miscellany

book #8: reading challenge

Rowan Williams' Lost Icons: Reflections on Cultural Bereavement. Typical Rowan--very dense. My brain isn't as used to scholarly discourse anymore, being out of school and all. He deconstructs "choice" well, though, and for that, I'm grateful.

***

Last week I felt ready to throw in the towel. I hated my job. I was so frustrated, frustrated by self-centeredness, complacency, unwillingness, my own and everyone else's. This job can feel like such a joke sometime. I was almost in tears most of the week. The wear and tear of the emotional taxation of a job was showing up on my face and my body. Several parishioners took one look at me and told me to take a break. When I didn't, because I couldn't-- a funeral, Ash Wednesday, and Lent were approaching relentlessly-- several days later, a woman whose father I buried forced the phone into my hand and dialed a masseuse's number for me. I asked if she had any openings for Friday afternoon. 2:30. Fine. I hung up. I showed up to my massage on Friday (I haven't had one in about two years) to discover that one of my parishioners had beat me there to pay for it. I was nearly in tears again, this time for a totally different reason.