So the other day, I went for a quick break with some of my colleagues to the roadside tea-shack. While we chit-chatted, the smell of piping hot tea wafted towards us, making me(a confirmed tea-lover), break out into a smile.
An avuncular man, with a toddler-girl in tow, walked towards us. Thrusting a pink pamphlet in our hands, he proceeded to talk earnestly about a nearby church, which was to hold an hour's gospel session that Sunday.
Murmuring our thanks, we expressed regret that that particular weekend looked iffy, but promised to drop by any other Sunday we would be in the area.
The man walked away with a beatific smile.
Our eyes followed him, as he made his way to another group, who, like us, were sleepy(it was the perfect time to snooze away, post lunch), and since a siesta looked improbable(nay, next to impossible), had decided instead, to grab their afternoon cuppa of steaming tea.
A couple of minutes sped by - the man, after distributing the pamphlets, proceeded to the other side of the road, the little girl trotting faithfully behind him.
The minute the duo had crossed the road, the group to which he had been speaking with, carelessly tossed the pamphlets aside. One even went so far as to crumple it, while yet another wiped his hands with it, flinging it disdainfully onto the sandy side of the road.
As I winced, the group merrily chattered away, finished their tea, and walked away, crunching the strewn papers under their ostensibly expensive shoes.
Leaving me with a disdainful expression on my face, thanks to their thoughtlessness, and utterly crass behavior.
The above scene is not one in isolation. You and your neighbor might have also encountered it. Quite a lot of people would probably say that the person distributing the pamphlets was a proselytizer, and it served him right that his pamphlets were treated in the above manner.
Some would pretend that doing so was sacrilege, but in the next breath, say something to the tune of each man being different, and behaving dissimilarly.
The rest would just turn their faces aside, shrug their shoulders, and walk away.
Which one are you?
3 comments:
Interesting question! Most people I know would throw away the pamphlets (or tracts, as I believe they are called). I would keep the tract, but only to add to my collection (I collect religious material, because I often get story ideas from them).
At least the tract-crumplers didn't insult the man and his daughter to their faces, which might have upset the girl. There's no cause to be rude, after all. Was it the action of tossing the tracts away that upset you? Or the fact that they pretended to be interested, only to throw them away when he wasn't looking?
Either way, a thought-provoking post. I will check back here often!
I would say one-who-do-not-take-the-pamphlet-at-first-place
type of guy. But if pressed hard to take it, it woud find a place in the first dustbin.
Very seldom if found smthing interesting while glancing they die in silence in some dark scary corner of my room.
hmmm. What matters the most is whether your heart still beats for another alive creature!
Yours certainly does and cheers to that. I am glad that there are people like you.
I have a small incident to narrate but thinking to put it in a blog post rather than using this space of yours. :)
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