By Bart Vogelzang | VANCOUVER ISLAND, B.C., CANADA -- There is a first time for everything, or so they say. As I plunked myself down in the sauna at the local Recreational Center, I couldn’t help but notice the great looking twenty something dude right next to me. He wasn’t saying anything, but others were talking up a storm, and I joined in, knowing full well that amongst us we could solve all the woes of the world. Ha.
The topic of discussion was the most recent wave of missiles going from and to Gaza and Israel, and it became pretty obvious that at least one person was firmly of the belief that Israel never does anything wrong, and the whole mess is the fault of the Palestinians, and maybe somewhat the fault of Hamas. I’m not one to take sides very readily, since I can very often detect factual errors in the reports, or at least the gaping holes, disinformation, and inconsistencies. This man, however, made me positively cringe with his assessment; he actually made me want to take action.
“The Israelites were chosen by God,” according to him, “and it states that in the Bible. Anyone who attacks them is the spawn of Satan, or Satan himself, and should be destroyed. Destroyed like Hitler was destroyed.” He is convinced that Obama hates Israel and is anti-Semitic, and is actively seeking to unseat their position in the Middle East.
I hated listening to his rabble-rousing diatribe, and just concentrated on looking obliquely at the gorgeous guy next to me, who never joined in the discussion and just sat there with his eyes closed. For the first time ever, with anyone, I felt like I wanted to reach over and stroke his back, his neck, his upper arms, and maybe even put my hands on his thighs. It was all I could do to resist, knowing such an act would be completely inappropriate without permission. I also had to think about the glares, or maybe physical assault that someone so rabidly and illogically religious as the rabble-rouser might initiate.
My urges, to lust and love a gorgeous body, and to verbally pound the shit out of the religious nut job, warred within me, and I left. As one person said, just as I departed, “I can’t be bothered to hate anyone…it takes too much energy.”
Frankly, resisting temptation takes too much energy as well.
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