Sunday, February 4, 2007

All the little Annie Lamotts and Donnie Millers

First Congregational Church

My church just started a temporary blog for the current sermon series on "transformation." All of the churchgoers are invited to participate. I just posted, because I can't stop myself.

I am looking forward to see what people are writing and thinking. I hope that a lot of people who don't normally write will be inspired by the anonymousness of the forum to share honest insights. I contributed something, but now I am having some regret. What I wrote may have been too glib. Churchy words kept floating to my consciousness, like "spiritual," "God," "the Bible says"-- words that when stripped of their context suddenly are meaningless. I felt limited in what I could say, as it is even more public than this blog. Naturally, I should only share things that could uplift others (coincidentally, my oft-forgotten, grand goal for this blog) in language that is general, yet specific, so that a reader could comprehend what I am saying without having to know all my inside jokes and secret codes. I also had to rein in a huge ocean of cynicism, mostly about my own, narcissistic reasons for sharing in a public blog. Here, its unapologetically Camilleland, but there, I have the questionable privilege of putting on my plebeian outfit and joining the ranks.

Constraints are good. I tried to use concrete words (like "pee" and "pirate") and avoid relying on stereotypical revelations. I have been in church my whole life, and I could easily impersonate a Christian if I had to. Being honest is the real challenge. I am trying to read the other posts with an open heart, and not skewer them for using conventional language or bad grammar.

2 comments:

Shannon Marie said...

I think you are the Annie Lammott of that blog because you used the word "pirate". Too bad it wasn't the F word.

Carmen said...

I just tried to post the F word, and booger wouldn't let me log on. Its as if it knew. Weird, eh? Is there some rule against posting obscenities on one's own blog? Maybe I should have read the "terms"

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