Sunday, March 16, 2008

Solemnity.... Propriety (Title to be read like the Corpse Bride's pious mother)

At church today a whole family of 7 got up as a group, and the parents spoke while the kids stood around them. I watched them from a big projector screen. (stk conf). The littlest girl was about 3 I'd say. She had blond pigtails and she was so excited to be by the mic. She waved high and wide at the audience from her mom's hip. She was elated and her happy face was like this little ball of energy. She turned to throw an animated smile at her teenage brother behind her and, I missed the inconspicuous rebuke he must have given her, but when she turned back around her whole manner changed; she hunkered down, her lips stuck out like a little pouting duck and her eyes were dark and angry.

Seeing the change was so funny! Because I can recall many times in childhood where I felt like that! I still feel like that sometimes. You give the world your best excitement; but then someone spits on your shoe so to speak because they don't see why anything should be that joyful. Or even worse, your joy has inappropriate timing. It happens to me particularly in issues having to do with formality; a lot of times I don't see why we have to be so somber about some things. Take for example a baby shower or bridal shower; - room full of women. There should be SO mUCh TalkING! But they don't know each other so they clam up and sit like uncomfortable pretty statues. And the longer we sit there the more uncomfortable it gets! So I start talking to break the ice: I either end up looking like a weirdo who talks about things people usually think but don't say; or it turns out well and before you know it we're talking about children or swapping labor stories. At any rate I don't usually see these women much after that, so it's okay.

2 comments:

Brielle & Jeffrey Kennington said...

I know this isn't the point of your story but why were the kids standing up at the front with the parents and what were the parents speaking on? Just curious.

Sarah said...

I think the parents were asked to bear their testimony but the kids got shy and didn't want to talk. One of the boys had this mop and you couldn't see his face. He looked pretty uncomfortable up there.