clearance rack or free rack?
Dear Friend,
It was such a great day today…today was the first day in a long time that I can remember that it was cold all day. I mean right when I got up at 6 this morning it was cold…and at noon, it was still cold.
On Mondays I have class at the seminary until 11:50 a.m. and didn’t have to be back for my next class until 3pm. So I had a pretty big break, and because of the cold weather, I really wanted some coffee. I don’t normally drink coffee. I prefer tea.
Well, I ended up at Borders Books and Music…I always sit in the back by the window. So today I decided to change things up when it came to my beverage of choice. I had a white chocolate mocha with no whip cream…and no white chocolate chips on top either. I must say that if you don’t order coffee that often, it is quite intimidating trying to order one, especially when there are people waiting behind you. I always try and pretend like I know what I am ordering. I think the key is that whatever you order, you just have to say it really, really fast.
So I got my coffee and started to walk back to my table. It was amazing. There was this girl, she must have been twenty, sitting at a table reading Sports Illustrated, the magazine. No offense to girls who read Sports Illustrated, but I have never seen that before. I felt like going and grabbing the latest People magazine and reading about TomCats wedding and officially throwing off everything natural in the world. But I didn’t. I thought about it though. So I sat down and called a friend of mine in Colorado. I hadn’t talked to her since last week, so I wanted to get caught up and see how her Thanksgiving was with her family. After we ended our conversation, I decided that it was time to hit the road. I felt like driving with the windows down.
I noticed something though as I was leaving. I have seen this a hundred times, but for whatever reason I stopped today and stared for a bit. I don’t know about you, but when I want to look at something that would seem odd if I were just standing there or if I wanted to listen to someone’s conversation, I always put my cell phone up to my hear and pretend like I am talking. Well, today I wanted to do both. I wanted to look at something that would seem odd if I were to be staring, and I also wanted to listen to people talk.
This is what I was looking at…
There was this mother and daughter talking right by this rack of books outside of Borders. Just as I was walking out, I heard this daughter tell her mother what a great price this cookbook was…”it was 50% off,” she said. As I grabbed my phone to stick up to my ear to pretend like I was talking to someone, all I could think of was “I got even a better price for you…just keep your money and keep walking.” Have you ever noticed that clearance rack of books outside of Borders??? I mean really. What’s from keeping someone from just taking a book? From the way Borders displays these books, it is almost like they just want you to take one or two off their chest. This particular store had the books outside. So that way if you took one, there is no buzzer to go off. They must know they aren’t going to sell these books or something. I mean, I’m a Christian, and I have thought about taking a few books before, so I can’t imagine what someone would think who doesn’t even really care what the bible says as they walk out.
Anyways…I smiled, and I hope that you did too. Maybe I’ll see you at the clearance rack...or should I say free rack at Borders.
heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts
It was such a great day today…today was the first day in a long time that I can remember that it was cold all day. I mean right when I got up at 6 this morning it was cold…and at noon, it was still cold.
On Mondays I have class at the seminary until 11:50 a.m. and didn’t have to be back for my next class until 3pm. So I had a pretty big break, and because of the cold weather, I really wanted some coffee. I don’t normally drink coffee. I prefer tea.
Well, I ended up at Borders Books and Music…I always sit in the back by the window. So today I decided to change things up when it came to my beverage of choice. I had a white chocolate mocha with no whip cream…and no white chocolate chips on top either. I must say that if you don’t order coffee that often, it is quite intimidating trying to order one, especially when there are people waiting behind you. I always try and pretend like I know what I am ordering. I think the key is that whatever you order, you just have to say it really, really fast.
So I got my coffee and started to walk back to my table. It was amazing. There was this girl, she must have been twenty, sitting at a table reading Sports Illustrated, the magazine. No offense to girls who read Sports Illustrated, but I have never seen that before. I felt like going and grabbing the latest People magazine and reading about TomCats wedding and officially throwing off everything natural in the world. But I didn’t. I thought about it though. So I sat down and called a friend of mine in Colorado. I hadn’t talked to her since last week, so I wanted to get caught up and see how her Thanksgiving was with her family. After we ended our conversation, I decided that it was time to hit the road. I felt like driving with the windows down.
I noticed something though as I was leaving. I have seen this a hundred times, but for whatever reason I stopped today and stared for a bit. I don’t know about you, but when I want to look at something that would seem odd if I were just standing there or if I wanted to listen to someone’s conversation, I always put my cell phone up to my hear and pretend like I am talking. Well, today I wanted to do both. I wanted to look at something that would seem odd if I were to be staring, and I also wanted to listen to people talk.
This is what I was looking at…
There was this mother and daughter talking right by this rack of books outside of Borders. Just as I was walking out, I heard this daughter tell her mother what a great price this cookbook was…”it was 50% off,” she said. As I grabbed my phone to stick up to my ear to pretend like I was talking to someone, all I could think of was “I got even a better price for you…just keep your money and keep walking.” Have you ever noticed that clearance rack of books outside of Borders??? I mean really. What’s from keeping someone from just taking a book? From the way Borders displays these books, it is almost like they just want you to take one or two off their chest. This particular store had the books outside. So that way if you took one, there is no buzzer to go off. They must know they aren’t going to sell these books or something. I mean, I’m a Christian, and I have thought about taking a few books before, so I can’t imagine what someone would think who doesn’t even really care what the bible says as they walk out.
Anyways…I smiled, and I hope that you did too. Maybe I’ll see you at the clearance rack...or should I say free rack at Borders.
heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts
posted by Kyle DiRoberts at 7:53 PM
2 Comments:
"I mean, I’m a Christian, and I have thought about taking a few books before, so I can’t imagine what someone would think who doesn’t even really care what the bible says as they walk out."
Kyle,
I find your comments interesting. They reveal that you think that Christians have higher ethical conduct than non-Christians. If you look at the world you will notice that this does not hold water. Some of the most moral and ethical societies are largely secular. Look at the nordic countries of Western Europe.
I myself am an agnostic. I don't really care what the bible says. I can tell you that when I see that rack outside Borders, I think to myself, "Why do they put the clearance books outside where they can be stolen." It never occured to me, the agnostic, to take any. Moral and ethical conduct is extremely important to me and my agnostic/atheist friends. The difference between us and Christians is that we don't rely upon any idea or notion of a god enforcing morality. It's kind of like choosing to do the right thing whether a cop is there to catch you or not. We chose moral and ethical conduct because it's just the right thing to do. We know that society depends upon the golden rule, and would also feel guilty if we did something wrong.
I can tell you that me and my agnostic/atheist friends tend to have better conduct than all of our Evangelical Christian friends and family (think Ted Haggard, for example).
Dear Anonymous,
Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your mind with me. I wonder who you are or what your name is? Curiosity always gets the best of me when people comment under the name anonymous. Well, I don’t know if you regular my blog or if this was a one time thing…either way though, glad to have you.
I guess I wanted to start by letting you know that my A-for-effort humor wasn’t intended to magnify the difference between a believer and a non-believer in God. So please know that I will work on my jokes for further blog entries. :)
I did, however, love the point that you brought up about morals.
I can still remember when I didn’t believe in God. Looking back, I can remember just doing things just cause I could. I never filtered my actions through anything or anyone. I can even remember in the very beginning when I started to believe in God, and, even then, it took me a while to learn about what God thinks about life, love, or rights and wrongs. And it is funny because even now after all these years of believing in God, I still find myself having to learn and re-learn the ways and teachings of God.
It is almost harder for me now that I believe in God to live morally than it was before I believed. I think this is because I, me, Kyle, personally (and I’m sure the culture around me had something to do with it too) set the standards of what I thought was right and wrong. Now I look to someone else (God) for that answer.
So, I guess when I wrote, “I mean, I’m a Christian, and I have thought about taking a few books before, so I can’t imagine what someone would think who doesn’t even really care what the bible says as they walk out,” I was thinking about this verse in the bible that says something about not stealing. In my mind, I figured if I didn’t have that verse or standard, then I could steal and not have any conviction of my permanent borrowing of that cookbook. Please know that Christians still steal (and do a lot of other things that are wrong) and also that people who don’t believe don’t always steal and do things that are good and right for mankind. I think this is what you were alluding to with Ted Haggard.
I thought it was interesting the response in the culture and media regarding the news about pastor Haggard. I wonder if in the last 10 years if there has been anyone else in our country that wasn’t a believer in God that was a homosexual and was caught with a homosexual prostitute? Why was it such a big deal about Ted Haggard? I think ONE of the reasons is because he was a Christian -- a very famous Christian.
Do you think that believers in God are held to a high standard of morals?
To be honest, I think I do. I’m not saying this is right or wrong. I just think it is assumed by people, and the Ted Haggard story is a good example. One of my biggest complaints about those who are believers in God, especially Christians, is that we don’t live or act like we are supposed to. Haven’t you ever complained or heard someone complain that Christians are hypocrites? I have. I’ve been one a couple of times.
I just looked up the definition of hypocrisy, and it reads, “the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform.”
To who’s or to what standards are unbelievers’ morals held up to so that they can be conformed or held accountable? If your belief is in God, then God is your standard. If you are not a person who believes in God, then it can only be by your own standards that you can be conformed…which would never allow you to be a hypocrite, which, in my mind, depending on what you believe about stealing, would determine whether it was right or wrong. In your opinion…it would be wrong, which, by the way, you, the unbelieving agnostic, and me, the believer, can now say that we agree with at least one of the morals that the bible talks about.
Anyways, thanks again my anonymous friend for your sharing your words and your mind. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts
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