Awkward

I did a funeral this morning, and it was awkward.  I frequently get calls from funeral homes asking me to do the funeral of a person who grew up Lutheran or was baptized Lutheran, or who might have sat next to a Lutheran person once in a movie theater, but who wasn't very religious. The family then wants a Lutheran funeral, which is fine, and usually they go OK.  It's always slightly awkward to only interact with people while you are burying their loved one, and to speak in a homily about someone you've never met.  Sometimes the families are really engaged and fill me in on stories about their loved one, other times, not so much.  It continually amazes me how so many families have nothing to say when asked about their family member.  I understand they are grieving and that makes things difficult.  I understand that every family has different dynamics.  I understand that if you didn't grow up in a family that went to church you are going to want me to choose scripture readings for you.  But lately it seems like most of these that I do involve an awkward conversation where I ask them to tell me about their loved one and I get a few mumbled responses in reply.  I'm also noticing that the obituaries are frankly pathetic.  The last 5 or so funerals I have done for non-members have literally all included some variation on this obituary:  Birth and death dates, who she married, and that she liked to garden.  Seriously?  8 or 9 decades of life and that's all you can say about your mother?  I'm not saying you should write a novel, and I know obits can get pricey, but can  you try to put some life into it?  I then have to give the most generic homily ever because I'm not going to stand up and say, well, she was a child of God who apparently liked to garden.  Today's was also awkward because the family clearly didn't want to be there.  No one participated in any way, even when things were printed out for them.  Not much eye contact.  And the sound system gave out, which means I had to basically yell for 20 minutes.  That did not help my bronchitis.

 

OK, enough, complaining.  I was happy to see the calendar picture for today, because it gave me some much needed levity:

 

 

I've seen this shoe in lots of various places, but still giggled when it popped up today.  It's a slide shoe shaped like a slide!  I would have to have a very specific reason to wear these, but they do crack me up.  So I leave you with this today:  wear funny shoes occasionally, and come up with better stories for your loved ones' obits than that they liked to garden.

 

Yay!

I couldn't think of anything to write about today, until for some reason it occurred to me to google Beatles shoes.  Oh my goodness.  Go here if you want to get sucked in, or you can just see the few random ones I selected.  I want Beatles shoes.  I loooooove the Beatles.  Love them.  Between them and egg nog it was how the BFF and I knew we were soul mates and meant to be friends forever (no we don't have a love of egg nog...it's a long story).  I have no idea why I've never looked at Beatles shoes before, I've googled lots of other paraphernalia.  Anyhoo, here are some of the ones I found:

 

 

 

There are more.  Sooo many more.  I would wear these.  I would look like I dork and I wouldn't even care.  I would wear them with one of my many Beatles t-shirts and I would listen to Beatles music while looking at Beatles pictures.  Ooooh, and I could get matching shoes for the nieces!



Button Hooks and Dinosaurs

2 very different shoe pictures for you today.  The first is from the calendar.  These shoes are from the 1880s and I think they are really cool.  As a kid I had a fascination with shoes that required a button hook, so I was excited to see these.  I kind of want to try them on.

 

The next picture is from a friend on facebook who tagged me in it this morning. These are hilarious.  I would totally wear these just to see how many people noticed!



Stream of Consciousness

Some days are harder than others to come up with ideas for what to write about here.  I am committed to writing every day, but that means I have to have a subject.  So here is an insight into how that works on days I'm not sure what I'm going to talk about:

 

Oh, right, I need to write the blog.  Shoot, I'm not at the office, so no calendar pic to fall back on.  Should I go with something from Shoe Box Porn?  Do I have pictures of my own shoes I want to share?  Regardless, what will I write about.? Do I have any actual thoughts today?  Wait, I thought I wasn't going to put any pressure on myself about this thing?  I wonder if anyone even reads it?  Clearly someone is reading it, the page views keep going up  No one comments.  Hmmm...do they like it?  Wait, you almost never comment when you read blogs, either!  Oh right.  Should I be funnier?  Deeper?  Write more personally?  Post more pictures?  Do more to promote it?  Stop!  No pressure, remember?  It's supposed to be FUN!  Oh right, fun.  Well, shoes are fun, that's why I started it.  So...shoes.  Which shoes?  What pictures do I have to share?  Should I try to write one of the posts that has been sort of swirling around in my brain half-formed?...

 

You get the idea.  This can go on for quite awhile, or it can take a matter of seconds to have all of these thoughts.  At any rate, today I am saved by my facebook friends who recently posted pictures to my timeline:

 

 

Sharks!  Not anatomically correct, maybe, but funny.  I wonder who wears shark shoes?  Just think of the comments I'd get on a Sunday morning if I wore these!

 

 

Dog shoes!  I like the collar detail.  I do wonder if anyone actually wears either of these silly pairs of shoes.  They are definitely folks with a quirky personality if they do.  In theory I'd like to think I'm fun and quirky, but in reality not so much.

 

 

***Edited:  And here is how the universe is funny all of the time.  I posted this entry, then went to read another blog, written by someone I went seminary with, and found this post on shoes.  This invariably happens, usually after I've worried and over-thought.  At any rate, in case you were wondering, I'm not the only pastor who thinks about shoes.  Even if this pastor does it in a much more elegant and better-written way than I do.