Friday, March 03, 2006

Should it stay or should it go?

OK, here's your internet poll. I've had an earring since January 2001, when I got it in Washington, D.C. I was at a Gen X preaching conference at the National Cathedral and went out to a place called JinxProof in Georgetown with Jennifer Baskerville, Marshall Shelly and Chris Rankin-Williams. Chris and Marshall were going to get tattoos (which they did -- St. George's crosses), I ended up getting my ear pierced and Jennifer weighed a tattoo but decided to just be bemused at the whole thing.

I had thought about getting an earring before but I hadn't because I wanted to make sure I was doing it because it was something I wanted and not because I was trying to be something I wasn't (like cool!) but because it felt like me.

Well, it's been five years and mostly I forget that I have it. My kids don't really remember it without it (which I kind of like) and Hayden loves to pull on it. But I'm also moving into a new stage of life. To wit, one in which I have to go in and ask people to join a movement for global poverty and also give our organization large sums of money. I could raise money for campus ministry with an earring because people took it as a sign that I was "in touch with the young folks" (even though one had nothing to do with the other). But that really isn't the case with this new job. At best it's value neutral and at worst it could hurt my credibility.

If I didn't have this job, I would probably keep it. At the same time, it wouldn't really break my heart to take it out.

So let's put it out to you, gentle readers. And though we can track the votes through the comment feature, this isn't democracy. I reserve the right to make my own choice.

So here's the question about the earring. Choose one of the following:

1. Leave it in
2. Take it out
3. Leave it in, but take it out when you think it's going to be a problem
4. Some other brilliant, creative solution

Fire away! |
Mike at 3/03/2006 12:18:00 PM