should have just been a bitch, because they ended up reading me the entire pamphlet.

The first page showed that without god, people don't live fulfilled, abundant lives. And they asked me, "Why do you think many people don't live full, abundant lives?" And I said, "I feel like most people do live full and abundant lives (in the context of people within the same social and economic realm as me, of course)." "Oh... that's good!" Then they showed a page with two diagrams, one about a "self-centered life" and one of a "god centered life". And they asked me which diagram best represents my current life. Being the virtuous, honest lady I am, I obviously said self-centered life. Then they asked, "What kind of life would you like to live in the future?" and I said, "Probably a self-centered one," not because it's true, but because out of the 2 options, that's the most probable one. "Oh, That's ok!" I think it's odd that "self-centered" and "god-centered" are the only two options available. It was a catechism game I was ruining. But she doesn't want me to lie, right? Anyway, she mostly ended up telling me about her story of religious discovery while I just listened. Maybe I'm supposed to follow in her footsteps? It was nice talking to her (even tho it was mostly her talking), but I felt bad for wasting their time, because I told her I've already heard it before, with 3 Christian roommates and numerous Christian friends. Maybe she thought this time it would be different.

I wonder why people will only talk to strangers with an intent of making them think in the same way. Why can't we just converse to learn about each other for the sake of appreciating people for their diverse beliefs, and then accept one another for who we are? Why can't we comprehend that other people may have given as much thought about these profound issues as we have? The one phrase she used that bothered me was "One, true path". Why is there only ONE religion? Is there only ONE correct race to be? ONE concept of beauty? ONE idea of happiness? ONE Yogurtland flavor we have to pick? so why would there be ONE answer to all questions in life for the billions of people? Am I just naive? Or do we all really want everyone to be the same and think the same way? For some reason, it just felt like religious intolerance on a slightly more passive level. I feel like they won't ever understand the real reason why it's so hard to convert people, if they don't stop feeling sorry for and pitying everyone for their "empty, unfulfilled" lives. OMG I'm becoming a ranter. or canter. oh no, STOP ME!!!

Anyway, next time I should turn the bitch switch on cuz it saves everyone time and energy... Not that it's easy, cuz I'm a really nice person :)