.: Be Blessed :.

One night, I passed in front of a café. There was a woman bundled up tight against the cold. She was selling StreetWise papers. I don’t usually stop to buy one. I wasn’t going to tonight either. However my sister had given me a pack of coupons. These coupons, which she purchased from her church, are redeemable for food at various Lakeview businesses. I was going to give her the whole packet of them. Instead I looked like a fool explaining how the vouchers worked all the while digging in my bag only to find nothing.
I promised her that I would come back and give the vouchers to her the next time I saw her.

Well, now on this wonderfully sunny day I ran into her again. Finally. So I gave her the coupons. She thanked me by saying, Be blessed. I told her, No problem. Have a good day. Then I walk away.

A few steps later this idea occurs to me. I walk back. In the spirit of my taking pictures of strangers today, I asked if I could take her picture. She politely said no. So I wished her a good day. “It’s because of my religion,” she continued. I stood there waiting to hear something about the camera stealing her soul. Instead she states her refusing to have the picture taken has to do with her belief in the Bible and her “strong” Christianity. I could not walk away after that statement. She’s destroyed most of her pictures, she says, even pictures of her children. This way when Satan comes to prosecute the Christians there are no records of her. “I just really want to sorta disappear.”

I know that feeling…

When she told me of the concentration camps that being built for the prosecuted along the Canadian border, I must have looked like I shut down. She said, “See, it’s my religion. Otherwise I would let you.” It’s OK I say and wish her good day again. She answers, Be blessed, one last time.

Recently, tdj posted this quote recently which, I believe, compli:ments this story well:

"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart." - H. L. Mencken