An encouter with a sales person.

Time: 4:15am
Location: How!5, Clayton.

lol, tonight was... cold.

Not in a bad way though. maybe I kinda got used to the idea of shivering in the cold, and enjoy it =)

LoL, another variation of Stockholm Syndrome.

So, discussed with Jing Yi on Friday night (which was technically saturday morning) about our elaborate but nonetheless productive plan for Saturday. We planned everything, down to the very detail.

We planned to meet and eat pancake in the pricey pancake parlour in Collins St. at 10-ish in the morning. Then off we go to that RWEALLLY attractive warehouse sales near Lygon... Then Ju Ju can go to her group discussion thingy in Melb U at 12. After shopping, Jing Yi and I plan to go to the state library to study... until 6pm. Then, we'll hang around to meet up with Ju Ju and my friends to have dinner in Empress. After that, I was supposed to follow Jing Yi back to her bro's place and spend a sweet romantic night with Cooper, having him sit by me while I finish my assignment...

Yesh! All's sunny and well... until the dawn of saturday morning.

We were innocently sanguine about our ability to wake up early on a saturday morning.

Atleast I woke up at 11-ish =p Jing Yi woke up at 12:35pm, which was good, as that was when I was about to board the bus to go to Huntingdale station.

So, I waited at Fed Square for Jing Yi to show up after checking out the little Wesak Day Food Fair thingy that she told me about. There were food alright. Like one pitiful hotdog stand selling hotdogs and stuff... I went there just in time to see the last performance.

As I was trying to get in the mood to study (comm ethic is a pain!!) there's this gal who approached me and asked me if I have 5 minutes for a chat. She was wearing this thin cardigan (much like mine) and holding a file in her hand... Which, made her look like a sales person. I don't really have much to do but to wait for JY to get her arse outa bed, she asked me if I've heard of God and what I thought of Jesus.

I wasn't entirely impressed by her subtlety becoz her approaching me (in the middle of a Wesak day event) about Christianity, didn't exactly make me feel like she respects other religions at all. Nevertheless, she went on explaining about sins, that we are all born sinners and are meant to go to hell as death is the only way to pay for our respective sins. I do agree about everyone's a sinner, though we are not borned a sinner, it's just in our natural instinct to cheat, lie, steal... be it as self-perseverance or improvement, there were some things however that I don't see eye to eye with.

She talked about identity, that we don't have a choice but be who we are. What she said was true to a certain extent, but i've always been taught about the prevalence of nurture to nature. So yea, generall I believe that what you are can be, though not necessarily, who you are.

Then she talked about Satan's the one creating sickness and sufferings like natural disasters, diseases and the recent eco crisis, which I strongly disagree about. Marx warned about the imperfections of capitalism and that this eco crisis IS part of the inavoidable negative consequences of business cycle, like the burst of Japanese asset price bubble in the early 90s, totally manmade.

I was still ok until she talked about her own testimony, out of so many testimonies saying that people see miracles after 'accepting' God... She kind of lost me somewhere about a friend getting what she wants in her hostel and facing less problem/less troubled by her problems since the acceptance of God. I think she give herself too little credit what she achieved all these years... I don't deny that by having faith encourage a person to grow stronger, more confident and more focused on doing good... She made it sound like by accepting God, that famine can be cured, poverty can be eradicated, world peace can be achieved. She even talked about the Nigerian kids being Christians and that made it all better.

Like... er... no. That's not what's happening on the other side of the world where a nutritious meal a day is what they could only prayed for and that clean water is as rare as Kenny not being killed in South Park. Marx argued about nature of individuals depends on the material conditions... She, positioned as a 2nd child of a middle income family, don't need to worry about if she can afford a $6 rice for dinner and living in a place where food is available everywhere, thinks that God almighty is everything.

Yes, God can provide spiritual guidance and hope for the hopeless... but why are you denying other religions having the capability of achieving these wishes? It might just be me... thinking too much.

However, I do realize where all these came from... It comes from faith to a higher spiritual authority that is known by many names, by different people. And for her, it's just so happen to be God. As you can't believe in one without the other... I believe in Nirvana, thus the existence of Hell. She said that Hell is not a place of torture, hellfire all that jazz... It's merely a place without God. As God is almighty, God is Love and Peace and Happiness... Hell is just a place without all those God represents.

I believe that religion is fundamentally good, preaching personal physical and spiritual well-being. Just one thing... do good and good will happen to you... and respect others before you wish to gain other peoples' respect.