You come into work, open your email, and are greeted with a “strange person alert” from the night staff that goes like this:
FYI
I had to ask some one to leave the rest room for squatting in the handicap stall and generally acting kind of creepy. Not too odd you may say… it turns out that he is using the toilet as some kind of alter, with incense sticks sticking out of piles of poo.Description:
White male, 30ish, blonde curly hair medium length, 5’10”ish, carries a milk crate full of stuff.Disposition:
Not all there…first thing to come to mind.
My life is weird.
An interesting incident! You may have a unique religious devotee coming to you out of the hazy past of yesteryear. Jesus and his opponents both condemned “Beelzebul,” as “chief of the devils.”
The word “Beelzebub” has several interpretations, but a particularly relevant one to your situation is that the word “z-b-l” in postbiblical Hebrew and in Syriac and Arabic means “dung.” The name “Beelzebul; i.e., Baal (lord) and zibbul) might possible be translated then as the Defecator, or “Lord of stercorization,” or “a deity who presides over manure.” In biology the reference is to insects that live in dung.
In the pseudepigraphic “Ascension of Isaiah” (chs. 2-3) the name is applied to a Samaritan who accused the prophet of being “Lord of Dung.” And, that, of course, is a mere euphemism for “Lord of Shit.” I wonder if that devotee has a license to practice religion in your facility, or if he has applied for his priestly license in the state of California. Weirder things, no doubt, have happened in the Golden Bear state. After all, look who you all have for governor!
Only in Santa Cruz! You have had lots of weird
things happen at Louden Nelson – you probably could write a book! Not many people would get
that kind of report from night staff! love ya
Loved this one, dad! Will be passing it on to the rest of the Center staff. And I think that all but one of them agree with you about the governor.