Palm Sunday and a day at the Palm House

So my step-brother Pete, who I introduced to the wonderful world of restaurants almost ten years ago, is now sous-chef for Butler's Pantry Catering here in St. Louis. He works with a couple of people that I worked with at the 9th Street Abbey. He calls up Emily last week and asks her if she would like to work "this Sunday and next Sunday at 9:00 am?" She says OK not realizing that it's Palm Sunday and Easter! Not only would she miss Church both days, but confirmation class which follows. I was not happy. I could have solved the whole problem for her, but instead I asked her if she would like me to solve the whole problem for her. She said no. So, I just told her that I wasn't happy and let it go at that. She worked busing tables at the Palm House in Tower Grove Park (they do a brunch there). I picked her up about 2:30; she was bushed. She was on her feet the whole time. Her confirmation teacher was very understanding. He told us that he'd have no problem with her reading the stuff on her own, so that worked out OK. She's off all this coming week and Tuesday we'll all drive to Columbia to tour the campus of Mizzou. She pretty happy with idea of attending there and is still intent on a pre-med curriculum. Palm Sunday! We did a big to-do at church this morning. Traditionally, choirs do Cantantas of some sort, meaning a big, long musical production. We did something a little different this year. It was basically just a string of contemporary Christian songs, but this time we did it with pre-recorded music. So there's a CD playing and us singing. I was so distracted these past couple weeks with the combination of singing and getting all the technical details of the sound system worked out that I didn't even think that some folks may not like the contemporary music. A couple of people did not like the contemporary music. But that's OK. They weren't mad, they just didn't care for the style. No problem. Our worship leader/male soloist was very hoarse from a cold, but he gave it all he had, which sometimes wasn't much. Overall, it was a very uplifting experience. The more you grow in Christian faith, the more Easter becomes the central holiday of the year. Not only does it represent the central theme of the theology, but it is mercifully absent all the commercialism that hounds Christmas. Jennifer was reflecting that a friend told her that some of her entries were "cryptic." I had the same complaint about mine from Annette; though not so much cryptic as vague and disjointed. I think that it's probably true. But if worried about that, I would never write anything. This is all about writing something instead of nothing. Here's my religious thought of the day: Something is better than nothing.