01 November 09 - 01:25
Tis Halloween, Take Two
Halloween was on Saturday this year, and those of you who know me well know that presents a very real dilemna for me. I love to dress up for Halloween, and I almost always write my sermons on Saturday night.
So as I write this blog, I am sitting at the computer dressed in full Goth regalia, right down to the fingerless fishnet gloves, working on my sermon in another open window. Okay, the little ghosts are long gone from my front door, but get undressed?! Are you kidding? I only get to do this once a year! If that.
My kids, who were racing around after their own costumes and their own arrangement to go out for Trick or Treating, were startled when they came back to dump some candy and saw the final version of my costume. My middle daughter in particular, who prides herself on her sense of style, was startled to see that her mother could put on a black and white streaked wig, black eyeliner, black clothing, and a studded collar, and look, I don't know, somewhere on the edgy side of style. My son cuddled up to me after he got back, and said with a note of surprise in his voice, "Mom, you look really good."
"Do you think I should wear this to church on Sunday?" I asked.
He paused for a moment. "You don't look that good," he finally said.
But that's the point, isn't it? Halloween is a time to get out of the boxes that we set for ourselves. What my son was really struggling to say was that my current look wouldn't go over all that well in church tomorrow morning, though I suppose that there might be a few who would be delighted. For the rest of them, I have an image to live up to about what a minister is supposed to look like, to dress like, to act like. Sometimes I find the sides of that box a little confining. But when I'm really honest with myself, I have to admit that the only person keeping me in that box is me.
Last Halloween, I think I let the box confine me a little too much, and I didn't dress up at all. And I don't think it's an accident that it wasn't long before my blogs petered out. There's something about the creative spirit, even the small dose of spirit it takes to show up for this blog, that doesn't go well with living inside the box. Safe inside the box, doing only what the social role requires of me, there really isn't very much to write about. And that's a loss; more than one friend and parishioner has mentioned that they miss my blog when I'm not writing it, and really, so do I.
Besides, I think Jesus would dress up for Halloween, and I think he'd push the envelope a little more than I am doing with my clip-on nose ring. He would challenge the conventional notions about what it means to be a religious leader, because that's what he did his whole life.
I'm thinking that Halloween is on a Sunday next year, hmm...
Blessings, Heather.
one comment
Did you take a picture?? I’d love to see the Goth Rev Heather.
EB in UK - 03 11 09 - 07:29
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