Spreading the Word

Yesterday, I was at the Galleria, in the Library corridor, standing beside the table that was promoting the Humanist Association. It was really fun, I had a ball. There was an African movie premier in the Wolf Hall next door, so there was a lot of traffic. All kinds of people stopped by to take a look. One thought I was collecting money for children in Africa (because of the "We are all African" sign), but I told him I'm not collecting money for anything, and gave him a flyer with our next meeting information. One woman stopped by, then left, then came back and said apologetically that she is only picking up information for her son, because he says he is a humanist. She rambled on, saying she is quite comfortable in her faith and with her church, probably was worried that I'll try to talk her out of it and turn her onto some ungodly path... LOL. I said, take a look for yourself, too, and gave her a flyer with the Humanist Principles. She was reading them when she left... Another woman came up (she works in the library, so she's seen the display before) and said, oh, it's too bad I'm Jewish, or my husband and I would join, I think you have the right message. I said, being Jewish doesn't exclude her from being a humanist. She said, but I thought you were all agnostics, so I explained about the secular and non-secular humanism. She still didn't take a flyer though... :-( I chatted with a guy from Montreal, who said Londoners were much friendlier than people back there. He also took the meeting flyer and the other stuff too, the Humanist Association info. One guy acted like he was really interested and friendly, but in the end, he just wanted to ask me out on a date! EWWW. He was really yucky, too, kinda greasy. I said, sorry, I'm just here to promote humanism, not looking for a man... There was a really nice guy who was so interested, he wanted me to send back issues of the newsletter, and he wrote down his name and email address on the signup sheet! Now, if HE would have asked me out, MAYBE... LOL, he WAS cute, lanky, tall, lean, with chocolate brown skin and gorgeous eyes. There was a young kid (late teens, maybe, which was surprising, because most teenagers just looked at the display with total disinterest, or didn't even look, as they passed by) who said, oh yeah, I've heard of humanism before, so we chatted for a few minutes and he took one of everything and signed up for the newsletter too. There was a woman, totally Mother-Earth type, flowing tunic, big canvas bag, no bra, wild hair, Birkenstocks, she took all the flyers as well. It was also fun watching the people who walked by; the goth kids with their black clothes and tattoos; the little fashion plates with kitten-heel shoes, chokers and layered t shirts; the bums, stopping people to bum a quarter; the geeks, their heads buried in the books already, not waiting to get it home (I could totally relate); the business people, all dressed in workday clothes, too busy to look my way; parents taking their kids to the library after school. I love people. Love watching them and trying to figure out what they are like, or what they do.