Salesman for the Gospel of Luke Project
I have been working on memorizing the Gospel of Luke, up to chapter 9 verse 50, for a little over a year. Luke 9:50 is a transition in the narrative, and it takes over an hour to speak out loud up to that point. I did not know that the effort would be sustained this long. There were some low points, at which it seemed like it could or should be abandoned, but circumstances conspired to keep it in play.
Now it is not a matter of continuing to memorize, but to consistently recite it so that it stays fresh in my memory. I could memorize more, with the goal of having the whole Gospel in memory, but it seems best, at this point, to spend energy getting this in front of audiences first.
There are a lot of possible audiences, including prisons, schools, assisted living facilities, and more. Making bookings is the hard part. I have to go from an introverted bibliophile to a salesman, approaching strangers, most of whom probably won’t be interested.
One of the most valuable experiences of going to school at my age is the normalization of being pushed out of my comfort zone. Especially in Theatre Arts, there are many embarrassing classroom situations, as well as classes, like Scene Design, that require skills that I have not developed. So in some sense I have been strengthened for this phase of the Gospel of Luke project.
Hopefully, the first performance will be at a local Catholic church. But whether that happens or not, I am going to need to shift gears, and become truly entrepreneurial. I will have to approach a lot of people with a pitch. This is terrifying, well out of my comfort zone. But it has to be done.
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