Hair's the Rub

Today I was thinking about a conversation I had with a coworker a couple weeks ago. (Ha Ha, that word looks like “Cow worker”) I work at a church that is trying to incorporate a more “modern” feel into its worship service. This is not my first ride on the “make church more relevant” train.... rollercoaster.... thingy. It's a slippery slope taking beloved hymns and strapping electric guitars and drumsets to them. I've experienced a wide range of reactions to “modernized” hymns. A particular reaction popped into my head when I checked out the movie “Hamlet” today. I choose a “modernized” version and as I stared at the shiny hollywood cover, that overused protest, which comes when the tradition bucket gets upsot, shrieked in my head, “The author is rolling over in his grave”.

The conversation I had with my coworker (who's a youth leader and has no personal affiliations with cows .... that I know of... I mean, he could, of course, own cows. It's not like I have a problem with that. Cow people rule. Totally. ... ... it's just that I don't believe he has any bovine connections). So, this guy I work with and I were talking about people's reactions to having their hymns messed with. We were in agreement that there's a very good chance that the authors would be delighted that their words are still relevant and that people still care about things they wrote hundreds of years ago. As an aspiring writer, I think it would be an honor to have some futuristic band with cool hair and shiny outfits attempt to work through my words using their personal art form. Of course, the downside is that some creepy group could get a hold of my work, mess it up royally and from that point on, my brilliant work of art will be soiled by its connection to those goof-balls.

This subject is a timely one for me personally. There are positive and negative sides to taking something that was written hundreds of years ago and inserting it into the current culture of our times. I'm not sure what my thesis will be, but it probably will have little to do with cows and more about the pros and cons of converting old prose. So now, I don my multicolored headband, turn up my “Hair” album, and settle into my thinking chair with the hope that a workable thesis will soon be forthcoming.

To Post or Not to Post

To learn Shakespeare is just like pulling teeth

It takes much time and even more patience.

I'd rather use those hours to write a song

or exercise and wear off all my fat.

Good thing he wrote in lots of dirty jokes
Or what would we've t' say about this bloke.


Next quarter I will've forg'ten all I know
Of couplets and iambic pente'mer
But making words up just to make it fit
Is clever knowl'ge to trick out any blog
E'vn though this post is most 'freshingly brief,
It is now over to my great relief!!!!!!