Proximity

I learned the reality of Jersey City's proximity to New York City yesterday. And I learned the perks of our "parish house" yesterday: the new tv series Mercy is currently being shot in Jersey City.

Yesterday, a production assistant for the show finalized plans to use the ballroom of the Barrow Mansion as a gathering place for the extras for the show while they film at a local cafe down the street. The Barrow Mansion is owned by St. Matt's, sits right next to St. Matt's, and is the place where my office is located. It is a ministry of St. Matt's too - usage of the various rooms and halls and massive kitchen are leased to community groups and organizations. There's even an old-fashioned bowling alley downstairs!

Monday is my day-off, but I might just switch it up, but probably not. But, I do wonder what it might be like to wander around as Pastor in the midst of this tv show filming. As a midwesterner, who did see some movies being shot in Chicago, I am still a bit amazed what it means to live and work and minister in close proximity to New York. How normal it becomes for people to have tv shows and movies shot on their streets.

Maybe this sense of normalcy in relation to the rehearsed, abnormal sense of life on tv shows and movies is a good thing. It helps those of us who are confronted with it remember that tv is not real, movies are not real. They are rehearsed, they are scripted, they are practiced. But life, real life, is none of those. We live it as it comes. And we get to live our faith, too, as life comes. There is no right answer, there is no scripted means of living faith. We believe as we live.