My Tyler Durden moment

Originally posted to ThisManMustBeStopped.com on 9/20/2006:

I've been getting someone else's mail at my house. It's a forwarding issue. My guess is this person wrote down the wrong address on their forwarding card, and now the mail comes to my house. It's annoying, but there's not much I can do - my only real option is to write "not at this address" and drop it back in the box. I've done that with several pieces of domestic mail. My hope is this person will eventually figure out that he's not getting mail, and fix the problem.

Yesterday letters to this person from banks in India and Singapore showed up in my mailbox, and I had a little doubt as to whether they would make it back to their originators if I returned to sender. So I did some research to see if I could locate him. It turns out he is a minister with the Mar Thoma Church - it's a Christian Church based in India, which tradition says was founded by Saint Thomas (hence the name Mar Thoma) in AD 52. They were never Romanized, so their worship was heavily Judaic, except it incorporated a belief in Jesus. Kind of what you would expect, actually, of a church founded around that time and that stayed pretty separate over the years.

Later on, of course, they got pushed around - the Portuguese who landed in India apparently took exception to people not worshiping saints, etc, so they tried to "reform" the Mar Thomas folks. Nowadays this church is in full communion with the Anglican church.

After doing this research, I had what I think of as my Tyler Durden moment - what if I'm really this guy? If, when I think I'm sleeping, I go out and preach to East Indian Christians? If I'm traveling to India, Singapore, and wherever else, and just don't remember?

I got the names and numbers of the Mar Thoma churches in the area with the idea of locating this person, but my Tyler Durden moment had freaked me out and I didn't call. Because I didn't want to ask if Rev. Patel was there, and be told, "You're Rev. Patel. Is this a test, sir?"

So I think I'm going to let this one go, and just return the letters. If I have a secret life, it's secret for a reason and I'm going to keep it that way.

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