THEY SHOULD HAVE CALLED IT “Carpocalypse.” %$#@!ing publicists.
Tag: moments
All that we ever really have.
5 Thoughts: How To Lead Services
0. THE FOLLOWING MAY BE PARTICULAR to Jewish worship services, which are the only sort I’ve led (not counting five weddings and various improvised blessings/moment-summonings). But I’ve tried to adapt the advice for anyone whose worship tradition includes structure and text, and who finds oneself in the liturgical spotlight. Hope it helps; I learned it all the hard way.
1. Know your material. This may sound fairly obvious, but I mean it in a deeper sense: The service-as-conducted is a living breathing entity whose skeleton is the service-as-written. Know the latter like you know your own breathing. At least know how and why it’s structured — what each piece hopes to achieve, and how it leads to the next — and, most importantly, what page everything’s on. (PostIts are a big help here, as is having your own siddur (prayerbook) to notate.) Likewise, see in advance to the functioning of candles, wine, microphones, guitar strings, etc.; there’s nothing like a last-minute surprise on a solemn occasion (ah, but see thought #4). (And if you’re feeling terribly insecure, keep in mind that for group readings you really only need to emphasize the first five words. It takes that long for people to catch on and start drowning you out.)
Continue reading “5 Thoughts: How To Lead Services”
World’s Greatest Carl Sagan Quote
“SOMEWHERE SOMETHING INCREDIBLE IS WAITING to be known.”
Game of Life: Rules
THE UNIVERSE IS FULL OF “Learn Here” stickers, each with a different adhesive strength. Collect enough and you win.
PS to my friend, Lillian, who says, “Define ‘enough'” — if you’re still collecting, you haven’t won yet.
Ol’ Thinkypants Fesses Up
“HELL, BOY, THE ONLY DIFFERENCE between us is that I know I’m asleep. Now if you want to see a real miracle, hand me that wrench.”
Brian “Farwell” Eaton, A”H (RIP)
Your Orders
RESIST ENTROPY.
Today’s Most Tweeted Non-Mark Twain Quote
“I’VE NEVER WISHED A MAN dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.”
Whether or not Mr. Twain actually Why Clarence Darrow said these words I do not know. But for those having difficulty cheering one more death, yet no compulsion to weep for the decedent, it seems to capture the moment nicely. (Although Ann‘s “Osama Been Gotten” is nice too.)
— Neal, whose Facebook page today reads “…Having a surreal experience. Fortunately, so is everyone else.”
Unit of Apprehension
WANTED TO BE THE FIRST to claim “thinkon” as “a discrete unit of thought,” and so I have. Pbbbt.
Automatic Enlightenment
SET YOUR THOUGHT ON THIS: “I am not this thought.”
Full disclosure: I awoke from a thundering dream last night which seemed to involve everyone I ever met and everywhere I’ve ever been, but set mostly between the Renaissance Pleasure Faire and some sort of concert promotion in a house I was unsuccessfully vacating. (“Thank God,” I said when the alarm went off.) Anyway, I went back to sleep for a few minutes and awoke, thinking “I am not this thought.” It seemed profound, somehow, and important to share, so I packaged it up in a blog post at about 5 a.m. Imagine my surprise when Google disclosed 242,000 instances of the phrase, “I am not this thought.”
I guess it is important.
The 49-Year-Old Punk Is Weeping
A FRIEND OF MINE FROM long-ago “nights we tried to die” (in Jim Morrison’s eternal phrase) opines, via Facebook, that he is now “too fat to wear … (his) “Too Drunk To F*ck” T-shirt.
I want a T-shirt of that.
April is National Words Month
(PASS IT ON.) AND USE yours with care — they’re a non-renewable resource.