Interesting encounter

One thing I really love to do is hand out my author business cards to people I encounter when I'm out and about.  It's a great way to let people know about my book.  I will hand them to people when I'm at the cashier station.  I've never had anyone turn down a business card.  They either get very interested and if they aren't they take the card and thank me, look at it, and probably discard it.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who does it.  In fact I learned this little tactic of promotion on the show "Wife Swap".  The husband of the wife swap had his own realitor business and he handed out his business cards every where he went.  I usually carry around a big chunk of them as some places have a business card station where you can leave several of them.  Some places even have a bulletin board you can tack it up on.  So it's good marketing.

Today, however, I ran into one interesting person.  I was standing in line waiting my turn to pay and this man was in front of me.  He was very cheerful.  He was greeting everyone, talking to the people at the counter, and talking to the people behind the counter.  He engaged me in conversation, so I whipped a business card out of my purse and said "Here, have one of these".  He took it and looked all inquisitive as if he didn't know what it was.  Like I was trying to hand something funky off to him.  He read it and said very loudy "MAYA! I don't know nothing 'bout no MAYA! I only have things to do with Jesus Christ.  JESUS CHRIST my friends, I love JESUS CHRIST!"...  Oh boy... I wasn't expecting that kind of reaction.  And then it happened...He gave me back my business card.  E-Gads!  I was horrified!  It's my first business card rejection.  Meanwhile...his loudness was causing people to stare, which made it slightly uncomfortable. 

I took the card back, blushing, and was glad his turn was over.  It was my turn to pay, so I paid, and just set the lonely rejected business card on the counter for the sales lady.  I was past the point of no return.  Everyone knew I had it, so it had to go somewhere. 

It is a bit ironic in fact that the man mentioned Jesus Christ, as Jesus is in fact mentioned in my book "The Ancient Maya and Their City of Tulum".  You may be thinking right now...Jesus.?..The Maya?  What do those two have in common?  Should they even be used in the same the sentence? 

Interestingly enough, Jesus Christ's birth has a lot to do with correlating the Maya calendar to our calendar of today.  It is Jesus's date of birth that separates A.D. from B.C.  and in order to correlate the Maya calendar, A.D. and B.C. come into play.  It's a little difficult to explain without going into lots of detail and giving away what is written in my book, but the date of Jesus's birth is significant in determining calendar reckonings.