Now I realize that what everyone REALLY wants is to hear all about Mimi, Dennis & David, Eileen, Doug, Jake, Shel, Allen & Liz, Paul & Catherine, Tobias, Elizabeth, Johnnieb, Allie, G & T, Diane, Dan, jerseyjo, The Reverend Boy, and PJ (sorry if I left anyone out!). Mad Priest has recently cautioned me (why is he always giving ME warnings?!?) to speak only of gossip and innuendo, rather than report the truth, at least at his place. Unfortunately I have neither the wit nor a good enough short-term memory to supply either.
I think the hardest part about trying to write anything is the fact, as many have reported, that people were so much who we all are online -- nothing new or surprising other than the beauty of Mimi's lovely blue eyes (the depth and clarity of her sight and the warmness of her heart, we all knew). Now, of course, this doesn't apply to the lurkers and all of those who comment but do not blog (those wise, sane folks -- no offense intended towards bloggers, but I can see the wisdom in forbearance for myself). But, I'm just not going to tell EVERYTHING I learned or enjoyed about others. All I can say is the only small surprise (though not really had I given it more thought ahead of time), is that Tobias is the extrovert and Jake the introvert, although both are and were warm and gracious in meeting and talking with everyone.
In any event, I cannot hope to compete with the narrative the world will soon read from someone who claims, "Je suis occupée des affairs" (such wit the woman has, not to mention agility in many languages), and who will soon bring us the "chef d'oeuvre on the gathering." So, we will all have to await the definitive history of the five-day Affair (which involved ever so much more than The Kiss).
UPDATE: It's going to be a serialized account, like Dickens or maybe War and Peace. Stay tuned for Parts 1 through whatever.
P.S. I just have to add this somewhere - I don't get what all the fuss was about Evensong -- about seeing it as "fussy." I'm used to singing a Choral Evensong, which lasts longer and always has incense galore, and we're just a backwater parish practically in the north woods. My voice isn't much (and is much out of practice of late) but IF Dan and I had had a folder with the Canticles, we, too, could have participated (and he really DOES have a fine voice) (my apologies to him for fumbling with the books we had -- I "got" which ones were needed but promptly forgot in a rush -- isn't there an awfully high prevalence of ADD/ADHD in this crowd?). How do you all do church without a real, live Anglican Evensong now and then?
3 comments:
I dunno. I really wish they did this at my place - even if it was just once a month.
I'd love to sing chants and I would try to come out for it.
I think people are just too damn busy. It's a shame.
We don't have morning prayer either - only during Lent.
I just was agog with all the books. We don't use a Psalter Hymnal at my church, although, we do have LEVAS, and we do sing from it.
I shoulda sat next to you! LOL
Klady, I'm just now getting over here to read your wonderful post on the gathering. I, too, was surprised that Jake was the introvert and Tobias the extrovert.
I was lost during Evensong. I felt like an idiot. Folks tried to help me, Johnieb and the man across the aisle, but I could not get in step, except for the prayers which I knew by heart and the few pages that I got right.
I would have been content just to listen to the chanting, but others seemed to want me to participate.
I have to confess -- we never did have Evensong weekly -- only once every few months (needed that much time for the choir to rehearse full choral renditions of the Magnificat, Nunc, etc., in addition to what we do weekly on Sundays) and this year we are only doing just a few. But it has made me familiar with many of the other canticles and psalm settings.
It's just hard for me to conceive of doing Evensong anytime or any way without incense. We have a sung Eucharist every Sunday and have incense as often as the rector thinks he can get away with (generally just feast days). I really love the chant and the music for Sundays, Evensongs, and Holy Week.
Morning prayer -- I'm sorry -- I don't like that. If I'm going to church to pray, I'd really rather have a simple, quiet, spoken Eucharist or nothing at all. I know Morning Prayer is very Anglican but it seems so Protestant to me, in part because I associate it with the places that don't or did not used to have Sunday Eucharist. And, get this, I can't stand having to hunt through the BCP for the readings when I can recite most of the Eucharist by memory and only have to find the psalm. I tried in our last parish and I could never get the hang of it -- by the time I began to follow, the service was over and I was barely into prayer mode.
Now, however, I can have both MP and Eucharist, if I choose, Tues-Fri with the Sisters down the street if I can get myself there by 7 a.m. for MP and 7:30 a.m. for the Eucharist. Now that I'm more cognizant of how rare it is to have these opportunities (and how I probably won't have them next time we move), maybe I'll work harder at getting there more often.
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