Over Heard and Over Thought

Yesterday I unintentionally overheard a conversation in the locker room at the gym. Two young women, one going to UT this fall and one who has a year under her belt at the burnt orange school. They knew each other through other people so the Southern thing or 6 degrees of separation thing was happening as they went through a list of people that they both might know. They were very successful and had a lot of hits on mutual friends. The conversation went into dorm verses apartment living and from the UT sophomore came the good news that the dorm the other girl would be living in did not stink like some other dorm whose name I have now forgotten. This lead to floor plans and they both concluded that freshman girl had made a wise choice in roommates, floor plan and dorm. The conversation was drawing to a close but it made a brief return to "do you know____?" And sophomore longhorn says, "oh yes, I know her. She just became my BFF. I had another BFF but she has really fallen down on the job, so I replaced her." Wow, when did BFF become a stinkin' job?





Kay and I rode together to Bunko Monday night. I so enjoyed our conversation. We hit a lot of topics there on 290 and one thing we talked about was friendships. She said her mom had really brought the point home to her; to always take the time to make friends along the way, in each stage and experience of life. Her mom is good people. That topic was always high on my list to be taught or discussed when Jason was the MYA minister. Somehow, along the way my generation didn't really teach or maybe now that I think about it learn how to have friends. Friends of every age and from different backgrounds. The topic was never given too much consideration. I loved that at my 50th birthday party that there were friends of all ages, the youngest being 4 and the oldest was 90. Amy Maroney told me afterwards that she aspired to be like me at 50 and have friends of all ages. Our Bunko group is half oldies like me and half young like Kay. We have a blast and enjoy one another so much as we play, laugh and of course eat together once a month.





Two words that have lost original meaning to me, ministry and visionary. They have become ubiquitous in the Christian jargon and genera. Several weeks ago I received an email from someone asking if my ministry had a name? What? What ministry? Was she asking about Mildred and Gertrude? For years Peggy and I referred to it as a business but here recently we have become more attuned to the fact that M&G does provide ministry but in the unconventional way of laughter. We have been used at retreats where very serious topics were to be taught and discussed but before all that happened, they asked us there to make people laugh, to see that they are not alone in a lot of their thoughts and perceptions, and the laughs opened up women to receive and be helped by the serious topic of the retreat. Oops, I have digressed. Ministry, she wanted to know if my blog was an offshoot of a named ministry I had, did I have a book and what was my schedule for speaking engagements. Hahahahahahaha....hehehehehe...oh yeah. I'm not laughing because I don't believe I couldn't do these things, I have and I could. Having a named ministry now reminds me of those back in the day things like personality tests and having your colors done. Are you a winter spring or a summer fall combination? Are you a masking melancholy who really is sanguine? What to do with a phlegmatic? If you ever went to hear Florence Littauter and were phlegmatic, you should have asked for your money back. But since I am sanguine, I had a great time because that's what Florence was. Seems like so many in this season of "Christian must haves"are ministry names and self published books. Their blogs started out really fun, see the fam, see what we are doing, this is what I would love to teach, I blog therefore I teach, my blog has become my ministry, when will someone famous discover my blog and endorse my ministry and since 5 people follow me, my blog compels me to write a book and now my blog is really my book material. Now the blogs I am writing about are people I don't even know but early on enjoyed reading about their lives and here and there a lesson or truth that was learned. This trend too will pass and will find itself on the top of the heap of Christian trends discarded. Remember the embroidered collar that went over a shirt usually worn with a denim skirt...gone... Remember when speakers had like 4 inspirational subjects they prepared in advance and could speak on...gone... How about Paul and Silas salt and pepper shakers and the 12 disciple candelabra? I mean really, who still has their Prayer of Jabez shower curtain up and who is still wearing their purpose driven underwear?


Visionary, that is a whole nother thing. There are many people who are truly visionary and so creative, but there are others who hide behind the term because they don't want to do the "little" things that someone who loves to implement or has a "servant's heart" will do. Man, I am not nagging on this because the attitude is so easy to pick up. I found myself thinking that way from time to time when I worked at the church. It can be so burdensome to carry a load for such a long time that when you find an "out", baby you are so visionary. The Bible says where there's no vision, the people perish but if all the admins were out sick for a week, there would still be vision but the stuff needing to be done would perish.


I just got back from lunching at the Nord. Melinda has never been, so I whisked her out of the world of preschool and kindergarten and took her to the land of milk and honey. We both had crab bisque, the crab stack and split white chocolate bread pudding. Lucky me, I get to go home after a meal like that, she goes back to work. We picked up Nord catalogues for the upcoming Anniversary Sale and I told her she should use it in her meeting with Jason this afternoon. Now that is visionary thinking and out of the box.

Buddy has found my Bunko winnings. I won most Bunkos by default because Stephanie had the same number but she was first bunko. Anyway, all our prizes was jewelry and I won a beautiful necklace and it was out on the table still in the crinkly wrap it came in. Buddy is not after the necklace, but the crinkly wrap. We are both happy, I am matching the necklace to several of my outfits and she has the crinkly paper to chew on. She is also interested in the plant that Melinda gave me for helping in VBS. I feel guilty taking the plant cause I feel like I had more fun than doing work. I remember that is how I felt when I first went to work at the church, had fun and they paid me for working with friends. But then one day I became a visionary...