Vatican says female priests and those who ordain them will face automatic excommunication

It's... interesting to watch a church in the process of making itself yet more irrelevant and unwelcoming to people who genuinely adore it. Intellectually, I comprehend some of the arguments against gender egalitarianism in religious settings - I've glimpsed them in discussions of Judaism (see comments) as well as conservative variations of Christianity. Ultimately, though, such arguments are in conflict with the core of my faith, which resists the notion of an authoritarian, arbitrary God who prizes historical hierarchies above individual callings.

Put another way, I do not have it in me to believe in a God cruel enough to give someone a calling without the means to enact it. There are easy counterarguments to this, of course, starting with the definitions of "calling" and "means" -- there are plenty of people who feel "called" to roles they aren't actually suited for, be it acting, writing, parenting, or pretty much anything else where desire outweighs talent, genetics, and/or audience. But I have met plenty of female priests and pastors where it has been abundantly,resoundingly clear that ministry is the work God intended them to do. And I have encountered Catholics for whom leaving the church was as wrenching as a divorce (and with the equivalent of family fallout), but for whom it ceased to be a spiritual resource because, among other things, its notion of a woman's full potential is restricted to traditional roles.

It'll be interesting to track whether there's any upswing in conversions to Episcopalianism as a result of this.

On a purely snarky note, I was behind a car earlier this month in Kentucky that bore a well-worn bumper sticker: "ORDAIN WOMEN OR STOP DRESSING LIKE THEM."

(And because I overthink everything, I do have problems even with this - men in kilts, hello! - but I laughed anyway.)

(And while I'm sure it's been done already, I suspect I now have a poem or monologue about a female Apostle that's now going to insist on getting written. So much for getting the windows washed...)

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I'm seriously leery of Secret-style stylings, but I'm also a compulsive list-maker, so I couldn't resist clicking through Lorilyn's link to an essay on magical lists. To my relief, it's by Martha Beck, whose other columns in O I've enjoyed more often than not. She seems to write quite a bit about how to figure out what truly matters most and then what to do about it without driving yourself and other people up a tree or into early graves. (Which reminds me, I mean to add her books to my list...)

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It was an inconvenient week for the poetry mojo to sploosh back into my main consciousness, however briefly, but it did, so poems got drafted, and poems will be sent out when I'm reunited with my printer, and the poems are significantly better than some similar poems I wrote last year, so I'm pleased about that.

That said, somewhere in the past few months I've stopped feeling like I must strive toward producing a book before I'm forty, or even fifty. (Part of the reason 40 has loomed large all these years is because that's the cutoff for the Yale Younger Poets competition.) That I'll keep writing is a given, and that there might eventually be enough of quasi-lasting value to shape into a book - yes, that's a motivation. And there are some novel-sized plotbunnies in the warren for which I do specifically plan to make time for in the near future, regardless of whether they end up being commercially saleable or not - they are pieces I'm feeling compelled to write. Those are the best kind and the most fun anyhow.

At any rate, I'm not called (or required) to create or circluate a book the way I see many of my other colleagues doing so. This isn't a criticism of them, any more than my not wanting to be a minister is a criticism of those who go to seminary - it's more an acknowledgment that we are not in the same place when it comes to how we (want to) interact with other people. Much of it is simply that I'm currently at a point where the bulk of my work-to-date isn't compelling enough to me, so why should I expect it to grab anyone else by the scruff long enough to pick their pockets? More important, I'm also at a point where I recognize what-all needs overhauling and how to go about it, and while there's certainly a danger in waiting too long to get things right and get things out -- I type this in a room where my mother never got around to changing the original curtains from before 1977, and they are well beyond repair -- there's also little reason for me to rush the process, as long as my health holds up. I'm an "instant backlist" kind of gal, I get validation for my other creative and compositional activities on a regular basis, and it won't hurt sales of the eventual book(s) to stay focused on magazine and online publication for the time being. Someday I'll reach the point where it's time to foot the bill for a collection (or to persuade someone else it's worth their while), but it's not here yet, and it feels good letting myself acknowledge that instead of snagging myself in "oh, I should be spending more time on this"es. (It also doesn't hurt that some of my favorite poets were late bloomers, Billy Collins and John Brehm among them.)

(Speaking of online pubs, there should be a new poem up at flashquake in a day or two.)

I was skimming House Selling for Dummies a couple nights ago, and couldn't help comparing the staging-a-house-for-sale process with the manuscript-submission process. Especially during the discussions about being realistic about fair market value (and how many people have a hard time with that). Two days ago I dealt with an auctioneer who didn't want to name a price for my mother's furniture without hearing my estimate first, because he's dealt with too many people who were insulted by his honest assessment. (Fortunately for us both, his counter-offer came in pretty much where I expected it to be. (It's pretty easy to be realistic after participating on the other side of an auction this past week - I won an armoire and a full-size bookcase for less than $125 total. And that's in a metro area where cost of living runs higher.) So that's one less massive chore on my list.)

marymary linked to a killer rant by Jilly Dybka. It is entertaining enough that I will buy her book just to reward her for amusing me, which means it's also a brilliant marketing move. (I can't say any of my blog posts have earned me $7.77 directly, although I've certainly benefited from the connections I've made through them, and there's been enough in the way of guest housing and glee-provoking gifts over the years to add up to a tidy sum if I felt like reckoning one up.)

(I'm also in a good mood because I'm 800 words into my next sermon, ftp worked for me yesterday, and it's not yet noon. Now to get more done so that my mood stays good...)