The RGBP Friday Five plumbs tests and talents....
1. Personality tests; love them or hate them?
It's a love-hate relationship? I like to remind my husband that I'm an introvert, citing my Meyers-Briggs, and that I need time alone to refuel periodically. Then again, one of the members of my community lives by the light of the Meyers-Briggs, it's nearly the first question she asks of someone. Every once in a while I get the urge to peel off the virtual INTJ sticker she's applied to me and do something really outrageously E or P. But I'm too much of an INTJ....
2. Would you describe yourself as practical, creative, intellectual or a mixture ?
A friend once called me a practical mystic, a description I've grown to be more comfortable with over the years.
3. It is said that everyone has their 15 minutes of fame; have you had your yet? If so what was it, if not dream away what would you like it to be?
I'm having 15 seconds of fame today! An op-ed I wrote on the pleasures of silence appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
4. If you were given a 2 year sabatical ( oh the dream of it) to create something would it be music, literature, art.....something completely different...share your dream with us...
Next year I get 9 mos (or a year if I can swing it), so I'm already dreaming! Write a draft of a book? Make the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius? Prove a new math theorem? Make and bind art books?? Help! Too many choices...
5. Describe a talent you would like to develop, but that seems completely beyond you.
Drawing. I would love to be able to sketch what I see.
Bonus question: Back to the church- what does every member ministry mean to you? Is it truly possible to encourage/ implement?
I think it's possible to grow it, but you have to be terribly patient, and water it constantly. I suspect it has much to do with recognizing the "quiet" gifts (those who pray, those who work behind the scenes to wash the linens, those who put the chairs back) as just that: gifts and talents that the community needs as much or more as it does lovely flowers, good singing and inspiring preaching. To those who say they are too busy (caring for an elderly parent, raising kids, working), invite them to pray for the particular needs of the community and the world. Ask them to commit a certain amount of time a week, just as they might to a more "active" ministry.
love the practical mystic description- how cool!!!
ReplyDeleteAs a practical mystic and a scientist, you can draw what you see. Really. It breaks down into math. You'd be surprised.
ReplyDeleteYour OpEd is wonderful. I'd like a bucket of silence, too, if you're bringing them back.
ReplyDeleteThis past year I've started drawing and found that I'm better at it as an adult than I was as a child -- more patient and less constrained by what I think I *should* see.