I continue to be amazed at how quickly the snow is removed from the streets here in Mars. Whereas in Jersey the snow could linger for days even before they seemed to get around to our street.
Yesterday we went back to the church we attended the Sunday before. Sitting on the pew side of the pulpit is new for me. Since we arrived later than we'd planned, we sat in the last pew. As we worshipped, I observed some of the pew activities that compete for the preacher's attention. Children like to curl their mother's hair and/or lay on the pew; teens bring books with them to peruse while the service proceeds (the girl in front of us had a puzzle book she kept leafing through; mother's curl their children's hair, people chat back and forth and occasionally people come in and walk up toward the pew of their choice, or walk back to go to the bathroom.) The pew is a busy place.
The preacher spoke on the raising of Lazarus from Luke 11. A story that takes the entire chapter to tell. As he read parts of the story for us, I realized that the entire service relied on the audio senses -- "listening". There was nothing for the eyes to do and so they wandered. Even with the scripture reading we didn't engage with the text (although one could pick up the pew Bible and rad along). The words to the songs were printed in the bulletin so there were no notes to follow. Though two of the songs in the bulletin listed hymn numbers, I discovered there was a photocopied sheet in the pew of one of the hymns, and no hymnal for following the other.
After the service we attended the fellowship hour. That's when the congregation seems to come to life. Dee spoke with a gal named Marsh who'd invited her to a "newcomers luncheon" this Tuesday. They planned to meet and go together. We met a couple of new people (John and Pat). As it turns out John works with the teen choir, plays guitar and enjoys music. I mentioned the congregational singing issue, and he said, "You're not the first person to mention it." So I had the idea it's a problem they're trying to solve. The thick carpeting and thick pew pads created a "dead sounding room." He introduced me to the music director. I asked her about the adult choir (which we'd heard a couple of weeks before) and she said that since they have several music groups, the adult choir sings only once or twice a month. And they may do one cantata a year. (none for Easter this year.)
John gave us a tour of the building and showed us where the Adult Sunday School classes meet. His class has about 25 in it. As were were about to leave we met a couple of other people who attended his class or who teach one of the other classes. Maybe we'll try a class next week.
At lunch, the family in the booth next to us and little boy with them who jumped on his seat (standing), fell and cracked open his head. They took him to the hospital and then the manager later came and asked us what happened. He got our name and numbers incase he needed them later.
Later we went to Barnes and Nobel, I read about html language and bought a "Birds of Pennsylvania" field guide. Then we watched the movie Holy Man with Eddie Murphy.
We watched a program on the National Geographic Channel called "Dog Genius." It was the most informative program on dogs I've ever seen. It makes a person marvel and what dogs can do and how sensitive they are. I highly recommend it to you if you should see it listed in your program guide. Also, I've been reading from Stephen Covey's book Everyday Greatness. The section on "Balance" is a good one. It's loaded with ponderable thoughts like "Life travels at a pace so fast that too many people end up bypassing that which matters most." and "Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn't stop to enjoy it."
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