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I stared in horror at the cheerleading squad who was entering the basketball court, and I was tempted to just exit the premises and not even watch the game!
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love cheerleaders!
FEMALE cheerleaders!!!
But one of the people dressed for cheerleading and carrying pom poms was a MALE!!!
Was this a joke?
Or was I dreaming???
How could this be happening!?!?!
Then he and the other cheerleaders began dancing, and I just hated the smug grin on his face!!
This was women stuff!, not men stuff!, and I was a firm believer in men being men!!
And so I complained to the person who was sitting next to me, and the person looked at me kinda funny and said, “So is basketball male stuff or female stuff?…
Or is it maybe BOTH?…” and then I frowned and said, “Hmmm…
And so I guess your point is that if basketball can be both female and male stuff then cheerleading can be too?” and the person sitting next to me grinned and said, “You catch on quick!
And I’m Daisy, by the way.
What’s your name?”
“Oh, I’m Red.” I said, “And I guess you have a point, and so maybe I had some bad notions about gender roles or something…” and Daisy said, “No worries, Red! That’s why me being here was a good thing!
And, so, are you single?…”
“Ummmm…” I said nervously; and Daisy quickly blushed and said, “Sorry…
Maybe I came on a bit strong…
My last date was just kind of a disaster because the dude didn’t seem to be able to take new ideas or information into account in regards to his opinions, and so I guess I just liked that you were able to do that…
BUT, even if you are single, you can just ignore the question if you want to…” and I said, “Hmmm… And so what happened on the date?
I mean, either way, my interest has been piqued!…” and Daisy said, “Okay, so my friend Marge told this guy named Mac and I that we might make a good couple, and we were both single and searching, and so we went out on a date to a restaurant.
The waitress quickly took our orders, and then Mac and I did small talk for a while, but then we stumbled across the subject of religion.
Now, we all know what they say, religion and politics are landmines!; but we were there now, and he thought that all religious people were stupid.
I patiently explained to him that religions are more complex than the worst verses that their holy books might contain, but he said that religions are still so highly illogical that only stupid people would be religious.
Then I explained that there are religious verses that say things like, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.“ and so he was just doing the same thing against religious people that some religious people use certain scriptures to do against non-religious people; and then he got mad and said, “Well then go find a religious person to date then!” and he quickly got up and left the restaurant!…
The funny thing is that I wasn’t after a religious person to date, just a reasonable person to date; and plenty of religious and non-religious people are quite reasonable, but silly ol’ Mac didn’t seem to be one of the reasonable people, lol.”
“Interesting…” I said, “And so why wouldn’t all religious people follow verses like the one that you quoted?” and Daisy said, “Why doesn’t the US government still follow the evil racist parts that were originally in the constitution?” and I said, “Well, that’s because Americans tend to kinda like the general framework of the Constitution but don’t agree with every little part that was in the original documents.” and Daisy said, “Correct!
And lots of religious people view their scriptures similarly to how you’re talking about viewing the Constitution.” and I said, “That makes sense…
Though some are still gonna wanna stand by the scriptures that we might not like…” and Daisy said, “And some people feel the same way about the Constitution too!
I mean, have you ever been on social media? It’s FILLED with racists who like the racist parts that were in the original version of the Constitution!” and I said, “Hmmm…
And so I guess maybe both religious texts and the Constitution are sort of double-edged swords…
Though I still wouldn’t wanna ditch the Constitution entirely because there’s so much that I like in it, and so I only oppose the bad parts that were in the original document, and I wanna keep the general constitutional framework; and so I guess I can see how a lot of people wanna keep on following a religion despite opposing certain verses and/or certain interpretations of certain verses.”
“Well said!” Daisy said happily!, “Oh! And the basketball teams are beginning to play now, and I paid good money to watch this game, and so I’ve gotta focus on the game for a bit!” and I said, “Cool beans!” and then both of us watched as the basketball game began!…
