At the coin laundry, I sat down with a book after measuring soap and depositing quarters. The book, Les Miserables, was a New Year's resolution. I've picked it up and put it down a dozen times in as many years; I never got as far as the chapter where the character Jean Valjean first appears. This time I vowed I'd finish it.

I finally met Valjean earlier that morning, and I was really getting into his story when a stranger got up from his seat and walked over to me. "You like to read?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied.

"I have something for you to read," he said, pulling a Bible tract from his pocket. "The address of our church is on the back. All I ask is that you read it through before you put it down."

He smiled and went back to his seat.

I tried to go back to my book, but I couldn't. My concentration was snapped. Ever since my teens, I've had religious literature pressed on me by so many people that I started checking mirrors to see if someone had tattooed "LOST SOUL" on my forehead. After awhile, it pisses you off.

Angry, I stared at the tract, then opened it and started to read. It was the standard stuff: "Admit you are a sinner...pray for forgiveness.."

I believe in God. I believe in having a personal relationship with God. It's just that I wonder if I have to hang out with everybody who professes belief. I thought the gentleman who gave me the tract was presumptuous if he thought I needed it.

Later, while I was folding my laundry, this same man started to leave, and I pointed out that he still had stuff in the dryer. "Thanks. I know," he said. "I'm just getting a basket from the car." Then he turned around and asked, "That book you're reading. Is it good?"

"It's very good," I said, impressed that I really thought so.

"That's nice," he said. "I don't read much."

Oh, God! I thought, as he walked out. He's one of those! He doesn't read, but he feels comfortable telling me what to read! And he thinks he's done good.

I've encountered that kind before, too; the kind who think they can by their way into Heaven, using other people's souls as currency.

I wish I weren't so easily distracted. I'm really beginning to enjoy Les Miserables. If you'll excuse me, Bishop Bienvenu just gave Valjean the candlesticks to rescue him from the gendarmes. That's my kind of religious guy.