TreesNightly

A woman in front of me at the check out counter makes small talk with the cashier. I find her voice beautiful. For someone who is tone deaf in regards to his own singing, I have wildly specific preferences when it comes to sound. Her sound I could listen to everyday. She walks away, never to be heard from again. After attending Easter service with my religious family, I overhear a teen leaving the church who asks his parents why there is evil in the world if God is good. The kid�s dad offers a �mysterious ways� response and moves on. What do these two scenarios have in common? In both I wanted to engage someone who it was socially awkward to engage. In the case of the woman, my interrupting her exit with the simple compliment �you have a beautiful voice,� could make me a creep if she�s immediately uninterested in me, a potential mate if she is interested, and so far out of the ordinary that it�s bound to be weird regardless. To be clear, while I obviously don�t want to be a creep, neit...

The following is an excerpt from  On Daphne's Couch . Feeling utterly alone (and being okay with it), I continued my rampage of the Internet and found something surprising. The Atheist Blogroll has compiled a list of well over 1,000 blogs in the realm of atheism/skepticism. I found a few I particularly like, one in particular that I�d like to discuss: Deity Shmeity .  I enjoyed this blog in particular because of how quickly the design caught my eye. Clearly the author (Grundy, as he is known on the web) is much more graphically capable than I am.?And also much more humorous. I admit I can be a bit dry and analytical in my delivery at times. As a life long introvert, I�m afraid my formal style is here to stay. But Grundy is to Atheism as Grumio is to Shakespeares�s Taming of the Shrew . Witty, intelligent, sarcastic at times, and never fails to make the reader laugh even in the midst of a serious situation. I am relieved that Grundy possesses such brilliance even after his str...