Thursday, June 30, 2005

About that preaching . . .
I'd mentioned before that I don't like it when people preach to me and by that I of course don't mean as in a church sermon, but just kind of preachy tone/manner.

For instance, one summer I was at Barnes & Noble with my mom to get my summer reading books. My mom saw a friend of hers and they started talking and I went off to find my books. When I returned to get some money from my mom she asked which books I got as she always asks about things. I had picked up three, and Night, by Elie Wiesel was one of them; when I said the name Night, my mom’s friend said something about how people (I don’t know which people) like to, well I’m going to paraphrase because I forgot exactly how he worded it. He said something like how people like to go on and on about the Holocaust and how the Jewish people were treated and everything. Then he started up saying, “What about our Holocaust? . . .” and how black people were treated and all that.

After the first sentence that came out of his mouth I was ready to walk off right that second, but I still needed the money for the books. It’s not that I don’t care about either of those two things, it’s just I felt I didn’t need to hear all that at the moment (and I didn’t want to hear it either) and especially since I was on a nice, enjoyable trip to the bookstore. I very much believe in that “there’s a time and place for everything” and to me it really applied to this situation.

However that wasn’t even the preachy part. After he lectured about that he went into something else that further annoyed me. He asked how I was doing in school and then what I wanted to major in and after hearing that he started telling me where I should go and what I should do because I really ought to. That’s when he officially started working on my nerves. I don’t hate someone telling me something that I could consider as in they’re giving me advice

But I can’t stand when someone, especially someone I don’t personally know, says to me (maybe even when if it’s indirect too) that I’m not this or that unless I’ve done what they say or what they think is all that or this or something I absolutely must do in order to be or do whatever. I just don’t like that sort of thing and he was all in my face about it too. I did walk off again just to get away from him before I strongly felt the need to open my mouth and say something very rude.

To me that’s an example of preaching. I like to decide for myself what I should and shouldn’t do and what that may amount to or bring me in my life.

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