It's a Twizzler. It's a Church.
The title of this blog refers to the hilarious interaction between a stranger and my friend Willa. We were walking in the East Village on Saturday when we passed a girl handing out postcards accompanied by individually wrapped twizzlers. My first reaction was to give her a dirty look. I know the rules - never accept candy from a stranger. Also, like a lot of people, I don't like to be approached on the street by people selling things or causes. Not sure if this happens in other cities, but often on a NYC street, someone will come up to you and ask you where you get your hair cut (all part of some scheme to convince you to get your hair cut by someone in like day 1 of beauty school). One time when I was with my friend Sierra, I saw this girl ask someone in front of us where they got their hair cut, so by the time she approached us, I could anticipate it and before she even spoke, I bellowed "NOOOO!" right in her face. She looked upset. Another time, this guy accosted me on the street and demanded to know if I knew what the capital of Luxembourg was and that just pissed me off, because what he didn't know is that geography is like my Achilles heel. Anyways I digress. So my reaction was to scoff at girl handing out twizzlers and postcards that said Da Vinci Code on them, whereas Willa took a postcard and a twizzler, even though she admitted to me later that she doesn't even like twizzlers.
I figured that the Da Vinci Code postcard was some promotion for the movie, but it turns out, it was actually a promotion for a church called Citylight ("A Church With a Difference"). Here are some of the things that the postcard tells you about Citylight:
"God wants you to have so much more!"
"Experience the life changing presence and love of God"
"Christian/Interracial/Vibrant/Relevant Messages"
Just as I was rolling my eyes, I came across the last two key phrases -
"Casual Dress/Friendly Atmosphere" - hmm...this church is starting to sound FUN!
So it turns out, the reason the postcard said the Da Vinci Code on it (with a picture that looks like the cover of the book) is that at the next church meeting, the film is the topic of discussion. I kind of have an urge to go to the church meeting and yell out "Opes Dei Rules!!" and then be pelted by twizzlers.
Willa and I got some Thai iced coffees and went to sit in Tompkins Square Park. It was whilst sitting on the park bench that we got a closer look at the postcard and gained all that enlightenment and debated whether or not the twizzler was poisoned or at least perhaps had church-speak etched into it. Just then, the girl walked by us and AGAIN tried to hand us twizzlers and postcards but by this time, we were aware of her scheme and attempts to convert us away from our blessed Judaism, so we said "NO!" And that's when she said, "it's a twizzler." To which Willa replied "it's a Church." And that just hung in the air there for a while and then I laughed.
And then I frowned, for I realized that I was jealous that Willa had gotten a postcard and I hadn't, because it turned out to be awesome, and I realized it could spawn a blog. But it was too late. I had to nerdily take notes off of Willa's postcard. We had scared twizzler and postcard girl away. I looked for her in the park but she was gone. There were some homeless people, some old people, someone skateboarding in a Flamingo costume, but the prophet from Citylight, she had disappeared. But whatever she was trying to do to us, it worked, for I think I just turned this blog into a Citylight manifesto. Oops. I mean, Amen.
I figured that the Da Vinci Code postcard was some promotion for the movie, but it turns out, it was actually a promotion for a church called Citylight ("A Church With a Difference"). Here are some of the things that the postcard tells you about Citylight:
"God wants you to have so much more!"
"Experience the life changing presence and love of God"
"Christian/Interracial/Vibrant/Relevant Messages"
Just as I was rolling my eyes, I came across the last two key phrases -
"Casual Dress/Friendly Atmosphere" - hmm...this church is starting to sound FUN!
So it turns out, the reason the postcard said the Da Vinci Code on it (with a picture that looks like the cover of the book) is that at the next church meeting, the film is the topic of discussion. I kind of have an urge to go to the church meeting and yell out "Opes Dei Rules!!" and then be pelted by twizzlers.
Willa and I got some Thai iced coffees and went to sit in Tompkins Square Park. It was whilst sitting on the park bench that we got a closer look at the postcard and gained all that enlightenment and debated whether or not the twizzler was poisoned or at least perhaps had church-speak etched into it. Just then, the girl walked by us and AGAIN tried to hand us twizzlers and postcards but by this time, we were aware of her scheme and attempts to convert us away from our blessed Judaism, so we said "NO!" And that's when she said, "it's a twizzler." To which Willa replied "it's a Church." And that just hung in the air there for a while and then I laughed.
And then I frowned, for I realized that I was jealous that Willa had gotten a postcard and I hadn't, because it turned out to be awesome, and I realized it could spawn a blog. But it was too late. I had to nerdily take notes off of Willa's postcard. We had scared twizzler and postcard girl away. I looked for her in the park but she was gone. There were some homeless people, some old people, someone skateboarding in a Flamingo costume, but the prophet from Citylight, she had disappeared. But whatever she was trying to do to us, it worked, for I think I just turned this blog into a Citylight manifesto. Oops. I mean, Amen.
posted by Susan Goldberg at 5:19 PM
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