There was this movie released 15 years ago called Up in the Air, in which Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) was often hired by large corporations to deliver the rather unpleasant news to respective employees that their own bosses, management or CEOs had no interest in doing so themselves; after they decided to lay off however many lower-on-the-company-food-chain personnel. In between all these horrible stops, the main character spent plenty of time “up in the air.” Soon enough, he had to show someone else the ropes, not just with delivering dissatisfactory severance packages, but with mastering air travel. So, he pointed out to his apprentice, of sorts, of certain groups of people to avoid and certain groups of people to follow when it came to the dreaded security checkpoint lines. In short, he said, “I’m like my mother, I stereotype. It’s faster.”
In recent weeks during worship, we have sung a few hymns from a new hymnal supplement called All Creation Sings, which is meant to add meaningful music selections to our red Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) hymnals in our pews. I suppose our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) worship team leaders are intentional about the whole “hymnal supplement” word choice to perhaps lessen our Lutheran stereotype of scared-the-heck-out-of-our-mind-over-change, especially with music. If they were to call it a new hymnal altogether, that might be a bit much, particularly for the European-descendent Luther-adorers.
I may have been on the tail end of the time when Wednesday evenings had their fair share of rituals to almost rival that of Sunday mornings. Now, it may seem blasphemous to type out, but as much as I appreciated going from handbell to vocal choir rehearsals in the precious church building sanctuary (which still held its fair share of soothing aura on darkened nights), I craved getting home in time to tune my bedroom television to NBC at 9pm. The West Wing grabbed my attention from its episodic infancy with its seemingly supreme acting and somewhat novel walk-and-talks (where actors wouldn’t stay in one room for most dialogues) and even captivating orchestral background music and serene lighting. The television drama in its seven seasons went on to win 26 Emmys with the famed Martin Sheen leading the way as the fictitious President Josiah Bartlett.
Emily was a phenom on the high school marching band drum line. She did her obligatory freshman stint on the cymbals, but immediately took on the snare and quad drums (carrying/playing four drums at once) with seemingly no effort exuded to do so. It all came naturally for her, whereas I had to pull off my fair share of practicing and concentration on the bass drums while trying to maintain some sense of balance on the football field. Emily had no issues being responsible for not just maintaining the beat for other percussion instruments, but for the whole collection of brass and woodwind instruments too. Sure, a field commander directing things is nice, but if the drum line falls apart…chaos can ensue, to say the least. People like Emily are entrusted to provide a needed foundation for any worthwhile performance to amaze the crowds.
I don’t know where the fascination started exactly. I’m assuming it had something to do with a few family members driving them around at the time our dynamic duo came into the world, but they are unexplainably fascinated with the Jeeps wrangling around their neighborhood and beyond. It seems to be the most important part of our processing-the-day discussion with them as they start to cave into bedtime: if either of us parents went to work that day…“Did you see any Jeeps?!?!?” But it doesn’t stop there, for the details are essential for their curiosity fascination’s sake. What was the color (exterior and interior, by the way), were the doors on or off, and most importantly, were there any duckies on the dashboard (and of course, how many and what color were all those duckies), must all be covered to satisfy the toddler Jeep enthusiasts (who already have their exterior/interior colors picked out for their future adulting purchase).
