Rene asked me the other day night why all of my status updates are songs. Actually they're all song titles though lately I've been throwing in some of the lyrics too. Every single update I've posted as had a song title in it.
When I found myself Suddenly Single I was posting things like "Micheal wants to know how do you mend a broken heart? As I continue to be mystified by the things most every elected official does it would be "Micheal asks And they call this democracy?" As I came out of a funk, "Micheal was sitting on the dock and Here comes the sun! As Sarah came around it was "Micheal says Love me Do!"
You get the idea.
It's fun and challenging as I try to never repeat the same song title. I also try to make it fit in with whatever I'm feeling, doing or thinking that day. Sometimes I choose obscure things just to see if there is a song that Mitch Wesley doesn't know (he's freaking amazing).
It all goes back to the days when I was a "Professional Christian" at the Jefferson Street Baptist Chapel in Louisville, Kentucky. A "Professional Christian" is one who get paid for what everybody else is asked to do for free. So as Pastor of the Chapel (and I use the term lightly) I had to write and deliver a sermon every Sunday. I was pretty good at the writing and delivering part. I really sucked at the naming part.
If I'd had my way I'd just name them Sermon I, Sermon II, Sermon III ... or just date them or something.
That didn't go over very well with the little old ladies, homeless people and radical Seminary students who made up the congregation. They demanded to know what the sermon was about before they fell asleep asleep, did drugs or walked out.
So I took to naming sermons after song titles. My examination of Noah and the Flood was called Riders on the Storm.
The lessons of John the Baptist was One Tin Soilder. Looking at promises of life after death was Don't fear the Reaper. Scripture from Revelation was It's the end of the world as we know it. And of course on Easter Sunday was Always look on the bright side of life.
The little old ladies didn't always get it but everybody else thought it was pretty funny.
So I kept at it.
Then God invented Mark Zuckerberg to invent Face Book, I resumed the practice with status updates.
I still struggle with titles ... I've only named half of the eight books that I've written. The first four the publisher thought my title sucked. They over rode me and picked something they liked better. The Society of Salty Saints, Community of the Abandoned, Partners in Grace, and Why the Homeless Don't Have Homes were all titles I had nothing to do with.
I got better at it. Running with the Dolphins, Playing Hide and Seek with God, Out From Under the Rock and Tour of Homes were all things I actually thought of and they weren't rejected.
But I like the whole using song title thing. I mean all of these great artists, writers and singers have already come up with the greatest titles in the world. Why not recycle them if they work for you?
So my Mom's been after me to get a haircut lately so yesterday it was Mama told me not to come ... but I did anyway. I had a great Sunday at Bar Church, with Sarah and unexpected and lucrative business opportunities dropped in my lap making me feel like everything is getting ready to happen at once I've got a feeling ... a feeling deep inside.
So that's the story behind the status.
I don't know if anybody cares or not but it's fun for me.
And sometimes you just got to do stuff just for you.
OK, I got to get to work. Back on the Chain Gang.
