A Flash of Sub-mediocrity

Well, Tuesday was an interesting day in that amid the rest of my put-soap-operas-and-prime-time-melodramas-to-shame kind of life lately, the worship committee decided a special song (or, if you prefer, presentational song) would be good. The song was "Mary Did You Know?" which really is a good song for Christmas. But that is a pretty small window to try to pull it together. Still, I acquiesced, which is good, because otherwise I might not have had the opportunity to use the word "acquiesced" before the end of the year.

We tried (Gina and I) to find an arrangement that seemed to be what the committee had requested, but nothing came up. So I, because I have an overly developed stupid gene, decided to take a shareware copy of Finale Notepad and arrange it myself. Now there were many problems with this plan. First, I am a very remedial music reader. Second, I am an even worse music writer. Third, there are reasons they give that software away- chief among them being the fact that it sucks. I'm sorry. I know that sounds harsh, but someone had to say it. I admit that much of the problem may have been the loose nut on my computer keyboard, but that has not yet been clinically diagnosed so I am blaming the software.

For about 8 hours or so I pecked and hummed and clicked until I am sure my eyes bled and the result was an arrangement that might graciously be described as ho-hum. Still, my praise team sang it pretty much as written (with a few changes for the better that they took upon themselves) and we pulled it off in the midst of an otherwise great Sunday. As disappointing as my efforts were, I did learn some things that I intend to apply to future efforts. Who knows? Perhaps eventually I'll come up with something that does not make people cringe and come up with new reasons for intercessory prayer.