Lonely Bible

   When I first arrived in the UK and moved into my flat, there was a complimentary Holy Bible and New Testament/ Psalms in my room courtesy of university accommodation. Apparently not everyone got one, so I guess they have been keeping up with my track record and decided I would benefit from religious material. I was a little weirded out, coming from a city where the subject of religious freedom has been in the news a lot lately. I haven't been in Scotland long enough to have an educated opinion on the politics of religion over here, but it struck me as something very foreign.

   I know that it is standard practice in North American hotels to keep a bible in the room for guests. I am not offended by the practice, nor would I be if it were any other religious paraphernalia in the room. What I feel about the religious material in my room is something like discomfort, rather than offence. That discomfort was furthered when I accidentally dropped the New Testament out of my bedroom window and into the thick bushes below.... Thats a different story though.

   I don't really know what I'm getting at because I don't really know how I feel about it. A hotel room is one thing, but someone purposefully left a Bible in my room, where I live. It sits on a shelf beside the only other (I was about to say "mildly fictitious literature" but then I was like, no. Not that can of worms) book that I have besides travel guides-- my journal. The two are highly personal books-- one being largely personal to a lot of people and the other being largely personal to just me. 

    I feel even a little guilty, just because I tend to feel empathy for inanimate objects. It pains me to think of this Bible just sitting there, never being opened all year. I'm not going to lie to it though; there will be no religious revelation for me this year.