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My boss doesn’t read.  Well, he never did before and has expressed his dislike for reading many times.

We have some downtime during the days often and I have been reading various books.  Both fiction and non-fiction.  Whatever gets me through the day.  He generally sits in his office and plays Tetris on his cell phone.  Sometimes I solve Sudoku puzzles.  It’s a great atmosphere.  Sometimes he reads the news and we discuss what’s going on in the world, but those moments are short and rare- the way they should be.

I took a week off and when I came back, my boss was reading.

There it was.  The neat pages with the gold edges.  And it was leather bound too.

My boss had the Bible open right on his desk and has the entire week.  He spent the entire week studying it as if he were seeking something great.

He asks me what I’m reading.  I started a book Tuesday that I finished Thursday; reading it only during work hours.  I tell him Tuesday that so far the main character is posing as a suicide line worker and all he does is tell people to kill themselves.

What a good, strange book that was.  He asked me again the next day and I didn’t want to tell him more.  It was about a man who grew up in a church cult so he didn’t quite get society and socialized norms.  He later became a media-made messiah.  His friend sees the future.  The cult killed themselves.  They were phony.  The author writes in short sentences this way.  He bounces back and forth through ideas.  He doesn’t use quotes often.  The book was good.

My boss never mentions his Bible.  He never tells me anything.  Other than that he goes to church and teaches Sunday school so his Sunday mornings are booked, he doesn’t mention anything about his religion.  That is good.

He plays on his church softball team.  They suck.

He played on my heathen softball team.  We won the league.

I’ve also worked through some Dawkins for something to read.  That’s called preaching to the choir so I have a hard time reading it.  I’d probably read the Bible easier.  I’ve also spent some time this last month reading Palast, Chomsky, and Hartmann.  I don’t think my boss knows who any of those people are.

There we are, though, the good and evil of our civilization in one office.  He’s reading all the proof and arguments that he needs to understand that his god exists and to refute any point that an atheist like me could make.  I’m reading all the proof I need that there is no god and gathering quotable information to refute any arguments a Christian, Muslim, or Jew may make.

There is no HR for 1,000 miles.  Although, a phone call could make it feel as if HR is real close.

I wonder if my boss got in trouble.  If his newly wed wife got mad at him for something.  If he’s trying to find the arguments to make a point to her or show that he’s a better person today than he was a week ago?

He doesn’t read!  The Bible is very tough to read.  Maybe he has a slang version?  A leather-bound, golden page edged, slang version.

I don’t think the Bible is appropriate for workplace atmosphere.  I will never complain.  I’m unoffendable.

I’m amazed at just how many people have had their Bibles open on their desks at work over the years.  How many people think that it’s appropriate to read their religious texts in plain view of the world.  I guess that their belief system suggests they do.  It allows them to create a clique of Bible readers.

I often wonder why they don’t read something else.  Why it is that they not only have to spend all their free time reading this text, but they squeeze it in any chance they can.

I feel like telling them that I know how it ends.

Spoiler alert…

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