100 Things

There is this idea going around the blogosphere of listing 100 things about oneself. It reminds me of a game I played in youth group--everyone has to take a strip of toilet paper and say something about him/herself for each square. Since I am not an interesting person I always took a small strip (once I knew what the game was).

100 things about me

1. ALthough not named after it there is a family connection to the Scottish clan Gordon
2. I have mainly Scottish/Irish ancestors
3. My paternal grandparents are supposedly descended from sheep thieves
4. My middle name is derived from the French for King
5. But I have it as a legacy (I am the third consecutive generation Waldie male to have it)
6. Should we have a son he will get it too
7. 4 years ago I was unmarried and childless
8. in fact I hadn't even met Patty yet
9. We met at a Presbytery meeting--see good things do come from Presbytery
10. We were married 11 months later.
11. I once performed on stage wearing pink long underwear
12. I was playing Cupid at the time
13. I have also been on stage wearing burlap
14. I was playing Thorin Oakenshield in a musical version of the Hobbit
15. I miss the Edmonton FRINGE theatre festival
16. My theatre group kept me (somewhat) sane as a teenager
17. We did a play at Christmas, in the spring, and in the summer
18. The first time I was in a play was at school in Grade 5
19. I played Scrooge
20. Once upon a time I was going to be a drama teacher
21. but then our minister asked my mother "has Gord ever thought about the ministry?"
22. I have worked 6 full summers at Church camps
23. 2 years as a Devotions Director and 3 years in the kitchen at the camp in Alberta I attended as a child
24. and 1 year as the Director of a camp in Saskatchewan
25. I blame/thank camp for getting me on the road to ministry
26. I LOVE camp ministry and think it is a vital thing for the church to continue
27. The older I get the more left-leaning I become
28. and the more passionate about social justice and environmental issues
29. I paid for University working part-time at a gas bar
30. I learned that no-one buys gas at 3 in the morning
31. I have also worked in many restaurants
32. as a dishwasher and as a cook
33. 3 of them I worked at when they first opened
34. For 3 summers when in seminary I worked at a golf course clubhouse
35. I learned that it is amazing how much some people drink when they golf
36. I was a lousy student from grades 4-9
37. mainly because I refused to do any work
38. In University I failed one of my Student Teaching rounds
39. when I repeated it the next year I sailed through it
40. THe same cycle happened with my internship for my MDiv.
41. although that time I took 4 years off in between
42. The first year I saved money and went to Britain for 2 months
43. Then I worked at a Crisis Nursery for almost 3 years
44. I was the first man they had hired
45. some of the kids would call me dad at times (to the great amusement of my co-workers)
46. I loved that job but could easily have burned out there
47. SOme days I really miss that job and those kids
48. It was a great learning/growing experience
49. Before being settled here I had never heard of Atikokan
50. This is the farthest South I have ever lived
51. and yet it is considered Northwest Ontario
52. When I went to seminary I attended the church my mother had attended as a child
53. My parents were married there
54. and my sister and I were baptised there.
55. I regularly had coffee with a good friend of my grandmother.
56. I still have one living grandparent--my dad's father (86 years old)
57. AS a child and young teen I was regularly tormented by my classmates
58. and I in turn tormented those lower on the social scale than me
59. I am sorry for that
60. #57 had a lot to do with why I failed my first internship
61. for several months after that I was suicidal on and off
62. once I stood looking over a balcony thinking maybe....
63. I was almost 30 before I really learned to like myself
64. Or to believe that I was likable
65. Or to trust in my competence
66. I am still working on those things
67. One day I decided (unconsciously) to stop letting my past rule my present
68. I think I can even forgive my classmates now
69. I am strongly addicted to chocolate
70. and I am perfectly fine with that, especially since learning that it helps fight off the effects of Dementor attacks
71. For many years I read Lord of the Rings once a year
72. I used it for my major paper in Grade 12 English
73. I also did a Christology paper on it in first year New Testament
74. One of my favourite times of day is reading books to the girls at bedtime
75. Or getting a good morning hug
76. I find preaching comes very naturally
77. I am most comfortable when I am not reading while I preach
78. So I don't actually write my sermons unless I have to
79. and then I usually write them out after I preach them once
80. Patty thinks I am amazing
81. I know that she is
82. And that I am incredibly lucky
83. #57 has left me with a passion about bullying
84. But it also left me knowing that more supervision is not necessarily the answer, nor the best preventative
85. I once split my head open on a chinning bar in Grade 9 when I didn't duck low enough
86. THis incident embarassed my sister
87. I grew up in the church, and was made to go to Sunday School
88. AS a child I sometimes resented that
89. but I also had a surrogate family there so I loved it too
90. SOmetimes in Grade 9 the church and the theatre group were the only places I wanted to be, I was safe there
91. I learned about GOd's presence while walking along the shore of a lake
92. I first REALLY knew God was with me the morning of my confirmation service
93. I was walking in a misty playground at the time
94. I think my parents are proud of me now--I don't think they always were
95. I was never athletic, and was ashamed of that as a child
96. I accept it now, and am better at what I do because of it
97. Over the years I have let a lot of other people define who I am and what I can/should do
98. I am getting better at not doing that, and not feeling as guilty about not doing that
99. Sometimes I wonder if the church has a clue
100. Often I wonder if I have a clue