Yesterday Eileen pulled her mini out and drove it back and forth to the Hatch Christmas.  I think she enjoyed having her car back since she has stored it since snow started falling. She is determined that it won’t rust out the way her Suzuki did.

I actually have a pretty busy week ahead of me. I have to do some planning for church. The choir returns next Sunday and I need to have some anthems ready for them to rehearse after church.  I am contemplating trashing the anthem I have chosen for next Sunday. It is an easy version of “For Unto Us” by Handel.  I have had two choir members complain about how hard it is to do a different version from the one they know. Both members wanted me to use the original version. I refused. The easy version has eliminated the need for singing strings of quick notes.  This technique is one that most amateur choirs murder without some training. Training that our after church only rehearsal regimen makes impractical.

I did get a nice comment from a singer on Christmas eve. She used to sing in this choir and said that it sounded surprisingly good to her.

I have many critical ears in my congregation and sometimes I feel that many of the professional musicians in the congregation look askance at my work as a church musician. So it’s nice when a musician of caliber makes the effort to let me know she thinks something is pretty good.

This has been a burnout Christmas for me. I know that my schedule really knocked me for a loop back in November.  In addition when I get tired my tolerance of the trivialization of our culture gets lower.  Also the banality of Christianity.  This is not good during the Christmas season the most banal and obnoxious time of the year for the culture.

Somehow I have managed to retain some semblance of a positive outlook despite this.  Somehow I have grown stronger this year in my ability to shirk off bad behavior of people I know and to look past the stupidity of the culture. If you happen to monitor this blog regularly and don’t believe me, consider that I think a great deal more than I write.  Little journal entries are just that. As it would be with anyone these kinds of small communications represent a very small portion of my thoughts and life and outlook.

I know, I know. They seem to drag on at length and are verbose to a fault to most people who come here.

But that’s why I try to put in the pictures. So you can skim through the words and still get an idea of what I am blathering on about it.

Well I better start getting ready for the cold walk.