This morning was my lazy morning. I have had a pretty hectic week so was looking forward to making the most of my first day off. I had plans, of course, but those plans revolved around lying in bed until at least ten am, then having a coffee and catching up on the news, before taking a slow wander to somewhere I could imbibe yet more coffee. It wouldn’t be until the afternoon that I made a decision on what productive thing, if anything in fact, I was going to do with my day.
However, God clearly did not agree that this was an acceptable way for me to spend a Saturday. I can only presume this is the case, as he is all knowing. Therefore, he must have known that some members of a religious organisation (which shall remain nameless) would be waking me up at 9 to provide me with some free literature.
I’ll level with you now. I’m not religious. That said, I don’t like to think of myself as aggressively atheistic either. I am happy for people to carry on their lives, believing in a creator, and omnipotent being, or the tooth fairy for that matter, as long as it doesn’t impact me. It is probably worth nothing here that my tiny musings on this blog are not the place for a debate about how religion impacts other people’s lives on a wider level. I don’t have the time for that, and I’m a bit tired thanks to the early(ish) morning rousing I received.
Anyway, I digress as always. This group of particularly smiley people proffered me with a couple of magazines and I politely accepted them and went back inside. As I am now awake, I have just read one. It was interesting to say the least. I wont dissect the content in full but I think the people I know who suffer from mental health problems (of which there are a few) will be particularly pleased to hear that it is the net result of original sin and that it will all be alright in some form of afterlife. Not exactly the cognitive coping mechanisms I had been hoping for.
Now, I receive a lot of junk mail generally, and I also get a fair few people knocking on my door offering to sell me things or sign up for mailing lists etc. (one of the joys of living in a city I guess). But here is the key bug bear I have this morning, this is my doorstep and thus calling upon it is interfering with my spare time (of which i have precious little). As such, from this day forward, people attempting to sell me religion on my doorstep will be regarded with the same contempt as someone trying to sell me a vacuum cleaner. Worse still in fact, as I could actually use a vacuum cleaner at the moment.
I have no issue with what people believe, but please don’t ask me to buy into your ideological constructs in my own home. Especially when i am still in my pyjamas.
Also, if anyone has read this and does want help coping with mental health issues which are more practical than waiting until the afterlife to hope things fall into place, the following links are probably worth looking at.
http://www.nhs.uk/LiveWell/Mentalhealth/Pages/Mentalhealthhome.aspx
Adam Jones 