Friday, September 02, 2005

100 Things

There is this idea going around the blogosphere of listing 100 things about oneself. It reminds me of a game I played in youth group--everyone has to take a strip of toilet paper and say something about him/herself for each square. Since I am not an interesting person I always took a small strip (once I knew what the game was).

100 things about me

  1. ALthough not named after it there is a family connection to the Scottish clan Gordon
  2. I have mainly Scottish/Irish ancestors
  3. My paternal grandparents are supposedly descended from sheep thieves
  4. My middle name is derived from the French for King
  5. But I have it as a legacy (I am the third consecutive generation Waldie male to have it)
  6. Should we have a son he will get it too
  7. 4 years ago I was unmarried and childless
  8. in fact I hadn't even met Patty yet
  9. We met at a Presbytery meeting--see good things do come from Presbytery
  10. We were married 11 months later.
  11. I once performed on stage wearing pink long underwear
  12. I was playing Cupid at the time
  13. I have also been on stage wearing burlap
  14. I was playing Thorin Oakenshield in a musical version of the Hobbit
  15. I miss the Edmonton FRINGE theatre festival
  16. My theatre group kept me (somewhat) sane as a teenager
  17. We did a play at Christmas, in the spring, and in the summer
  18. The first time I was in a play was at school in Grade 5
  19. I played Scrooge
  20. Once upon a time I was going to be a drama teacher
  21. but then our minister asked my mother "has Gord ever thought about the ministry?"
  22. I have worked 6 full summers at Church camps
  23. 2 years as a Devotions Director and 3 years in the kitchen at the camp in Alberta I attended as a child
  24. and 1 year as the Director of a camp in Saskatchewan
  25. I blame/thank camp for getting me on the road to ministry
  26. I LOVE camp ministry and think it is a vital thing for the church to continue
  27. The older I get the more left-leaning I become
  28. and the more passionate about social justice and environmental issues
  29. I paid for University working part-time at a gas bar
  30. I learned that no-one buys gas at 3 in the morning
  31. I have also worked in many restaurants
  32. as a dishwasher and as a cook
  33. 3 of them I worked at when they first opened
  34. For 3 summers when in seminary I worked at a golf course clubhouse
  35. I learned that it is amazing how much some people drink when they golf
  36. I was a lousy student from grades 4-9
  37. mainly because I refused to do any work
  38. In University I failed one of my Student Teaching rounds
  39. when I repeated it the next year I sailed through it
  40. THe same cycle happened with my internship for my MDiv.
  41. although that time I took 4 years off in between
  42. The first year I saved money and went to Britain for 2 months
  43. Then I worked at a Crisis Nursery for almost 3 years
  44. I was the first man they had hired
  45. some of the kids would call me dad at times (to the great amusement of my co-workers)
  46. I loved that job but could easily have burned out there
  47. SOme days I really miss that job and those kids
  48. It was a great learning/growing experience
  49. Before being settled here I had never heard of Atikokan
  50. This is the farthest South I have ever lived
  51. and yet it is considered Northwest Ontario
  52. When I went to seminary I attended the church my mother had attended as a child
  53. My parents were married there
  54. and my sister and I were baptised there.
  55. I regularly had coffee with a good friend of my grandmother.
  56. I still have one living grandparent--my dad's father (86 years old)
  57. AS a child and young teen I was regularly tormented by my classmates
  58. and I in turn tormented those lower on the social scale than me
  59. I am sorry for that
  60. #57 had a lot to do with why I failed my first internship
  61. for several months after that I was suicidal on and off
  62. once I stood looking over a balcony thinking maybe....
  63. I was almost 30 before I really learned to like myself
  64. Or to believe that I was likable
  65. Or to trust in my competence
  66. I am still working on those things
  67. One day I decided (unconsciously) to stop letting my past rule my present
  68. I think I can even forgive my classmates now
  69. I am strongly addicted to chocolate
  70. and I am perfectly fine with that, especially since learning that it helps fight off the effects of Dementor attacks
  71. For many years I read Lord of the Rings once a year
  72. I used it for my major paper in Grade 12 English
  73. I also did a Christology paper on it in first year New Testament
  74. One of my favourite times of day is reading books to the girls at bedtime
  75. Or getting a good morning hug
  76. I find preaching comes very naturally
  77. I am most comfortable when I am not reading while I preach
  78. So I don't actually write my sermons unless I have to
  79. and then I usually write them out after I preach them once
  80. Patty thinks I am amazing
  81. I know that she is
  82. And that I am incredibly lucky
  83. #57 has left me with a passion about bullying
  84. But it also left me knowing that more supervision is not necessarily the answer, nor the best preventative
  85. I once split my head open on a chinning bar in Grade 9 when I didn't duck low enough
  86. THis incident embarassed my sister
  87. I grew up in the church, and was made to go to Sunday School
  88. AS a child I sometimes resented that
  89. but I also had a surrogate family there so I loved it too
  90. SOmetimes in Grade 9 the church and the theatre group were the only places I wanted to be, I was safe there
  91. I learned about GOd's presence while walking along the shore of a lake
  92. I first REALLY knew God was with me the morning of my confirmation service
  93. I was walking in a misty playground at the time
  94. I think my parents are proud of me now--I don't think they always were
  95. I was never athletic, and was ashamed of that as a child
  96. I accept it now, and am better at what I do because of it
  97. Over the years I have let a lot of other people define who I am and what I can/should do
  98. I am getting better at not doing that, and not feeling as guilty about not doing that
  99. Sometimes I wonder if the church has a clue
  100. Often I wonder if I have a clue

5 comments:

  1. I think you have an abundance of clues Gord. The church? The jury's still out on that one...

    I remember the Presbytery meeting where you and Patty met. I recall it as one of the best I've attended for many reasons. Must have been all that love in the air....

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  2. You do have a clue, Gord. Thank you.About your middle name, though--it doesn't appear to be anywhere, here, so i am left wondering what it is from the tantalizing clue (again with the clue) left in #4.

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  3. SUe: Maybe the first step to having a clue is admitting that you aren't sure (again I wonder about the church on that one). And I am sure that is NOT what made that Presbytery memorable for others

    PMP: WEll the name is almost exactly the same as the French word. Just Anglicized a bit by chaning the final vowel to a "y".

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  4. OK, I thought it might be Roy. {grin}

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  5. Anonymous6/9/05 17:27

    This is a very cool list.

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