I would never in a million years think it was acceptable to tell someone who doesn't believe the same way I do about anything, that they're "wrong" and they need to change their ways of thinking. Why do people think that it's acceptable to tell me that I'm wrong just because I don't believe the same as they do?
I had a friend in college who was, quite simply, an awesome person. We got along great. We had SO much fun together. She went through a really tough patch in her life and in the end she "found God". To be honest I'm not even 100% sure what that means, exactly, but I do know that she started going to Church. Then she started to attend an Adult Sunday School. Finally she started going to a Bible Group three times a week. That was great for her. She found something that gave her life meaning. Whatever she was got out of all that religion she soaked up did wonders for her mentally, and I wouldn't ever have wanted to take that away from her because she became a happier person because of it. However, the downfall of all that religion was that suddenly it became her mission to "Save Erin". I dismissed it at first. I let her go on about her latest Bible Group discussions, and all she was doing with the Church she had joined. Until she started to practically pry open my jaws and SHOVE her religion down my throat.
I had let these "discussions" go on for several weeks. I'd let her have her say then I'd gently tell her that I was glad she found something that made her happy and I'd change the subject. Occasionally I'd tell her that I didn't believe the way she did. That I had to physically touch, see, smell, taste something to believe it's real. I didn't have the blind faith that she did to believe in this entity that couldn't, to me, be physically proven. (I can see the proof in evolution. I don't see how man could have been created out of nothing and woman created out of man's rib. To me, to believe in that is blind faith.) That usually quieted her down for a few days.
One St. Patrick's day we went into The City (as anyone in the suburbs of Chicago refers to Downtown Chicago) for the night. We got a hotel and went to a Irish Pub on Michigan Avenue. We had a fucking BLAST!! We got back to the hotel room about 5 am. I was TIRED. I was DRUNK. All I wanted to do was SLEEP. Val, on the other hand, decided that this was the perfect opportunity to tell me that she'd decided that she had a new "mission" in life. She was going to Save me if it was the last thing she did. She actually used those words. I could not get her to SHUT UP and let me sleep. My usual tactics didn't work. Maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe she was just fucking determined to complete her mission. Whatever it was - she annoyed the living crap out of me. The more I told her to knock it off the more determined she got. We ended up in a huge argument. She insisted that she cared so much about me that she could no longer sit back and watch me live my life the way I was (whatever THAT meant) without trying to save my "eternal soul".
We checked out of the hotel at 10 am the next morning (after getting maybe 3 hours of sleep), got on the train to go home, and I didn't speak to her for weeks. When I did finally break down and call her, she started right in again with her mission. One thing I can say, that girl was DETERMINED. That was the beginning of the end of our friendship. I miss hanging out with her. Pre-God, of course. I just couldn't take it anymore and she wouldn't quit. To this day I still get emails from her on a weekly basis about attending this or that Church thing and save yourself. I don't even open them anymore.
I would never in a million years think that it was acceptable to insist that someone share my belief if something. Why on earth do people who believe in God think it's acceptable to insist that I share their beliefs?
On another rant: Target used to be my favorite store ever. Until today when I learned that Target is a major donor to a Minnesota politician who believes that Gay Rights are to be abolished. This guy supports a Christian rock band who preaches that it's acceptable to harm Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender people simply because "the Bible" tells them it's wrong. This just goes adds to my extreme dislike of uber-religious people. I will never shop at Target again. That makes me want to cry a little because I HATE Wal-Mart. I find Wal-Mart's to be dirty, unorganized stores with rude and unhelpful employees. Not to mention the people who shop at Wal-Mart all need to be run over by a Mac truck. I'm just sayin'. I guess my new store to shop at will be Meijer. Thankfully there's one that's closer to my house than Target is.
My final rant is kind of a dance of joy as well. I have an ex-husband who owes me over $65,000 in back child support. The Illinois Child Support Enforcement Agency is a joke when it comes to finding him, and forcing his hand. However, they may have finally gotten something right. My ex was supposed to come up her (from Indiana) this weekend to see my kids. They wanted to go spend time with him at his house, but that was only gonna happen over my dead body. I don't know his wife, I don't know where he lives, and he's practically a pedophile. He has a habit of "falling in love" with girls who are 18. He, on the other hand is 38. Sorry, but that's a little too creepy for me. Not that I think he'd do something with/to his own children, but people have a tendency to hang out with others who have similar interests. Who the fuck knows who his friends are and how deranged they are.
He was supposed to come up to Illinois this weekend to spend time with his kids at his mother's house. He apparently called L this week and told her that the DMV got his name mixed up with another Ken Johnson and "accidentally" suspended his license instead of the other Ken. I know this is not a DMV mix up. The Illinois Child Support Enforcement Agency has finally taken a small step in this situation by suspending his license. He won't be able to get it unsuspended until he pays off the back child support he owes. He told L that he might not be able to come now. L told him to take a train. He told her there are no trains from his location to Chicago. While L was on the phone with him, she was also online looking up Amtrak schedules and called his bluff.
L has a HUGE issue with her Dad. While on the one hand she loves him because he is her Dad, on the other hand she doesn't believe a word he says because he's promised too many things to her only to fall back on his promises. She told him that he'd better be here this weekend or she was going to be REALLY PISSED at him. I'm so proud of her for taking a stand against him. When she was 5 years old, she was crying to me about how her Daddy made her feel bad when he would promise and then not follow through. I told her to tell him how he made her feel.
During a phone conversation (which she had to work herself up for which is really sad considering she was only 5 years old) she told him how he made her feel. His response was to yell at her, and tell her to tell me to stop making her say things like that to him. That child was devastated. She was so mad at me because I told her to tell him how she felt, and she didn't talk to me for three days. And she never again told her Dad how badly he hurt her when he'd make promises and not follow through. That is until recently. Now that she's a sassy mouthed teenager she has no fear of telling him exactly how it is! All I can do is sit back, listen to her recount her conversations with him, and laugh like a maniac after she's gone back to her room. I can't wait until she realizes that he is NOT worth her time.
