LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY happydog)

I'm cross posting this from my journal because it is just unbelievable that it happened. It's like I stepped into a Jack Chick comic for a second this evening.

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I had one of the most bizarre experiences tonight at Barnes and Noble.

I'm standing there looking over the New Agey occulty section with Ly de Angeles' Witchcraft
in hand. (Yeah, that's one of those books that disappeared somehow around here, so I am rebuying it.)

Anyway, this guy about 40-50 yrs old in a trucker hat comes up and stands next to me and says "Witchcraft."

I said, "Hm?"

"You practice witchcraft?"
"Well, yeah."
"Are you a witch?"
"Yes."
"How long have you been a witch?"

At this point I'm thinking, No one expects the Spanish Inquisition! but I reply, "Since the '80s.'

"Since the 1980s!??!" he says. (And yes, you could hear the additional punctuation in his tone, I swear.) "I guess you don't care about what happens to your soul when you die."

At this point I saw two or three possible roads I could go down but I chose to deal with him using my Therapist Mind. Which means I do my best to extract my ego and emotions from the situation, and treat the person as if they were a client.

"You must be a Christian," I said.

"Yes!" he replies.

"Well, I want to thank you for being concerned about my soul," I said, "and I appreciate your point of view, but I think it's great that we live in a country where we can all worship as we choose to, don't you?"

He looks up into the sky. "I don't agree. Not if that way is wrong," he said.

Not if that way is wrong, I think. I really started to wonder what would have happened to me if we hadn't been in a well-lit bookstore with a bookstore employee trying very hard not to listen a few feet away.

"Well, we all have our own path to go," I said.

"You can say what you want, but it's not wise to make yourself

," he said. Then he turned on his heel (and one rarely sees that) and walked very quickly away from my presence. I said "Thanks, and have a nice evening," to his rapidly receding back.

I just stood there with my mouth open for a little bit, and then I looked at Ly de Angeles' book, which is entirely in black with "WITCHCRAFT" written in big spidery letters on the cover. I thought, Well, I was thinking about putting this back...but now I HAVE TO buy it.

The girl who was putting books away and trying not to listen said, "How are you this evening? Can I help you find anything?"

"I'm fine," I said. "Except for that I'm apparently an enemy of God. Did you hear any of that?" I wanted confirmation that this bizarre interlude had just happened, to be honest.

"Well," she said carefully, "we all have the right to our own beliefs."

"Thank you," I said.

I wandered around feeling a bit freaked out, went to the counter and bought what I had in my hand and left. Then I realized when I got home that I hadn't bought the book that I meant to buy.

But I had bought the Ly de Angeles book.

I guess I'm fortunate that he didn't happen by earlier, when I was looking at Don Tyson's Necronomicon. Or LaVey's The Satanic Bible.

I have to admit that when I got outside the bookstore, I did look around just to make sure he wasn't out there somewhere. I hate being paranoid, but that was fzckin' creepy. Or sad and hilarious, I can't decide which. I managed to laugh about it in the car on the way back to the house.