Tonight I was waiting for Stephanie to go on her lunch break at B&N so she could give me a discount on a Richard Dawkins book I wanted to purchase because I can be frugal at times.

An Elderly woman sat next to me as I was flipping through one of his books. I didn't glance at her, but I saw her walker out of the corner of my eye and she made an effort in propping the cushions to Barnes & Noble armchairs rather blatantly. After flipping through her magazine long enough she made an effort to talk to me and inquired about what I was reading. I was in the middle of flipping through excerpts of The God Delusion. I timidly turned the book over for I was embarrassed, for I was just outed as an atheist. I naturally felt the need the explain myself as if was a young teenager that was caught with a pornographic video. I sort of stammered weakly for a few seconds. I was waiting for this elderly woman to make a religious based criticism about my book - but she didn't. Before the possibility of undergoing a lengthy sermon of a critique (that the elderly are often prone in prattling on about), I took the initiative to explain to her that I was an atheist that views the world scientifically, logically, and through evidence based reason. Furthermore, I paraphrased to her it wasn't only religion I saw a fallacy in, but I also didn't believe in supernatural belief systems or any of the numerous divisions of pseudo-sciences. She seemed interested and she followed with a series of questions about my upbringing, and she then responded in return with hers. There was one point in our conversation when she asked me if I believed in resurrection, and I politely told her I didn't. She then reminisced a story of her son that had just passed away a couple years ago. She showed me pictures of him that she pulled from her purse. Her late son's daughter became pregnant on the anniversary of her fathers death, unfortunately it resulted in a miscarriage. She became pregnant again, and gave birth on a the same number day of her fathers death, but on a completely different month. Nonetheless, she still felt that this was the works of something of a higher understanding. She asked me my perspective on that and I was hesitant on how to respond. I didn't want to desecrate or impugn this woman's emotions, or do a insensitive disservice to her late son in any way with being honest in saying that her perceptions are indeed nothing more than a wishful aberration at works.. I told her that it is human nature for (most) people find ways to attain closure by looking for signs of supernatural symbolism in a loved ones death, and that it helps people through times of bereavement. To my surprise, she didn't dispute my answer. Stephanie was then waiting by now, so I informed her I had to leave and then introduced myself formally to her before I left. Her name was Mary. I told her it was a pleasure meeting her. It felt nice for the first time to be able to construe my views rationally to a stranger without having them dismissed as contemptible and immoral...Perhaps this was because this particular woman allegedly had a background in the arts (she is a standing poet and a former opera singer). Suffice it to say, I know I shouldn't ever presume to find such tolerant standards from people in the future, but this is one congenial encounter I do want to remember for what it was worth.