Saturday, October 09, 2004

divine intervention, divine comedy

last sunday, i had to get to a church using a map. as this was the first time i had to do this in my life, i set off early, wearing the most comfortable shoes i brought.

the "map" was a rough sketch i drew the night before, copied from the map posted on the web site of the church i wanted to find. i needed to reconstruct it because i didn't have enough foresight to print the map at the office.

life lesson: when copying a map, write the street names legibly.
life goal: learn how to write legibly.

as expected, i became the proverbial lost sheep. except with less fleece and more sweat. however, i didn't stop walking, except when i thought i heard church bells and it turned out to be the tram. or maybe it was the bus. but i was pretty sure that if it was moving along the road, it couldn't have been what i was looking for.

however, as divine intervention would have it, i chose all the right turns and found the beautiful church in the middle of nowhere (i'm in hong kong. every place is "nowhere.")

i was in such a great mood when i sat down and allowed my heart beat to slow down. so when i saw that the priest was a deadringer for mr bean (if mr bean were born in argentina), my cup of joy overfloweth.

i don't remember the last time i smiled ("grinned" is more accurate, really) throughout an entire mass. i kept expecting father bean to make a silly face or release a silly grunt. how can someone so seriously intense look so amusing? at the end of the ceremony, i approached him to say thanks. little did he know.

tomorrow, i have to find the church again. i don't know where the wannabe map is, so this time i'm going to find it based on sheer memory and pure intuition. and maybe father bean will help me pray that i find my way back to the fold.

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