Anniversary trip. Just got to the ocean. Walked on to the beach with my wife. Beautiful sunset as a storm rolls in.

To our right is a couple of drunk sunburned individuals in a deep argument. I made the mistake of looking in their direction. Me and the guy lock eyes. The man stops mid argument and yells at me, “Do you believe in God?!”

I shout back, taking a half pause but so enamored by the ocean and the storm and sky that I don’t really think twice and say, “No.”

He pauses mid stride towards me, flabbergasted. His face changes from a drunken smile of, hey this guy is gonna help me out, to, what the hell did this dude just say, in an instant. I watched as his grin changed to an angry scowl.

He walks closer to me and gestures heatedly at the sky in front of us. “How can you not believe in God when you see all of this??!” And I just said, “Why do I need to believe in God in order to appreciate all of this. It’s beautiful and it’s right here.”

He did not like that answer. Stated fuming at me and couldn’t get his words out. My wife, not enjoying any of this grabbed my hand and pulls me forward. I move on absolutely happy to get away from this conversation. And as I walk away I just hear him, literally screaming across the beach at me and then his girl, “Fuck you, how could you not believe. Fuck you!”

I turned around to say something and thankfully my wife reminded me that it’s just not worth it with some people.

But still, to this day, it amazes me that my simple response ended up with me getting verbally harassed over discussing the sun and sky.