practicing helps

 

I was reading Finnegans Wake out loud this morning and found myself lapsing into a George Carlin voice.

This makes sense since the book is really jokey and doesn’t take itself seriously at all.

Too bad Carlin’s dead. He could make an excellent audio book of Finnegans Wake.

My organ student canceled her lesson yesterday. She offered to pay me anyway. I told her she could. Eileen and I need the money. It remains to be seen if she actually will. She said she would leave a check on the organ, but of course it wasn’t there later in the day.

I took advantage of the time and did my Mom’s weekly book dance, typing the names of books she has had this week into a google doc (which is getting big), finding a new large print Christian fiction book to order for her on Amazon (she pays), and returning the books to the library and finding more books and taking them to her.

After this I went to the church and prepared for this weekend’s liturgies. Today is the funeral of Joy Huttar the former organist at the church I work. I have known Joy since 1987 when we moved here. I found her impressive, her husband who has outlived less so. It’s a churchy family so like many of these they can be a bit of a nightmare for pastoral staff at a church. Anxiety is high.

Thursday I went into the office and found my boss and my executive administrator hunched over the computer.

My boss said that the bulletin for the funeral was done. They both looked a bit stressed.

Later that day, my cellist remarked that people from the congregation “ought” to show up in droves. We are, indeed, expecting a large crowd. I find it slightly ironic that Joy is being so celebrated in her death by so many people who most likely ignored her playing. Or maybe that’s just what they do to me in church. Heh.

Most of the priests she served under will be at the funeral today. Yikes.

I find priests and musicians in the Episcopal church are kind of a mess, often self absorbed to the point they barely see the rest of us. I know, I know. I’m one of them these days. But at least I’m thinking about this stuff.

Joy was never like that. She was quiet but thoughtful. She often remarked on the music program. I already miss her intelligent listening.

I asked Eileen if she thought many of the priests I have worked with would attend my funeral. No, she said. I nodded in agreement.

So I took some pains to make sure I’m prepared for today’s funeral. Eileen and I will go over an hour early just in case it is packed. This will give me a chance to brush up some of the organ pieces I will playing.

After giving a piano lesson yesterday, I returned to the organ bench to continue preparing for this weekend. It’s funny. The more skills I seem to acquire the more I find I want to practice hymns for services. Most of them I could easily sight read. But practicing helps.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.