Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Date possibility #1

Thinking about the Bachelorette and all that would entail I was struck that most of the dates are on the romantic or fun side, which is great, but they wouldn't necessarily tell you all that much about a person's character. So I started thinking up my own dates (*you know, if I lived in a imaginary world) that would hopefully give me a better glance at who the men were at their core. Some need more time, but I'll start with this one:

Foot washing clinic for the homeless in downtown LA. This one would be a group date (meaning many of the guys) and hopefully my friend H, from Atlanta, could come and oversee things, as well as give me her two cents (she's good for blunt, honest opinions). The night would be plain and simple, down and dirty. Dinner together, prepared by a couple of guys (maybe with some assistance from a regular at the shelter) from the donations that are on hand at the shelter--nothing fancy schmancy. Then we'd do foot clinic for an hour and a half or so with 6-10 stations. Each guy would have a station (or he could greet folks and mingle or wash tubs) and would wash feet, scrub them, cut toenails, cut away corns, dry, lotion, powder, and give new socks to each person who came through. I could either sit with each guy throughout the night trying to help, or I could be a point person, or I could simply have my own station.

This would show lots of things about the guys--how they relate to strangers, how they relate to the homeless in general, how willing they are to do some undesirable task for the benefit of someone else--a total stranger. And, when I'm with them, helping or otherwise, if they focus solely on me, or if they actually continue to engage the person their working with.

Extravagant dates and romance are nice, but when they're so over the top, they're hard to beat and almost impossible to repeat. What happens when you're stuck with just the ordinary everyday stuff?

1 comment:

Molly Vetter said...

So, have you seen "farmer wants a wife"? I'm thinking your show sounds more along those lines, but, of course, would be "preacher wants a husband." Instead of mucking out the hog barn, your aspirant husbands would wash feet and otherwise engage in meaningful ministry.

Of course, there'd also be inelegant responsibilities like holding you purse while you do a memorial service... You know, real-world stuff.

Just thinking in type here. :)