Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The Easter Weekend from Hell: A Tentative Introduction

wetcat
more cat pictures

I haven't posted anything from my 1989 Great Britannic Adventure journal for awhile.

A lot of that is because I've been screamingly busy--with my garden, with activities of organizations I'm involved in, with trying actually to land a full-time job.

But a lot of it is prudence? discretion? cowardice?

All of the above?

I spent Easter weekend of 1989 on the Scottish isle of Iona. In my journal I record the sights and sounds of my geographical experience there. But those four days are also--predominently--the record of an emotional and spiritual journey into my own soul.

And it wasn't pretty. That inward trip was dark, cold, and dreary as the weather that swept down over that little North Atlantic speck of stone and peat that late March weekend.

Ought it be disclosed? True, I'm not who I was nineteen years ago, though I can sympathize with that young woman.

But will my readers understand that? What if I'm interviewing with a church, and a member of the pulpit committee happens on my blog and knows it's mine? Will he judge who I am now by who I was then? What if a pastor member of my presbytery sees it, and thinks, "What a wet noodle! I'm not clueing her in to any vacancies I've heard of!"

But then, if a church is that judgemental, do I really want to serve them? Would I be able to serve them? And any pastor colleague who might be passing me references knows who I am now and wouldn't care!

Besides [she says snarkily] I read all sorts of people who go to Iona and hang out with the Iona Community, and find it the most spiritually uplifting, life-changing experience they've been through.

Oh, really?

So . . . in the interest of full disclosure and for the sake of some cynical entertainment, maybe it's time for me to present the other side.

But first, in a subsequent post [or three], I'll give some background on certain people and on why I went to Iona in the first place.

Right now, however, I need to go out and get my fingernails dirty again. Assuming my own weather isn't acting Scottish and bucketing rain.

5 comments:

Sandy said...

I have a couple of "I Can Haz Cheezburger" pics on my spot.

I can see you're wrestling with posting about Iona. There are those of us who would not judge. Hopefully all that matter will not.

St. Blogwen said...

Thanks. The explanatory preliminary posts are drafted and will be published in due time.

St. Blogwen said...

Oh! And just checked your lolcat and lolbun! Tehy haz teh cyoot!

And is the gray kitteh on your Picasa Web Album yours?

Sandy said...

Alas, that kitty on the web album is not mine. I am going to try to find some pictures of my two and post them. I don't have a digital camera or an updated system that would even accept a digital (I still have Windows ME), so I have to get off my tukus and get some film developed... I think I have one of Gidget on the computer that is my favorite -- she's sitting under an umbrella.

St. Blogwen said...

I had Windows ME on my laptop when I first got it, and I was able to upload digital photos onto it. At first I used the software that came with my FujiFilm camera, then I used the free Picasa software. But I may have switched to Windows 2000 by the time I put the Picasa on.

My camera had a USB patchcord. If you got a digital camera that had one, I think ME will take your photos, with the software installed.