PlatKat.com: Saved

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Saved

Before Julianna and Malcolm's party, I walked Zoey along our usual path in the park. Part way through our walk, a girl about my age approached us and our conversation went as follows:

"You have a beautiful dog."

"Thanks."

"Hold old is she?"

"About 4 years. I adopted her from a shelter a few months ago."

While we continued our dog-related banter, Zoey had been having some poop issues. Now that I had made a new friend, Zoey wanted to stop mid-poop and sniff her.

"I'm sorry, this doesn't usually happen. How embarrassing."

She gestured to the poop bag I was holding and said, "Is that hers?"

"Yeah."

"It's really great that you do that," she said as I picked up another bag of Zoey's crapola.

"Well, I think it's gross when other people leave their dogs' business everywhere, so I don't want to do it."

She introduced herself, and I told her my name. Then, she said, "I have a question for you. There are two kinds of people in the world: those who are saved and those who are about to be saved. Which one are you?"

My face fell. I was late for a party, walking my dog, and stopping to make idle chat with someone from the neighborhood, and we had gone from a conversation about dog shit to a religious sales pitch in less than 2.5 seconds.

I looked at her as if to say, What are you trying to do to me?

"I am... not wanting to have this conversation with you right now. Do you live in the neighborhood? I'm sure I'll see you around."

I felt bad for snubbing her, but I just wasn't in the mood for it. I generally enjoy conversations about religion, but not when they're under the guise of making a friend in the neighborhood. I would prefer to make a friend who can talk about other things, and will talk about that only when we're both wanting to discuss it.

I think the exchange was pretty weird, on par with that astrology dude from my last post. I mean, do I have a sign on my head that says Blank slate in need of a belief system?

I'm a big fan of minding my own damn business, and I'd prefer that others do the same. Random conversations with strangers are okay, but when they have intrusive, ulterior motives from the beginning, I'd rather be ignored.

Strange stuff like this seems to come in threes, so I wonder what the third (and hopefully final) spiritual coercion attempt will be.

posted by platkat @ 5:05 PM