still addicted to mediocrity in the 21st century

So maybe it wasn’t the midterm elections that increased my spam traffic. This morning I had over 1600 comments that were directed to my spam cache for me to delete. That’s high.

It’s been odd watching Eileen prepare to teach a Sunday School class. She is very frustrated by the poor quality of the curriculum and the inexperience of the leadership at church. I figure if public and private education in the US is bad, religious instruction is probably worse on average.

Also, I’m convinced that people seek out mediocrity in church situations. It seems to provide a sense of security or something. I have always found this annoying, especially when otherwise intelligent people change gears when they come to church and indulge in poor taste and sentimentality.

I’m pretty sure Franky Schaeffer was on to something with his comments in Addicted to Mediocrity: 20th Century Christians and the Arts.

Still applies.

I have encouraged Eileen to give people constructive feedback about the specifics in the curriculum she objects to (such as the impenetrable length of the bible lessons). I hope she does.

The Before pic…. how the pantry looked a few weeks ago…..

The last few days I have begun sorting my gargantuan book collection. The first goal was to get stacks of books off the floor, out of the way and grouped alphabetically. I cleared the upstairs pantry on Thursday.

The After picture…. the way the pantry area looks right now.

Yesterday I cleared a lot of them from the extra room upstairs.

In the meantime Eileen attacked the pantry, sorting and discarding stuff. This was tiring but satisfying.

I also picked organ music. I sometimes feel like Father Mackenzie in Eleanor Rigby, but instead of writing the words to a sermon no one will hear, I practice music that on one will hear. But what the fuck. At least I get to play some decent music and get paid.

The prelude a week from today will be a charming little fugue by Wilhelm Friedman Bach.

He was one of the Bach boys (sons of Bach). It wasn’t until relatively recently that I realized what an entourage this crew probably was. Talented, hard working and probably all cracker jack musicians.