The Amen Corner

I sort of fell out of the rhythm of my life during Christmas and the start of the year. A trip to California to work yet, still, again, on settling my mothers' estate has kept me distracted and disinclined to pick up again on my studies. During the hiatus I did finally bite the bullet and find a gym to work out at so there was also a couple of weeks of sheer physical pain and incapacity while I brought myself up to some sort of reasonable beginning level to start working occassionally with a trainer. I'm not 100% there yet, but at least I can now recover enough in one day to be able to face it all over again the next. I still lock up completely, if I sit down and study for extended periods of time, so I make a point of frequent study breaks, which at my age and retention level is probably not such a good idea as I seem to spend so much time backtracking. Never mind in time this too will get better, or at least I hope so.


I guess the big news is that I am sticking another toe into the age of electronics, and asked for and received an I Pod for Christmas.First a yahoo group, next a blog and now I tunes- will nothing stop me?

My family, bless them all, even managed to preload it with a selection of booiks by my favorite authors as well as a nice selection of music. "The Precious" so named by my daughter, has been a constant companion at the gym as well as while trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in.

I have recently discovered the world of fiber and knitting podcasts- OMG it's like unlimited NPR all things considered only all about knitting and weaving and other fibery pursuits. It almost makes working out at the gym enjoyable.

At least it beats having to listen to the local group of "weight loss by prayer" sing out loud along with their gospel playing i pods while watching the revivalist preacher in the amen corner. Yes, yes indeed, there is a special corner in the gym, just for them. Furnished with a separate television screen which is always tuned to a gospel station, it has a selection of workout machines, mostly of a hands free nature, or at least ones that they can let go of occassionally in order to clap, throw their hands in the air, shout out praise, bow their heads and pray.

I'm not sure if this whole amen corner and the "lose weight by prayer" thing is a particularly Texas thing, or more of a Sugar Land and Houston thing. Most of them are female, black and usually have their hair up in curlers of the big as a soup can and obnoxious shades of brightly colored plastic variety. I guess I show my age when I find myself wondering what posesses them to come out in public with their hair up in curlers, and if it was really necessary, why don't they cover them up. But it does strike up some unusual quandries.

The other day, the amen corner was full and so two of the ladies came over to work out on the same bank of eliptical trainers that I was working on. I ended up with one on each side of me singing, praising, praying and exaulting, to two different songs, loudly enough that I was unable to hear what was going on on my own I pod. Since they had their eyes closed and were boogying with their Lord, I couldn't get their attention by glaring or gesturing and was unwilling to stop my own work out and enter into a confrontation over the whole situation. Fortunately after about 10 minutes my trainer arrived and I was rescued, if you can call it that, by the weight machines and balance balls but it brought up a whole can of worms for me.

I am an unabashed pagan, but here in Texas, in this atmosphere of enforced religion and godly christianity, I am paganus sub rosa and keep my beliefs to myself. This is not out of fear of recrimination or censure- well, yes, maybe a little bit, but more so because I was always taught that one keeps ones' religion to oneself and doesn't discuss or flaunt in public. However, it seems like everytime I go out on a social occassion in a non business, non husband's work related context, I end up being prayed over. Grace is always said, and running to the bathroom at the last moment doesn't seem to help as they will always wait patiently for my return before starting. So, I bow my head and maintain a silent dialog in my head, or find a pagan theme song to hum subvocally.

Which brings me back to the fiber podcasts. They have some really excellent music including "the boob fairly song" and "presidential succession" by deidre flint and "I wanna be famous" by the lascivious biddies.

It helps believe me, it helps.