Reopening

 THE SENIOR CENTER reopened, thirteen months after it closed. I took my sixty six year old body over, and was the first person to reenter, after hand sanitizing and face masking. Gradually the old regulars trickled in, and the eighty five year olds looked no different than they looked at eighty four, among the few blessings of advanced age. After six years at the center, the conservative evangelicals and I finally learned how to like each other, though it took time. I still follow the instructions my sixth grade teacher gave us; I never talk politics and religion with strangers. Still, people have a way of finding out where you stand, and my non religious left wing orientation appeals to only a handful of folks in my small southern town, and those handful are automatically my friends. I finally decided that I contribute to the center, culturally, intellectually. I have a litmus test for intelligence and sanity. If you deny climate change, if you believe that racism no longer is a problem in America, if you think you can identify an Islamic person merely by looking at him or her, which some at my senior center do, I consider you intellectually unfit for intelligent conversation. If you're a Trump supporter, especially after the insurrection, you're out. I'll have nothing to do with you. there are many of those at the center, poor fools. I find it shocking that a reasonably intelligent person can spend an entire lifetime as a supposed Christian and support Trump. But, alas, millions do. This business about God making use of less than perfect people I consider a cop out, fraudulent reasoning. God did not elect Trump. With regard to forgiving people their sins, fine, forgive Trump, but for heaven's sake, do not elect him president. Worst of all, if you claim that the election was stolen from Trump, as I'm sure many of my fellow senior centerers do, I consider you a traitor, to democracy. so, yes, I have ideological issues with the folks at the senior center, and I'm willing to confront them on any of them. But I never broach any of it.Who bother? Why should I? My side won the election, and I did my talking at the ballot box. Let the  losers talk. I'm getting to the point, six months after the election, at which anytime I hear some disgruntled Trump supporter mention the stolen election, I want to say: "I suggest you spend the rest of you life complaining about the stolen election, and wait to find out how much good it does you. With regard to Muslims and "non believers" going to hell, I am tempted to say, "I'll see you there". I'm a believer - a believer in what I believe, not what you believe. The worst are the people - mos  of the people at the center who believe that only Christians go to heaven, and all others go to hell. These folks think themselves virtuous, and I truly believe they have no idea how evil their hell fire condemnations are. But, they never will, and I am not the one to teach them any better.  For the time being we'll get along by talking about sports, and maybe, just maybe, I'll see them later. Basically, they're good folks.