random 5

At the stroke of midnight revkjarla posted today's random 5, "I invite you share five random things about you, or five random thoughts, or five random surprises in your life." Here's my play:

1. I'm astonished at my abilities to survive and produce quality art and theology despite everything. Oh, of course, I always perform well in public at the drop of a hint, so that one's no surprise, but musical performances do not depend on my own creativity and inner resourcefulness as writing and designing do. As I observed on facebook yesterday, Oprah pointed out to a teenager long ago that no one can do life on their own. Your abilities, dreams, desires and hard work matter not at all, without that others, those others, community and context it's all a no go.

2. I'm surprised to find myself both in the usual countdown to winter solstice (you know how quickly the days seem to get longer with more sunshine!) plus actually enjoying the shorter days and happy to be in an unusual southern californian chill as well as a cool, dry Santa Ana. The stereotypical Santa Ana condition features high winds, low humidity and very high ambient temps. I love celebrating the Feast of the Unvanquished Sun followed by the birth of the Sun of Righteousness a few days later.

3. I'm trying to keep this positive, but the trend of ignoring emails, phone calls, snail mail and other inquiries that once was considered a southern california habit (as in "I'll chillax at this job until surf's up and then I am soooo out of here") seems to have extended to everyone, everywhere and that does surprise me.

4. Although I knew there would be exceptions and way back when during the showdown between our church council and the judicatory staff if you'd asked me closely I'd have admitted there would be many exceptions, I remain astonished at my ongoing inability to connect with opps related to my background (gifts, education, experience), esp since for the most part I've simply tried plugging into existing ministries.

5. I played Friday 5 today, yay!