Conversion. Like Metric?

I'm afraid I haven't any humorous antecdotes today. Just frustration and irritaion.

I've been wondering, recently more than usual, what the hell makes my soul so bloody valuable that every effing person from here to Timbuktu is trying to convert me to the path of Jesus. It's like people think they're going to get Brownie Points with God if they can conquer and convert the soul of one Super Mitten. I can't take two steps and spit without hitting a concerned, pious individual who's hell-bent on saving my everlasting soul from the stinging flames of eternal damnation's fires.

For the most part, I try to mind my own business where religion is concerned, keep my religious views and opinions to myself (one of the few subjects, for anyone who knows me, that I remain relatively mum about, unless asked directly). I *try* to be tolerant of others' views, though my patience wears thin, inevitably, when confronted with those wildly fanatical zealots who populate the area.

And it's fine, I feel, to let people know where you stand with regard to religion, politics, whatever. There's nothing better than a sound, intelligent conversation about religion. I love it. But the problem is, people tend (particularly, it seems, where I am concerned) to force-convert you without bothering to find out what you believe in the first place. And apparently I've had "I Worship Satan" tatooed on my forehead since I was five, because since then, my life as been one long string of attempts by concerned do-gooders to reform my troubled umbra.

But in this area (or perhaps in this world) one's religious fraternization, political affiliation, even one's sexual preference seems to be conditional. Who you're speaking to, talking about, looking at, or even thinking of governs which side of the fence you stand on at the moment. That alone is justification, in my book, to avoid jumping into the belly of the churning hypocritical, propaganda endorsing machine running local churches, schools, and perhaps most sadly, governmental organizations. Nevermind the fact that, last time I checked, the person who converts the most troubled souls doesn't get moved to the front of the cosmic/theologic queue at Heaven's Gate (or wherever).

Certainly, I would be ignorant to admonish all this and feign guiltlessness. I sin, like everyone. I'm as big a hypocrite as the next person. I have my vices. (And I love some of them...) And too much, probably, I wear them on my sleeve. Perhaps that's why I'm such an easy target for the "Fanatical Converters" of the world. Or maybe I've just been at the receiving end of an onslaught of conversion recently. Maybe everyone's trying to convert everyone. It's human nature, I 'spose, to try to "convert" those in your sightline toward your POV.

Regardless, I'm just babbling. God save the lunatics....