Monday, January 31, 2011

Is recycling just my religion?

One of my old coworkers (a coworker from a long time ago, not a coworker that is OLD) has arthritis, and once a month has to see her rheumatologist (I think that is the right word...arthritis doctor) and everytime she has an appointment she makes some comment on Facebook about how she is going to visit her favorite Muslim and she hopes she has a "divine" meeting. Someone asked her to explain, and she made some comment about getting him to see the way, or something equally obnoxious about making her doctor love Jesus. I remember once her and I having a conversation that it was my duty as a wife to serve Mr. P. I think I laughed right out loud. ANYWAY, her most recent visit is today, and just as I was about to DeFriend her, I got thinking about something I did to my friend on Friday night.

Friday night we went to a friend's house to play poker and we were having some snacks and beers. After I finished a beer, I asked him where to put the can. He said in the black container at the end of the counter. It was the trash can. I was really shocked. I said in a very loud super judgey voice, "YOU DON'T RECYCLE???" and he said, "No, I don't really care about the Earth...I don't have kids to leave it to anyway." Then, Mr. P, me and another friend harrassed him for 10 minutes about how easy it is to recycle and how he should and on and on and on. We were kind of relentless until he caved and said he would start.

Did I do the same thing to my friend about recycling that my co-worker is trying to do to her doctor...just swapping Mother Earth for Brother Jesus?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think so. You're not like, challenging your friend's core identity by trying to get him to recycle. (Unless not recycling is HIS religion).

Anonymous said...

I don't think so. You're not like, challenging your friend's core identity by trying to get him to recycle. (Unless not recycling is HIS religion).

Swistle said...

Ha ha! Yes and no. YES, because you're trying to force someone else to be the same way as you are on something. NO, because--and this is crucial--the thing you want him to do AFFECTS YOU, and all of us. Whereas someone else has NO REASON to make us change to their religion. (I grant exceptions for, say, family members, since I try to be patient with their belief that otherwise they won't have the pleasure of my company in heaven.)

You're not trying to change his beliefs or his identity; you're asking him to do a chore.

creative kerfuffle said...

ah...i kinda think it's the same thing...but not exactly the same. if that make sense. and...even though your coworker is a former coworker and not an ELDERLY coworker, she sounds elderly in her beliefs...not only religious but that you should serve mr. p. oy vey.

--V said...

Kind of. I don't buy the "this affects you" thing, because people who are forcing their religion down other folks' throats believe it affects them if these people convert.

You realize, don't you, that he's probably still not going to recycle? I'm guessing he said he'd start so that he'd be left in peace. That's what I do. Path of least resistance on the surface, stubborn as a mule underneath.

kilax said...

It was similar, and your friend probably felt as annoyed as the doctor, but it was not the same thing. People are way too personal about religion. Probably not so much about recycling!

 
Creative Commons License
TheHotchPotchery by hotchpotchery.blogspot.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.