hidden talents

Did you ever discover a talent that you didn't want to have? Something you really never wanted to do, but then you were forced to do it once and people who know about that sort of thing kept telling you how great you were at it. And you wished you could undo. No! I don't want to be good at that! Undo! Undo!

For no apparent reason, I started thinking about this today. The memory of discovering an unwanted talent has been haunting me since about 3:00 this afternoon.

I was making some tea to get me through the afternoon. As I was waiting for the water to boil, I was just standing in the kitchen with nothing to occupy myself. I caught my reflection in the mirror and started making faces at myself. This reminded me of a man who told me that he used to do that all the time as a child and that's how he practices now that HE'S A MIME.

While I was on Doulos, I had one day each week devoted to ministry outside my job. Sometimes, if there wasn't enough ministry lined up to do, they would hold ministry training sessions and assign us to attend them. They aren't actually training you to minister to people at all, but teaching you skits, miming, and the like. Once, I was assigned to a mime training session, led by a mime who happened to be staying on board with us for a week or so. As we know, a mime is a terrible thing to waste, so I went to my assigned training, grudgingly, as I have never wanted to be a mime.

So he taught us a mime to a song, probably by Ray Boltz (his songs naturally lend themselves to miming). We went step by step, verse by verse, practicing it for about an hour or so until we had it pretty well memorized. He also taught us a cute mime about a person picking an apple from a tree and giving half of it to a worm.

One of my friends deserted the training, feigning a headache. Actually she's severely creeped out by mimes.

I stuck it out to the end.

The next day, I was at work at the info/reception desk. This mime came up to me and told me how great I am at being a mime. He told me that I have great facial expressions/body language and should stick with miming.

I did not take his advice.

I have never wanted to be a mime and never enjoyed the times that I did miming. I don't ever want to do it again. It was a hidden talent of mine that I didn't want to discover. And now something as simple as making faces at myself in the mirror can bring up memories of the discovery which haunt me for hours.

[shuddering]