I had a lot of things to do in town this morning including breakfast at The Woodlands - well it was really a mid morning top-up.
After that I made a number of calls dropping things off at charity (goodwill/op shop) shops as well as the usual shopping forays.
As I got out of the car outside the Red Cross shop two very attractively personable young ladies accosted me (not a common situation for me I have to admit) and asked if I was happy. My immediate reaction was that they looked like female versions of the very well-groomed and personable young men who roam the streets proselytising for the Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Whether they were or not I do not know. However they were wearing badges that declared that they were missionaries. I have to say that the idea of missionaries on Lewis which is the last bastion of staunch Christianity in the UK rather amused me.
What was unusual was that they walked right up to me and greeted me very forthrightly asking if I was happy.
It did occur to me afterwards that if I as an old(ish) man had walked up to two young girls and greeted them in the same way I'd probably have been arrested at best or carted off in a straightjacket.
I responded that I was, indeed, very happy: just like the rainbow smiley face above. After all I'd woken up this morning and that, in itself, was cause for my happiness regardless of all the other good things happening in my day. Indeed, I told them in response to their further questioning as to why I was happy, that I am invariably happy because that is my general nature (these days!). Of course they then introduced their chosen subject.
I'm assuming that they were fairly new to the vocation because they seemed rather at a loss when I said that I was not just a happy person but a happy atheist.
And there, having exhorted me to 'have a nice day' and I having responded likewise we parted company.
I wonder if what they saw was
I wonder if what they saw was
This post made me laugh, and be happy, for you. And for me, another happy atheist.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're happy Kate.
DeleteAre you happy? That's a good question to ask oneself but not a question that complete strangers should be posing. We atheists have more discretion than that.
ReplyDeleteYP I've always found it strange that missionaries think they have the right to accost one any time and any where.
DeleteI love it! I'm a happy atheist too.
ReplyDeleteThe more of us around than I thought Diane.
DeleteSometimes I am, and sometimes I'm not. With the mood I've been in for some of this week, it probably is just as well no strangers, young, old, male or female walked up to me and asked me a similar question! I might have told them to mind their own business! :)
ReplyDeleteIt sounds, Lee, as though you are definitely not to be trifled with this week (or ever?).
DeleteI'd be happy to reach our age and have something happen that has never happened before. That alone would make me smile. As long as it happened on the right day, of course! As you know I don't share your constant positivity!
ReplyDeletePauline as one of the few people I know who can walk up to complete strangers and have them eating out of your hand (metaphorically, of course) perhaps you've missed your vocation!
DeleteI'm a happy person but I draw the line at religious zealots who think I should be this or that. You certainly gave them a shock.
ReplyDeleteYes, Red, I think they were a little taken aback.
DeleteI'm very blessed in as much as I wake happy each morning, and if no-one tries to alter that, I return to my bed as happy as that morning. I do know people who wake angry; life must be so hard for them!
ReplyDeleteYes, Cro, angry people must have a very hard life. I don't envy them.
DeleteI'm happy until I run into Mormans ..or Jehova's Witness or the like ! THEY make me very unhappy !
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, Helsie, they don't make me unhappy although some of them do irritate me. Most are perfectly harmless and quite charming and, so far as I am concerned, completely ineffectual.
DeleteI am a happy person. To the religious zealots who call at my door they are politely informed that we pursue our own philosophy and that we bear no angst to anyone.
ReplyDeleteIf they call at my door, Heron, I simply say that I'm sorry but I don't want to be sold anything today. Their response is almost always that they are not selling anything. That gives me the opportunity to very politely explain to them that they are, indeed, door to door salesmen.
DeleteI confess I usually try to take a detour when I spot anyone handing our leaflets or obviously out to interview people etc. Asked a question like that, on the spot - I'm not sure what I'd say. Having grown more and more philosophical over the years, a simple (?) question can sometimes send me off on endless silent sidetracks and labyrinths in my own mind... I might just end up standing there, lost in my own thoughts, while they moved on to the next person!
ReplyDeleteWell, Monica, silence is one thing they almost certainly would find difficult with which to cope.
DeleteI will talk to anyone if they are interesting and have something worthwhile to say. It's not the religion that they represent which annoys me, it's the fact that they often do not even know enough about the religion they are trying to foist upon me to have an intelligent conversation about it. I also like to require something from people who want to require something of me. I met some cheerleaders doing fundraising at a local bagel shop, and I told them I'd donate - if they did a cheer for me. It was fun! Give, get, keep the exchange in motion.
ReplyDeleteMrs S i do so love your attitude to life: that does make me happy!
DeleteAn interesting encounter, and you are right - it wouldn't have worked the other way round, had you approached them to ask them the same question!
ReplyDeleteI don't think they were Jehovah's Witnesses. I know them rather well (or at least used to know them well, as I had close friends who were Witnesses), and they usually do not wear badges. Their approach is like something they would do, though.
Meike I really should have asked them on behalf of whom they were proselytising.
DeleteGraham I'm so glad you're happy. But why didn't you ask them who/ what they were? This reader really wants to know!
ReplyDeleteYou are not the only one Frances. I wish that I had spent more time with them but I was in rather a hurry.
DeleteHaha! I can imagine their disconcerted looks. Of course they might have been missionaries for some kind of new product that can also make you happy - a new hair gel or a new type of pizza. I would not entirely put it past the ad men. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd should have added, of course, that I am glad you are generally happy, although perhaps you don't need to say it because actually it comes over from your blog - it is always a pleasure to read it. And, (I have been meaning to say this) just as you say my posts make you warm a little to the idea of visiting big cities, so your posts make this city girl think how pleasant it must be to live your peaceful island life sometimes!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your lovely comments Jenny. Where did the last four days go? By the way if it was hair gel then I doubt they would have stopped me1
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