For everyone huffing and puffing about this article, bear in mind that Anne was likely paid far more than 50 bucks to write it. Without the experience, she would have had nothing to write about. So getting bilked actually turned a profit for her.

See? Carpet guy keeps his money, the writer keeps her money, and Salon letter writers get to spew their righteous indignation. Everybody wins.

... than so-called Christians taking any criticism of a fellow believer as an outright attack by the vast left-wing conspiracy, is the wiseguys who tsk-tsk that people are wasting their time commenting on a trivial article, all the while wasting their time by doing the same. It's been a real laugh riot!

I think Jesus said, and Anne Lamott would agree, that every human is precious, everyone is in some sense a diamond. Including the carpet guy. I say this as an historical serial religionist - Catholic, Mormon, Muslim - and a current areligionist.

Anne, I'm glad you were able to forgive this jerk. But why didn't you look at the carpet before you bought it?

-Anonymouse

Is there something in the air over there on Speer St.?? Something that makes even their most intelligent writers completely batshit??

When someone steals from you, and you catch them, and then they write you a bad check for the amount, you don't get angry, curse, imagine strangling them or, worse yet, getting a large male involved (what if the shop owner had called your friend's bluff, Anne? Then what??) to "muscle" the money out them. No, what you do IS CALL THE POLICE AND HAVE THEM ARRESTED. Although no cop would arrest someone in such a he said/she said situation, once he wrote the bad check he crossed the line THAT little bit of fuck-waddery would have definitely gotten him in trouble.

GEEEEZ!!

Ok, I read it again, and all these letters, and now I get it.

It doesn' t make sense in context because the context is irrelevent!

I could not for the life of me figure out what the heck her religion had to do with running into a crooked salesmen because, you know, it has nothing to do with it. But of course it was about her reaction, not the situation!

What any normal person would do when the guy refused to pay her (by lying) is dial the cops on her cell phone. They show up, he pays, case closed--happens all the time in the big city, and religion figures into it not a whit.

But what this was about was Lamott's own reaction--because, OF COURSE!--that's what religion is for now. Not contemplating the greater truths or the mysteries of faith, but for handling minor internal issues on a daily basis. Shall I have the oatmeal or the waffles? Oatmeal has fiber but I really want the waffles...WWJD????

And, apparently, anyone who has the audacity to find her religiously ruminationing on such a trivial bit of business, well, a bit grandiose, must be an atheist--or at least a Christ-hating communist. Heck, I've never read the bible so I *must* be an atheist, right?

Sure, a non-religious person could just as easily realized they'd lost their composure and consciously back away from confrontation--and maybe even turn it around on the guy with a gesture--lie flowers. But when a religious person does it, well, it's something Very Special called Grace.

Unlike most people, I understand Lamott's actions and what she is trying to say in her article. There's only one thing I don't understand: Why didn't she just burn the carpet store to the ground?

This article is a perfect illustration of the Christian ethic of turning the other cheek. A true Christian would accept their lot in life (down at the bottom of the food chain), eschew all money and material goods, and when dealt a bad hand by life, would play it out and ask for more.

It doesn't take much thought to see that this ethic is highly impractical, indeed dangerous. In fact, it's stupid in every way. That's probably why no Christians actually live this way, except in trivial episodes like this one that let the believer feel all warm and fuzzy about themselves.

Thank you for this perfect illustration of how Jesus' teachings, when applied to real life, are nonsensical and unworkable.

This piece reminded me very much of an experience I had when I was traveling in the Czech Republic, a place I would eventually go on to live for several years. In 1993, customer service there was rudimentary, to say the least, and after losing my passport on New Year's Eve, I spent the better part of a day being sent across the city and back again trying to get a refund for the train tickets I wouldn't be able to use.

I was mad at myself for losing the passport, mad at whomever it was who grabbed the passport three seconds after I dropped it, mad at the American Embassy for not being open when I needed to get to Vienna, and especially mad at the woman at the train station who gave me wrong information and caused me to lose hours and hours running fruitlessly around Prague. On my last encounter with the woman, my traveling companion and I came up with the idea of buying her flowers. We figured that trying to end it on a good note would at least make *us* feel better. You know what? It did. She thought we were the craziest damn cizinci ever to cross her path, and we felt like we could leave the situation on a happier note.

Anne, I love your writing, even though I am not religious. Please keep coming to us.

started this whole mess. Why did she return the carpet without consulting Anne first or without having a receipt? It was stupid of her to leave the carpet there too when the guy couldn't give her a refund right away.

Of course, Anne has no one to blame but herself for buying a carpet without unrolling it first and checking for defects.