Jesus loves you.....have a pen.

I take the train to work every morning from Dorchester.  In the evening, we walk from the station, to our car, which is parked on my in laws street (which is slightly closer than ours).  As we turn the corner from the station to the neighborhood, there are usually men standing there trying to pass out pens with a message about Jesus on them.

The men with their bags of pens and "Jesus Loves Me" flyers just fascinates me, for several reasons,
1. Why pens?  What makes these guys think that tons of people getting off the train from work would want another pen?  Not even just another pen, but the shitty Bic Stick pens they are passing out.  I mean....if I was going to take a Jesus pen from someone, it wouldn't be for a Bic Stick. Just Sayin..
2.  What about proselytizing your religion and passing out pens makes sense to them.  I mean...the marketing strategy is just wrong.  There's just nothing about getting a pen that's going to remind me how much Jesus Loves me.

Sometimes in the morning, there's a lady that stands on the island between the buses and the drop off area and yells "Jesus Loves you" to people.  Now this lady, for me, is much more effective.  I mean...it's early, she's up and she's absolutely SCREAMING at people.  That makes me turn around and think...wow...she really loves Jesus.  I wonder why.  Maybe I should go talk to her about it.  (I wouldn't actually go talk to her though.  I try to stay away from anyone that is that passionate about their religion.  Not that I'm an agnostic or anything.....it's just my internal red light goes off when any ones passion about anything is that strong).

I almost grabbed one of the Jesus Pens today, simply for the sake of being a visual aid for this blog entry, but I couldn't do it.  I was just way too tired to risk starting a religious dialogue with those guys and their pens.  They would try to sell me their religion, (I already have one thank you), when all I really want to know is why Bic Stick Pens.  Why??

If the day comes when they are passing out Pilot pens....those fine tipped Gel ones I like....or the RSVP pens, then I'll stop.  I'll talk to them.  I'll take their pen.  But, until then, I'll just get my Bic Sticks like everyone else does, after signing the check at the restaurant.