Gossiping Girls Gone Good

I dared not look directly at them as we were seated in the last available table in the restaurant, but there in the corner next to us was a table full of  giggling teen girls.  We were in one of those Long Island towns known for mansions, parties, luxury cars, and wealthy, idle teens.  The girls were loud; one could not help but overhear the conversation.  I braced my self for the usual screechy rants about who was sleeping with whom, every word interspersed with "like" or worse, and for finding out just what a "b****" Tiffany was.

But I could not help laughing out loud when the first offensive party I heard (one could not help but overhear, did I mention that?) described was "the worst person in the world" because she didn't own a library card.   It seems that the victim of this rich gossip had outstanding fines at several local libraries, and thus had been banned.

In fact, that was about the worst of the conversation.  When the girls walked by us as they were leaving, after making plans to go to a friend's house, I saw that they were not in the typical clothes that one might expect on a warm Friday night in the north shore suburbs...they were in lovely spring dresses with pretty sweaters. They was really quite a sweet group and they were clearly having fun without resorting to the vapid vitriol of the typical teen outing.  

Update:  Contrast this with an observation from the "Why do We let them Dress Like That?" in the WSJ.

If you Ad-Lib the Mass...

Open memo to guest celebrant:

If you make up your own words, you might distract the organist.  He will forget to play the music for the Agnus Dei.  The cantor will lean over and remind him...but he is deaf in one ear, and he will not understand.  She will have to tell him in a louder voice.  The organist will become flustered, stumble onto the bench, and begin to play in an odd key.  The cantor, in her turn, will be distracted, and sing the wrong line...the choir will hold its collective breaths.  Then, suddenly, everyone will fall back into the normal setting, and the Mass goes on as it should.

God bless your next mission, Father!