NaBloPoMo -- An Important Teacher

Today I am running with a prompt from BlogHer.  Though because 1) I already used the Friday prompt and b) I am contrary-minded at times and c) I really liked the prompt offered by RGBP yesterday I am actually using the one set for yesterday:

Thursday, November 5
What is the most important lesson you learned as a child, and who taught it to you?

This is really an easy question and the person in  mind is an obvious choice but first one needs some history.


I was (still am at heart) a chronically lazy person.  I would do just enough to get by and that was it.  Nowhere did this show up more than at school.  Every report card from grades 4 on included at least one comment (this was in the era before computer generated comments, ones that were actually handwritten and personalized) in the tone of "Gord would have much better marks if he did any work".  I think I drove my teachers crazy.  They knew I knew the stuff.  I could always do well on the test. But I never did any homework.  At All.  Effort marks in that school could be a 1 (best) 2 or 3.  I don't remember ever getting a 2.  ALways 3s.

I remember in Grade 8, the second of 3 reporting periods.  The homeroom teacher, who also taught us Language Arts, was sharing with us what mark would appear on the report card coming out in a couple of days.  When talking to me she showed a 59% and then said "if I subtracted the 10% for lack of completed homework it would be 49% but I don't think that would look good on your report card".  I think she was hoping this would spur me to make more of an effort.  Which makes no sense when talking to a chronic underachieving 14 year old.  I heard that I did not have to do any work.

Then came Grade 9.  That year for Language Arts I had a new teacher, fresh out of university.  I quite enjoyed her class (though not enough to do any work mind you).  We used a Police song for our midterm exam.  She had us reviewing poetry through Harry Chapin and Cat Stevens, she created a graffittti wall on one of her classroom bulletin boards.  But where she shows up in this post came around the second reporting period.  My mark (which to be honest I had earned) was 39%, F+.  Around then it started to click in that maybe I really did have to do some work [nobody has ever accused me of being a fast learner on such things].  I then went through high school actually working (not any more than I had to but at least working) and sailed through as an honour student.

It was a turning point. To this day I maintain that if Miss Sobat had not given me that kick in the backside (as much as it--and the fallout when that report card came home--was less than comfortable at the time) I would have simply faded away.  She has insisted more than once that I would have gotten there eventually.  But I am not sure.  Another teacher helping me skate by (as many teachers had done to that point) was not what I needed.  I need the one who was willing to be a b***h (a term many of my classmates gave her that year to be honest.

Miss Sobat stands out for another reason.  My Junior High years were somewhat hellish.  I was a low (almost the lowest) slot on the school social totem pole. And while all school officials talked a good line about how some bevaviour was not acceptable there were some who made the line seem more real than others. Mis Sobat was one of those.  More than once I saw her make a point of defending members of her class who were being mistreated.  It did not, in the end, change much actual behaviour from the worst of my classmates but it made an impact.

To this day she stands as a favourite teacher of my entire academic career.

NaBloPoMo -- Other Duties as Required

It is a simple little line, buried at the bottom of many a job description (and sometimes it may not be written in but let's face it--it is always there).  But if it is true (as it often is) that the devil is in the details than this one little line tends to cover a wide range of devilish details.

Other duties as required.

It means that there is always the chance tat you find yourself doing something you never expected.

Like working in the kitchen at summer camp and getting drafted into helping put the dock in.

Or being called to ministry and having to wet vac the hall floor every spring so the water doesn't start popping off the tiles. Or dealing with the plugged toilet. Or calling and chairing a meeting of the committee that is currently without a chair. Or setting up chairs for the funeral while running upstairs now and then to check on the bulletins coming out of the photocopier (followed by folding said bulletins), not to mention sweeping and spot-mopping the floor first. Or renning down to find out why the furnace is not working. Or vacuuming the sanctuary (and other "light housekeeping" -- another term that is deceptive if you ever find it in a position description) on the Friday after Christmas in preparation for the wedding on Saturday. Or helping clean out the clothing and drug paraphernalia from the bushes in front of the church.

Why do we do them, the other duties as required?  Sometimes because we know that they are time sensitive.  Sometimes because it is a volunteers role and the volunteer is away. Sometimes because it is just easier and faster than finding someone else to do it. And sometimes (though we may not like to admit it) because that way we know it is done [and/or done "properly"].

Many of us also just do them because they need to be done and we want to help out.  In the end (though I may grumble from time to time about other duties as required) I am not, in my heart of hearts, a work to rule type of person.  Which is good since I am not really in a work to rule type of profession.  The challenge though is not to do too many of them. The job description is there for a purpose, to focus one's energies and time.  And sometimes, though it can be REALLY hard, we need to leave the other duties for someone else.  In a voluntary organization that is sometimes the best way to find out how really required they may be.

And just for fun, a story.
One place I worked the Board had an honourary chair.  Apparently one day this person was looking at position descriptions and found this line in all of them.  As it happened all employees there signed their position description.  The honourary chair looked at "Other Duties as Required" and said something to the effect of "who in their right mind would agree to that?"  Which was both wise and naive.  Wise as she clearly saw the openendness of the line and how it could be misused. But naive to think that it is not a reality in so so many positions.

NaBloPoMo -- Fears

TOday I think I will start with the prompt from this source.  Actually I am going to work with the prompt that is scheduled for Friday (though I really like the one that is there for tomorrow as well).  Here it is:

Friday, November 6
What was your biggest fear as a child? Do you still have it today? If it went away, when did your feelings changes?

 In the end I think my greatest fears are still what they have always been.  They may not be as strong as they were 30 years ago when I was a teen, or even twenty years ago when I was finally having to confront them but they are still there.  I know the prompt says fear and I pluralized it, but that is because they are pretty well linked.  At least they are for me.

1.  Being judged.  Because I always felt I WAS being judged.  And more accurately that I was being judged and found lacking.  This one still lurks around the edges of my psyche.  It used to be pretty close to the center.  And it turned me into my own worst judge.  One of the things that helped me move it off the the edge was a comment by a member of the Lay Supervision Team on my first internship.  he talked about always worrying what others thought of him and then realizing that people more often were not thinking about him at all.  After all it is a bit self-centered to think that people are always busy judging you -- they have their own lives to live.

2.  Being left on the outside.  Again because I was largely sure I was intentionally being left out.  And then I would add in #1 and become sure I was being left out so they could talk about me. It is sort of a fear of being alone, sort of a fear of being the outcast, and sort of a fear of having to admit that you are unlikeable.  When it shows up now it manifests in the fear that I am missing out on something, that I might not hear something I need to know.  But by and large I have outgrown it.  And as one who leans to introversion it is sometimes OK to be left out (though really it feels better when I can at least tell myself I have chosen to be on the outside).

3. Connecting.  Well really it was a fear of being hurt.  I clearly remember when I was in Grade 9 listening to the song I am a Rock and thinking that was a great way to live.  Because if I was an island then people couldn't get in to hurt me anymore. "and a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries".  It was a few years later (well actually a decade or more later) that I realized this was actually a sad song.  And that I had to be willing to connect if I was going to be happy and find some form of success.  Didn't get there alone.  ANd I still sort of fear the danger of connecting.  But I am much better.

4. Looking foolish.  Well sort of.  Because from Grade 5 on my best outlet was theatre.  I could go on stage and feel relaxed-ish.  I could play the fool there.  But in social situations --- not so much, except with some very trusted friends.  Of course now I intentionally play the fool on a regular basis to embarrass my children....

Interestingly, as I reflected and wrote this post, I have no real strong memories of fear of the dark or of heights or of the "boogey man".  I mean I remember being scared by ghost stories (like the time I read Amityville Horror at too young an age) and I was never the most adventurous child but the things I most remember being afraid of fall into the realm of social anxiety.  Which explains a lot in hindsight..

NaBloPoMo -- Ministry in a Resource Town

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to take part in the annual newcomers event for clergy in Alberta Northwest Conference.  This is part of the request:

Thank you for agreeing to be one of our “Hinterland Who’s Who participants for our upcoming Newcomer’s Orientation to Alberta and Northwest Conference.

We are connecting with you to talk about ministry in a  resource-based community setting.

The questions we would ask you to ponder are as follows:

2.       How is the mission and ministry of your Pastoral Charge unique

a.       What particular social, political, physical dynamics influence the life and work of your Pastoral Charge?

Which was an interesting challenge.  Because while this is at heart a resource-based community it has also developed a wider economic base due to the fact that it is a regional center.  This means a larger amount of government and retail activity in addition to agriculture, forestry and petroleum.  It also provides a degree of insulation from the vagaries of being a community that almost solely relies on resource-based industry (especially those that rely on one particular resource and/or company).

The interesting thing for me was to compare the 2 resource-based communities where I have served.  One has been dwindling since the mine closed over 30 years ago, sort of propped up by a coal-fired power plant and some forestry -- until the forestry industry went off a cliff a few years back.  The other, where I am now, is actively growing -- the last municipal census showed an increase of almost 40 000 since 1994, which is a more than doubling of the population -- buoyed by the petroleum industry (mainly natural gas rather than crude oil). One has a greying population and under-subscribed schools, the other is one of the youngest cities in the country (majority of the population under age 39) with schools that are full or overfull. One where property values are, at best, stagnating (or outright falling), another where vacancy rates last year were maybe 1% and rents were soaring (our house has gained almost $20 0000 in civic-assessed value in 5 years--which may or may not show up in actual market value)  Resource-based can mean different things, depending on where in the lifespan of the resource one is.

But there are definite similarities.  Ministry with families with absent parents.  Maybe because the local industry is defunct and one parent (often father) is working "away" for weeks at a time and then home for a week (which can have interesting effects on family life).  Or maybe because the industry is hopping and one or both parents are working long hours and lots of overtime.  For the church this may mean having to re-think what we expect (or more accurately hope to expect) from working people in terms of time available for church work.

ANd then there is the balancing act between eco-theology and economics.  I mean I know that in the end everybody had to walk that line (though some show more awareness of this fact than others) but when you are living and working with people whose jobs are on the line it hits a bit closer.  As mentioned above, my previous ministry setting relied heavily on a coal-fired power station.  Then the provincial government announced they were closing all the coal-fired power stations. Which I agreed with in theory (I had issues with some of the logic used) but was going to be potentially crippling to the town. (I wrote a bit about this when I first started this blog 10 years ago). Or living in a petro-province when your denomination comes out against pipelines, or when the national body decides (in the middle of a strong downturn) to divest of stocks in oil and gas companies.  Again decisions I largely supported in theory and philosophy but had poor optics in some parts of the community.  Fine line to walk indeed.

And of course it is the church.  When times are good and when times are bad we worry about numbers (people and dollars).  We wonder why there are so many people who are on our mailing list but not in the pews.  We worry about how we can fund what we feel called to do, whether that is maintaining the status quo because we are shrinking or plateauing or reaching out to a growing community and trying to find new ways to be the church in their midst.  Maybe the question is "can we still afford full-time ministry?" or maybe it is "can we increase to 1.5 or 2 positions?" but the problem is the same.  How can we be the church God is calling us to be?

NaBloPoMo--Church clothes...

IN their Facebook group the RevGalBlogPals are posting prompts each day for November.  Some days I will use them, some days I will likely have something else to say.

The prompt for November 2 (remember I am playing catch up). said:

Prompt: write about what you wear at church (your best clothes, your comfy clothes, robe, stole, etc.). What does the phrase "church clothes" look like in your world? 

For me, when leading worship, well that depends.

From Labour Day (or the week after Labour Day depending on how I feel and how hot it may be) until Pentecost, or maybe the end of June, or maybe the end of May I wear alb and stole.  At least I do most of the time.  On Pageant Sunday in Advent I usually don't. But otherwise I do 90%+ of the time.  The main benefit is that then I don't feel the need to wear a tie!  I hate the constriction of a closed collar.

In the summer the weather is warm enough that an extra layer is not welcome (most of the time) and also there is a less formal feeling to summer worship.  SO then I wear a shirt and tie. Which makes me (99% of the time) the only person in the building wearing a tie. But I still feel the need to be a little bit professional looking -- even if one of my go to ties has Mickey Mouse on it (mind you I wore that one to my interview and they still called me!). The exception is for weddings and funerals that take place in the church building.  For those I go with alb and stole all year round.

If I am merely attending worship, either here or (more likely) in some other congregation I am much more relaxed. Casual pants and a shirt or sweater depending on the season.

NaNoWriMo--not this year (again)

But maybe someday?

Every November a few things happen.

• people argue about when Christmas decorations should come out
• men grow facial hair to support Prostate Cancer
• clergy panic about what they will do for Advent

And some enterprising individuals participate in National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo).  The concept is to write a 50 000 word novel in a month.  And more than once I have (usually after November starts, sometimes in late October) thought "I should try that"

Not because I think I have a great novel in my head. (Or even a passable novel, or even one that would make any sense)

Not because I have nothing else to do.

But because I think I need to do something to recover my creativity, something that I have found lacking over the last couple of years.  And I miss it.

Or even just to push myself to write something.

But I keep telling myself that I have nothing worth writing, that I don't have time, that I would not be able to keep a coherent piece together.

Which may in fact mean I really should give it a try.  But not this year...

But there is another option. NaBloPoMo The idea for this is to be intentional and commit to write a blogpost a day for the whole month. Surely I could do that.   I used to, or at least I used to come close 10 years ago when this blog was first started.  And maybe that would help spur the creativity, spur the need to put thoughts in order, help create some discipline and move me away from Candy Crush for a while.

Of course it is now November 3rd already.  So not off to a great thought.  But I can play catch up...

SO off we go!

Friday Five....Books

Each week the RevGalBlogPals post a Friday Five.  Haven't done one for eons.  Thought I would this week:

Share with us some of your favorites:
A cookbook One of my favourites is a volume put together by the congregation where I attended during seminary. They called it "Grosvenor Does Gourmet"
A novel Lord of the Rings, one I first read in Grade4/5 and have read MANY times since.  (and the movies are no where near as good as the books)
A nonfiction book Hmmmm, hard to name a favourite here.
A well-thumbed book to which you turn often, or with affection, used in our profession well there is the Bible....most of the reading I return to frequently now is online.
An author you recommend frequently to others Not an author but a book...Free of Charge by Miroslav Volf
Bonus: what are you reading now? Working my way through Les Miserables

Book 5 of 2015 (Volume II) -- Les Miserables

I find myself wondering what a modern editor would do if this book landed on her desk.  Because there are whole sections that appear (at best) tangentially related to the plot line.

THis volume (8 books) began with an extended description of the battle of Waterloo. And only at the end does this link to the story thus far.  At the very end of the battle, after the battle in fact, we are introduced to one of those scavenging vultures that appear on a battlefield, stealing anything of value from the dead.  His name? Thenardier.

Then we read about the life the child Cossette is forced to live. Then we read about Valjean's second escape from the galleys and his appearance in Cossette's life.  He ransoms her and they go to Paris.

The remainder of the book is about another escape.  Javert has found Valjean, but waits too long to make his move and Valjean leads Cossette to safety.  Then we have another excursus.  Valjean inadvertently finds refuge in the grounds of a convent.  But instead of just telling us that Hugo goes into great detail about the convent and the life of those within.  Then a whole book wherein the narrator rants about the value (or the lack thereof) of the monastic life.

When the Volume closes we learn that Valjean, having met an old friend who is the gardener for the convent, finds a refuge where he can stay hidden and Cossette can become a student at the boarding school run by the sisters.  The volume ends with a comment that Cossette grows up....

Volume III is next--it is titled Marius.

Book 5 of 2015 (Volume 1) -- Les Miserables

Just a light summer read.

On my KOBO I have a free book called History Classics (which I now can't actually find on the website).  It includes things such as The Three Musketeers  and War and Peace and Les Miserables.  This summer I thought I would take on one of these classics.

And they are LONG.  Volume 1 was between 1200 and 1500 screens on my device.  And it took me to Fantine's death and Valjean escaping from custody.  Lots of words. Lots of descriptions. By modern standards lots of extraneous content--pictures that could take far fewer words to paint (with much loss of detail of course).

Well written to be sure.  Hugo paints wonderful pictures.  WE start with a wonderful sketching out of the character of the Bishop.  One may well wonder why so much time is taken to explain the character of a person who is out of the story relatively soon.  But I think it is part of how Hugo is making a social comment on the need to care for each other.  Because at least in Volume 1 that is a big theme.  That is how we know that the Bishop is such a good man.  That is how we are told that Valjean has truly been transformed. THe reverse is how we know that the Thenardier's are horrible.

The other thing that one notices is that Hugo is taking pains to link the events to a particular place and time-- that also is given a great deal of text.

Thus far we have met Cosette as an infant, as a part of Fantine's story.  We have met Javert. We have met Valjean.  Now Fantine is buried, Valjean is on the run--presumably with Javert on the hunt and Volume 2 is named for Cosette so one assumes we will get back to her.  But thus far we are exploring the battlefield of Waterloo.....

Happy Canada Day!