Can I Get a Green Amen?

The other day, as we were leaving the grocery store, I shared with Mark that I had the urge to scream at every single person leaving the store with a cartload of plastic bags.

I mean, seriously, you have to live at the bottom of a deep hole not to know that plastic bags are bad . . . and really easy to replace with earth-friendly cotton bags (see http://www.ecovixen.com/ for my cloth bags for men and women—sorry for the shameless plug).

Anyway, Mark—ever the voice of reason—said that screaming at people wouldn’t change their habits. If anything, it would make them think I was the crazy one. I saw his point, but I still wanted to buy a megaphone and head to the nearest grocery store.

And then I had my own encounter with crazy.

I was in Concord, NH—a really green town (www.greenconcord.org), if you’re ever in the area—and a pleasant woman came over to me while I was walking along Main Street and asked how I was doing. I did something stupid: I responded. She took my answer as the opportunity to start talking to me about a certain well-known religion. Now, I went to certain-well-known-religion school for 12 years, so I’m aware of everything she had to say. I believe—with all my heart—that we should be good, decent, and loving people and yet, because of that belief, I find it hard to accept the idea of eternal damnation.

Even if I don’t believe in a specific story, I’m still a good, decent, and loving person. And, if we’re going to be judged, shouldn’t we be judged by our actions and not our beliefs? But I digress . . .

After telling the now-no-longer pleasant woman that I didn’t want to talk about a certain well-known religion, she proceeded to follow me for several blocks, praying out loud for me and letting me know she’d continue to pray my family and me (hey, how did my family get into this?). I’m just thankful she didn’t have a megaphone.

When I saw Mark, I uttered the three little words he likes to hear most in the world: You were right.

Question of the blog: How do you temper your green passion?