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Sunny Side Up February 6, 2002 �2002, by Kathleen Gibson Even faith needs regular outings�. Oh, hi�..you�re just in time�thought I�d have to leave without you. I can�t wait to show you what I�ve been up to lately. Brrr, it�s cold out here. Let�s hurry. Go on in�the door sticks a bit. Yes, it is a rather mysterious place isn�t it? There are staircases that go nowhere and back, doors that open into different worlds, and some that don�t open at all. There�s a desert on the side, and a city up ahead. There are people too, lots of them. Some are working with drills, some are wielding saws, and one is perched high on scaffolding, painting the sky. Let�s stop here. The General Store. The boards on the outside are weathered, the blue paint peeling badly. But the window is full�a dress, a flywheel of some kind, an iron skillet. There�s even a hitching post in front of the store, well used, it appears. The name on the door says H and H and Co. est. 1878. You shake your head a bit, wondering. We open the door, walk through. But now we�re standing outside a theater in New York�it�s black, and you�re finding this all just a bit weird. To our right, there�s a burst of laughter from a pair at a high table; someone else is whistling, and down at the far end an older fellow is painting an antique roadster. Well, that�s what it looks like, but no 1930�s car had secrets like this one. The hood�. �Don�t talk about the car, Kathleen. It�s supposed to be a surprise.� Uh oh, caught red-handed. That was Gloria�Glory Hallelujah, I call her affectionately. She�s the one behind all this, the Madam Director, with more chutzpah in her little finger than I�ve got in my whole body. She�s married to the man with the beard over by the saw�Les. Les-Is-More, I call him, behind his back. He�s in charge of this place. And that�s Randy up there on the scaffolding, painting the sky. Randyangelo, I call him. Artiste excellente. Oh, please forgive me. I�m so excited I forgot to tell you what this is all about. We�re in the prop shop, where the sets for the upcoming community musical are being constructed. It�s the part of musical theater that audience members rarely see�you�re one of the lucky ones. Me too�I�ve been here most afternoons lately, painting. Painting and thinking, and enjoying the �community� in community theater. You see, one of my jobs as a writer is writing a weekly faith column. Serious stuff that should keep me at my desk, or at least within the church. Except that faith shrivels without exercise�it begs to walk around, get out where the people are, find some needs and meet them. So I�m here, till all this is over. Thanks for coming along�I�ll be back at my desk next week�all serious. Promise. You can respond to this column at [email protected] |
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