Don't Hide your Christmas light: Ward Talent Show (with Added Commentary)

Luke 21:2 - "And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites."

Yesterday was a day of talents.

On Sunday night, right after ward prayer, two of my fellow wardies came up to me and asked me if I could help them for their talent in the show the ward was holding on Monday night. Their talent was a comedy routine, in which they wanted to apply my make-up. I shrugged. "Sure," I said. "Why not?"

I already had an improv Ukulele routine all lined up as well, so I had a busy night ahead of me. I sharpened my mind for the event by trying to tweak my novel at its halfway point so I can put it on hold before National Novel Writing Month rolls around this Saturday. Then, grabbing my Uke, I headed out.

Game time. I started my Uke act by telling the slightly dramatized story of how I first learned I was quite excellent at composing impromptu folk songs. The story was played for laughs, and as such, garnered them. Then, I asked the crowd to give me an animal, an item, and a place. I didn't want to waste time for a consensus, and so selected those that had the most enthusiasm behind them: an aardvark, a pizza, and Wisconsin.

I was foolish enough to forget to ask anyone to record my performance or snap pictures for me, so here's a nearly-accurate close-up shot of what I looked like while playing.

The resulting song, plucked directly from my muse, detailed the adventures of an aardvark looking for a warm place to hide in before the onset of a Wisconsin winter. He first tries a bear's den and nearly gets eaten, then tries a mall before nearly getting beat to death by an umbrella (the assailant was a mother concerned about rabies), and finally finds a seedy pizza joint dumpster. Finding the thrown-out pizza to be just the right kind of warmth, the aardvark nestles down before getting eaten by a hobo, who mistakes the aardvark for a topping.

It was a hoot! And some people didn't really believe that I'd come up with it on the spot. Oh, well.

Then, the make-up tutorial. Another gentleman from the ward had also been enlisted to be a test subject. I called him 'Brittney,' and he called me 'Helga,' and, in our best air-headed 'girl' voices, gave running commentary on what was happening to our faces. The two girls stuck their arms through ours to give the appearance that we were applying the stuff ourselves, and off we went, yelling at each other, inviting our audience to subscribe to our YouTube channel 'kittycattcattcattpacatt' for more make-up tutorials, and making sure everyone knew they could 'almost' be as fabulous as us if only they followed our instructions to stab yourself repeatedly in the eye with a mascara wand. All in all, it was hilarious, and we managed to keep the audience going for a good five minutes.

The cast and crew of 'kittycattcattcattpacatt.'

I didn't even wipe my make-up off before it was time for more of the Thriller dance-practice. Our routine is really fly, and our practices have shown our competency. We're absolutely 100% convinced we're going to take home the gold, and we're just excited to be doing what we do.

As I walked home, still looking like a diva gone nuts, I contemplated what kind of light I'd shown that day. I consider my musical abilities to be more of a hobby than anything else. My improvisational skills could definitely be improved. Dancing is not my forte. And yet, in every instance, I was willing to go all out, doing things I'm not super confident in. And that was enough.

SOOOO PRETTY

So, perhaps my brightest light, the talent I was most confident in, wasn't shone yesterday. That's fine! My little Christmas lights, burning away as hard as they could, still brought joy to those around me, and enabled me to glorify my Father in heaven just a little bit more.

What talents--or lack thereof--do you feel you hesitate to bring to the table? Throw 'em right out there next to the turkey!

I wrote a commentary about this post on August 27, 2015. Click here to read!