Cowboys and Youth Group

I started the Virginian today. It really isn't the sort of book I'd pick up off the shelf and read of my own accord,  but there's a seminar tomorrow so I'm giving it a shot. I'm a slow reader, but it gets depressing to see that, after four hours of almost straight reading I've only gotten a third of the way through the book. Looks like I'll avail myself of spark notes tomorrow night...

Let me just point something out. The Virginian is exactly like Sherlock Holmes. I noticed it about thirty pages into it, and it's still bugging me after a hundred more. But seriously, it's uncanny. It is written about an idealized character from the point of view of his "side kick." Sherlock and the Virginian are both set apart from human beings normal people. And...and...that's all I've got. Just the feel gives off that sort of feel.

And now for a totally unrelated subject.

Before I begin, let me give you some backstory. Back in 2012 (it's really weird to type that) my local parish started our very own youth group. It was a hit, and brought together a lot of different groups of friends (aka not only homeschoolers :) ) to discuss our faith, pray, and play hangman. And musical chairs. A lot of musical chairs. Well, lately I've been noticing that the general populace has been not entirely thrilled about how the whole thing is turning out. No, nothing scandalous, but just not perfect. Actually, I've been noticing from both sides of the spectrum. I'm friends with one of the leaders sisters, so I've known her all my life(ish). She was unhappy that some of the kids were so uninterested in the more serious aspects of youth group. Another leader wasn't happy also, and started being super uptight about everything. Now, some of my friends are, shall we say, utterly insane and immature. They may or may not have been the trouble makers in question. But they have their own story too. The uptight leader is very touchy-feely and sentimental (we spent almost a whole hour coloring one time). My friends were getting bored of discussions (which hardly ever got off the ground) and playing hangman and took to...well, troublemaking. 

And I was getting stressed out because I didn't want to be a pain, but it would be so much more fun to goof off the whole time. So I proposed a plan. A few weeks ago I shot off an email to my leader friend, and today we me at Rabalais' to hash it all out. We brainstormed and came up with some really cool ideas. All I can say is that I'll be lobbying with a few others to take a more active role in the community. Helping with the soup kitchen, praying at the abortion clinic, going on mission trips and cool stuff like that. And, hopefully, even the regular meetings will be more fruitful. I know it'll take some time to readjust (especially because none of these leaders have the same idea) and even longer to put most of these plans into action, but there's always the possibility, and now the probability!