I was looking in my iTunes for some inspiration for this week and I was surprised to discover that this is at the top of my Most Played list, with 273 plays. I knew I listened to it a lot, but I didn’t think it would be #1!

I feel like I haven’t blogged in about 300 years! I just haven’t had anything to say, although I’ve still been quite busy.

On Wednesday I started teaching English to two little Korean girls (5 and 8). We’ve only had one session, but I think this is something I’m going to enjoy, since both the kids are quite bright, well behaved and extremely cute!

No Oliver rehearsals this week, since I had to miss Tuesday’s one due to a work training, and the Thursday one was to go through scenes which I don’t appear in. It was nice to have a break for awhile, actually, even if I do enjoy the show.

In other news, plese go and visit Ally and her spectacular facial hair! Hilarious. Srsly.

This wasn’t originally going to be my Music Monday choice but I discovered it on a blog last night and really like it – it’s just so CUTE!

Pain throws your heart to the ground
Love turns the whole thing around
No, it won’t all go the way it should
But I know the heart of life is good

Recently I discovered a young man named Kevin Roose.

In 2007, Mr. Roose decided to enrol for a semester at Liberty University. His reason for enrolling was not for the good of his religious beliefs, but to “go undercover” in order to gather material for a book; The Unlikely Disciple.

Although my first reaction was “OMG! I would love to do something like that!”, my opinion changed after I read an interview in which Roose described the terrible guilt he felt as he made friends who assumed he was a genuine believer.

After his semester was over he transfered back to Brown University and began to write his book, which is due to be released later this month. Shortly after completing it, he returned to Liberty to explain to his friends who he really was and what he was doing. Astoundingly, he said that although some were rather surprised at first, they all forgave him and continue to be good friends!

This “friendship aspect” is what got me thinking about whether I could really do what he did. Would it be worth it, or would it be just a bit too weird?

Firstly, if I were in Roose’s shoes, I’m honestly not sure how long I would last. Obviously he had to make some friends there, not only to stop himself going completely mad and becoming a hermit, but also to allow him to blend in and not stand out like a outsider he really was, but at the same time, if I were him, I would have been worried about either becoming too close to these friends, and inadvertently letting my guard down so much that I was “found out”, or not being able to make any friends at all, due to the vast differences of opinion we would be likely to have.

Secondly, if I were a young woman (or for argument’s sake, a young man) who had befriended Kevin Roose at Liberty, believing him to be a likeminded Christian, but then had suddenly found out that he was really a fairly liberal journalist who had in effect being “studying me”, I would have felt very uneasy. Not only because I would have feared being portrayed in a negative light in his book, but also because it would make me question everything about our friendship. If he wasn’t who he claimed to be, how would I know that I could trust anything he had ever said or done during the time I had known him? Let’s just say that I’m not sure I’d have been one of the friends who accepted Roose’s actions and happily continued to be his friend, after all did the friend I knew ever really exist to begin with?

As usual, a couple of thought provoking questions…
1) Could you do what Kevin Roose did? Could you approach a group of people whose beliefs were totally opposite to your own, and engage with them on their level (pretending to be one of them), while secretly gathering information for a book you were planning to write?
2) If you were his friend, what would you do? Would you (either immediately or eventually) accept the reality of who he was, and resume your friendship on a different level, or would you be so upset/angry at having been deceived that you would not be able to forgive him?

A card I made for  a friend of mine whose birthday is next week.