Fri Nov 15 2002 16:48: I've been struggling with my share of the tri-stake nativity display. This little job got dumped on the Activities Committe this year. The person in our ward who usually pulls the laboring oar on this has gotten "offended" and balks at participation, so I'm having a delegation problem since many of the sisters are "on her side."
I don't like nativity sets. I don't own one and don't want one, nor am I interested in driving over to the stake center to admire everyone else's collection. You've seen one, you've seen them all, in my book. I realize this is a lovely affair to which the community comes every year, yada, but I think the work involved far outweighs any PR benefit the church receives. Also, this year there is a MAN in charge, which means it's totally inefficient and disorganized; he changed his idea of what he wanted us to do about collecting the sets three times in the last week.
Imagine my surprise this afternoon when I went into the Salvation Army store. (Yes, there were plenty of nativities for sale.) I found, for $.75, one lonely china Wise Man who is desperately clutching at his chest and wearing an expression of surprise and pain. I call him the Heart Attack Wise Man, and I've brought him home to display on my coffee table as a political statement. I think I'll search out other odd pieces to add to him so he won't be lonely: the "Spurting Breast Milk Mary", for example, and the "Going to the Bathroom" lamb. I'm now a woman with a mission.