Curveballs

I can’t even get over this day and this city. I guess the beginning is the best place to start! First of all, the city is uncommonly hot right now, made even more miserable by the lack of AC in most buildings including my apartment. I’m a beach kid and the heat doesn’t usually bother me, but my Burt’s Bees melted inside my room. Just sayin. Ok, so I did some office stuff at work and then headed off to the University Club. It was gorgeous, old and obviously the watering hole for only New York’s most affluent members of society. The author was speaking about her book called “The Lost Boy,” a biography of Mickey Mantle. I was mesmerized by her adoration of the Yankees icon as well as the real passion that all of these old billionaires have for him. They all wanted to tell me stories about how he was their childhood idol and where and when they first saw him swing that bat. I know I promised not to become a Yankee fan but I have definitely added a game to my “to do” list. One won’t hurt, right?

My second author appearance was an entirely different experience all together; one I was wholly unprepared for. It was put on by the Center For Inquiry at the New York Institute of Technology. The book was called “The Believing Brain” (or something to that effect) and I’ve always been interested in the mechanics of brain function, so I anticipated a pretty interesting talk. It took me a good half-hour to realize that this was in fact a convergence of atheists (or skeptics as they refer to themselves). The talk was all about how the brain has been tricked into believing that there is a God. I would have been fine to just chill by this psycho author while he did his thing, but apparently I had an invitation for the crazies written on my forehead that I was heretofore unaware of. These people—seriously, movie characters… I never thought people like this existed—came up to me with Einstein hair, glasses and quotes muttering psycho babble about the books that they are writing about skepticism and the brain. By the way, ya’ll—were you aware that the brain is like one of those party favors that you blow and it puffs out and makes a sound? Learned that tonight.

And when they discovered the cross around my neck and that I am Catholic—you can’t imagine the field day they had with that. I wasn’t going to argue with them at this event but I was seriously disturbed with the images people have about even Christianity in general. They were shocked that I believe in the existence of Heaven and Hell and found the concept entirely unfathomable. I explained my beliefs when asked but it may have been one of the most uncomfortable situations of my life. Afterward, two of the guys asked for my number so we could discuss this in depth over coffee (why of course, atheism is definitely at the top of my checklist). Riding the subway home and even now as I sit on the rooftop looking at the Empire State Building (it’s green tonight!) I can’t help but wonder is this for real?!