Day 183 - Become an Ordained Minister

Date: July 8th, 2010

Day 183 is special.  Its not that there is anything particularly special about the number 183 or that July 8th has some particular meaning for me.  Day 183 is special because it is the exact midpoint of my project.  I woke up, sat in my bed, and contemplated the fact that I had completed 182 days of new things and at the end of the evening I would have 182 more days to go.  I spent most of the day deciding between one of three or four different "super special" new things I could do, only to turn around in the late evening and realize that I'd done none of them.

As the sun set on each of the milestone ideas I had for Day 183, I realized I was going to have to do something, special or not, lest I fail the project exactly as I reach its nexus.  As I nervously watched late night television up at the lake and tried to focus on what last minute things I could do (since I wasted the day on pomp and never got to circumstance), I became mesmerized by Jane Lynch.  Over the course of her interview, where she talked about Glee (OMG Glee I freaking love you OMG), her wife and all manner of other awesomeness, she mentioned that you can get ordained online.

You can do what on who now?

Apparently you can become an ordained minister online.  Now, its not a Christian thing in particular.  The church does have a real doctrine and one that I, personally, agree with wholeheartedly.  Their call is for laypeople to become more comfortable discussing their personal faiths, regardless of whether or not it fits into a neat little doctrinal box.  Well, that and it seemed sufficiently epic to be Day 183.  I complete this project not as Kristen the person, but as Reverend Kickass the, umm, reverend.

Ok, in all seriousness, I looked at the site as a joke and out of a reasonable sense of desperation, but what I found was something I really liked.  I was quite taken with the idea that people should go through the exercise of becoming ordained for the purpose of raising their comfort level with discussions of faith.  The traditional rules of politeness call on people to avoid politics and religion in mixed company, but this blows that idea out of the water.  But more than that, it doesn't call on people to preach, but to discuss.  There's something enthralling and uplifting about it that I couldn't resist.

So now I'm a minister.  I can perform weddings, baptisms and all sorts of other fantastic ceremonies.  None of which I've done before.  Hint Hint.