08 August 2006

Boredom was the case that they gave me

I decided that the episcopal church could live without me for the summer, so after I unplugged my laptop in my Columbus, Ohio hotel room I took a sabbatical from the network of headlines, emails, and public rants circulating around the Communion. I knew that some explosions were in order, and the only shrapnel I was interested in was what what might result from lighting Black Cats on the 4th of July. (Luckily my sister took care of that for me and I got out clean-legged.)

So, today I realized I had gone through all the other emails from this summer, and all that were left were in the folder marked "hobd" (House of Bishops and Deputies) and the number of unread emails in that folder totalled over 1700. So *ahem* I opened it.

And boredom was the case that they gave me. A case of unbearable boredom.

Not surprisingly, the familiar voices from that list-serve were giving their familiar perspectives on events. I gleaned a few links to good articles and videos and other convention reflections. Mainly I was interested in reading anything the ABC (archbishop of canterbury) had said since the convention (precious little) and anything that the PB (presiding bishop) had said in response (precious little in return for precious little). I'm still not even halfway through this mess, and much of it I can skip over, but when a new conversation pops up, I open it and look for a couple all-star commenters to give me a different take, and then I move on.

My sabbatical gave me the needed fresh energy to catch up on my episco-drama, and put some of the desperate tones and threats in their rightful place...taking them seriously is moving somewhere down on my list of priorities after getting a new toothbrush and before checking the price of pet stingrays. One of my seasoned episco-experts has reflected that this convention may have been her last for a while, and whatwith my canonical status being a question-mark for the magic year of 2009, I just may give myself a time-out.

This summer, pardon the expression, frickin' ruled, and it ain't over yet. I get to turn 25 in Maui. And I reflect, as I quickly pack and unpack all the boxes in moving to my new apartment, that there is more to life than episco-drama. I've given it and many other less-than-worthy preoccupations too much weight and shelf-space these last few years. And August is always the perfect time to realign the schedule with the priorities.

So, goodbye Episco-Drama. Hello letters to my grandmothers. Hello weekly phone calls to sisters. Hello figuring out what to do with 3 jars of cayenne pepper. Hello knitting. Hello exploring every trail in Tilden Park. Hello more trips to the beach with friends. Hello gazing at the Golden Gate bridge from my dining room.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This summer may go down as my favorite of all time.

11:16 AM  
Blogger mikey said...

me too! me too!

6:06 PM  
Blogger Marshall Scott said...

You know, at that little ice cream shop in Columbus at the North Market - Jeni's - there was this marvelous milk chocolate/cinnamon/cayenne pepper ice cream. Perhaps one jar can go trying to replicate that.

11:22 AM  

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