A few thoughts about...
...Thea Gimore, who writes beautiful, moving and intelligent songs and performs them with such presence and poise that you can't help but love her. I've realised that much as I love her (enough that before I went to her gig recently, I raved so much about her wonderfulness that a friend wished me off with the phrase 'Have fun, don't get a wide on'), she doesn't sing my life. As it would turn out, the person who sings my life at the moment is a fifty year old bloke from Essex. Saturday Boy so completely encapsulates the current state of my romantic life (including teen angst, excluding limited vocabulary and girl not old enough to shave her legs) that it scares me slightly.
...Church.
1. This made me cry today. The man was giving a sermon for fuck's sake. He was giving a sermon in a liberal catholic parish, did some guy just go there to shout at him? How is that constructive or loving?
2. The diocesan children's missioner visited our church this morning. She really irritated me, and probably a lot of other people. She gave what seemed to be a pro-forma sermon, based around the idea that children at All Saints are viewed as an inconvenience, or something to endure to keep the churches full. I felt that she misjudged the mood within the church, and the viewpoint of almost all of the congregation.
Our Sunday school runs from the start of the church service, where the kids have some worship time then an activity/bible study type session. They then join the main congregation towards the end of the service, just before communion. We finish communion (with children taking a full part) and the prayers. The kids run around the church during this whole time with no complaint from anyone (though the servers have become very good at discreetly moving candles to safety. :) ) The vicar then gives some quick notices, then spends five - ten minutes where we all share what the children have been doing in Sunday School. They tell us what they learnt and show us their craft work, we all get excited, and get to hear gems such as 'What have you learnt today?' 'Lucy hasn't got any shoes on'. :) Finally we sing happy birthday to anyone who has had a birthday in the last week, and everyone gets a chocolate for their troubles. It's a really joyful time, and often my favourite part of the service. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling that way. The church also runs a youth club, uniformed groups and has great links with its school. It's not a church where children are just tolerated or endured, it's somewhere where they are truly valued, and there are brilliant links between older and younger members of the congregation.
The real shame is that the sermon could have been brilliant. It started by stating that if they are baptised, children are a full part of the church (even though they don't contribute financially, are short and can't read and write...). It then went on to the idea that children should be a full and valued part of our worship, which is another thing I can get on board with. What would have been a good next step is practical ideas, ways to have a main service which can involve children more, without throwing away the possibility of the adults learning something you want someone with a theology degree to teach you. Maybe suggesting a more frequent all-age service wouldn't have gone amiss. Instead, she just told us we're doing it all wrong at the moment, which seemed short-sighted and judgmental.
3. Was going to be part of this post, but I spent so much time on number 2 that I'll do it separately at some other point.
...Running
Not so much thoughts as a quick plug. Some colleagues and I are doing a 10k run in September. We are attempting to raise money for cancer research UK. It would be amazing if any of you would like to sponsor me. I'm training at the moment, but before anyone signs away vast sums, I should confess my aim is to get round having run at least half of it, rather than to make any great time or anything. Of course it would be lovely to run more, but I'm not expecting miracles. :)
If you'd like to sponsor me, you can do so here
http://www.run10ksponsorme.org/rebeccascarborough
or by getting in touch with me (phone or email should work).
If you don't want to sponsor me, it would just be great if you could not laugh if you see me training around home or Edinburgh. :) Also, if you're in Edinburgh it would be helpful if you could encourage me to run/do sit ups/press ups/squats when I really want to be sleeping/going to shows/drinking.
...Haircuts
A haircut doesn't change your life. You would think I might learn this before age 24, but apparently not. My hair is already too long again. Really it was too long straight after it was cut, and was the first time I ever cried after having a re-style. Did look good in Becky's top hat though. Next time, instead of saying 'I want it shorter, but so it still looks nice' I will take photos and say 'as close to this' as will look nice. Ah yes, I am the haircut strategy expert. Unfortunately I'm still expecting it to make me feel like everything is right with the world, and it probably won't.
...Church.
1. This made me cry today. The man was giving a sermon for fuck's sake. He was giving a sermon in a liberal catholic parish, did some guy just go there to shout at him? How is that constructive or loving?
2. The diocesan children's missioner visited our church this morning. She really irritated me, and probably a lot of other people. She gave what seemed to be a pro-forma sermon, based around the idea that children at All Saints are viewed as an inconvenience, or something to endure to keep the churches full. I felt that she misjudged the mood within the church, and the viewpoint of almost all of the congregation.
Our Sunday school runs from the start of the church service, where the kids have some worship time then an activity/bible study type session. They then join the main congregation towards the end of the service, just before communion. We finish communion (with children taking a full part) and the prayers. The kids run around the church during this whole time with no complaint from anyone (though the servers have become very good at discreetly moving candles to safety. :) ) The vicar then gives some quick notices, then spends five - ten minutes where we all share what the children have been doing in Sunday School. They tell us what they learnt and show us their craft work, we all get excited, and get to hear gems such as 'What have you learnt today?' 'Lucy hasn't got any shoes on'. :) Finally we sing happy birthday to anyone who has had a birthday in the last week, and everyone gets a chocolate for their troubles. It's a really joyful time, and often my favourite part of the service. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling that way. The church also runs a youth club, uniformed groups and has great links with its school. It's not a church where children are just tolerated or endured, it's somewhere where they are truly valued, and there are brilliant links between older and younger members of the congregation.
The real shame is that the sermon could have been brilliant. It started by stating that if they are baptised, children are a full part of the church (even though they don't contribute financially, are short and can't read and write...). It then went on to the idea that children should be a full and valued part of our worship, which is another thing I can get on board with. What would have been a good next step is practical ideas, ways to have a main service which can involve children more, without throwing away the possibility of the adults learning something you want someone with a theology degree to teach you. Maybe suggesting a more frequent all-age service wouldn't have gone amiss. Instead, she just told us we're doing it all wrong at the moment, which seemed short-sighted and judgmental.
3. Was going to be part of this post, but I spent so much time on number 2 that I'll do it separately at some other point.
...Running
Not so much thoughts as a quick plug. Some colleagues and I are doing a 10k run in September. We are attempting to raise money for cancer research UK. It would be amazing if any of you would like to sponsor me. I'm training at the moment, but before anyone signs away vast sums, I should confess my aim is to get round having run at least half of it, rather than to make any great time or anything. Of course it would be lovely to run more, but I'm not expecting miracles. :)
If you'd like to sponsor me, you can do so here
http://www.run10ksponsorme.org/rebeccascarborough
or by getting in touch with me (phone or email should work).
If you don't want to sponsor me, it would just be great if you could not laugh if you see me training around home or Edinburgh. :) Also, if you're in Edinburgh it would be helpful if you could encourage me to run/do sit ups/press ups/squats when I really want to be sleeping/going to shows/drinking.
...Haircuts
A haircut doesn't change your life. You would think I might learn this before age 24, but apparently not. My hair is already too long again. Really it was too long straight after it was cut, and was the first time I ever cried after having a re-style. Did look good in Becky's top hat though. Next time, instead of saying 'I want it shorter, but so it still looks nice' I will take photos and say 'as close to this' as will look nice. Ah yes, I am the haircut strategy expert. Unfortunately I'm still expecting it to make me feel like everything is right with the world, and it probably won't.