A Word from Foster

(I haven't felt much like blogging lately, Monday's verbal vomit notwithstanding, so I decided to take advantage of my department's generosity and asked them to guest blog. Foster, our graphic designer, is starting us off. I gave no guidelines, made very few edits, and censored nothing. Lord help us.)

This is Jessica’s blog. Her brain is disengaged at the moment from blog writing so I, Foster, am writing to you today. This is a huge task. I feel the pressure of expectations from myself, “Do I really have anything to say that is worthy of reading?” and the expectation of you the reader, “Is reading this blog not written in the whimsical Jessica writing style worth my time?” Fair question to ask. And then I thought what could be more interesting than writing about Jessica. I definitely have things to say on that subject. And so do you and I want to read them. After you read this blog, write your comments on Jessica, and together we can sculpt a more 3D portrait of her. So let’s get started. Here’s my view of her. Granted, it’s one view, one perspective and falls short of capturing the total Jessica. And it’s a guy’s view, for what that's worth.

I met Jessica three years ago when she plopped down in a chair in the Communication Department’s workstation area, setting up shop so to speak, saying God had called her here to work at One Mission Society. Here to stay, I guess. I started greeting her in my God-given personality as I greet everyone in the Communication Department with a robust and enthusiastic, “Happy Day!” This greeting and the way it is delivered usually brings some laughter and greetings in return. Not Jessica. She received the greeting like a bucket of water had been thrown on her. On a rare occasion I would get a muffled “Hi” but usually it was a look of death. A whole chapter could be written on Jessica’s multifaceted looks. She has a look for every occasion, and believe me I’ve encountered most of them. There are  a few looks that I’ve named. The “don’t bother me” look, the “I can’t believe you said that" look and the “if I could kill you without going to jail I would” look.  Because of Jessica, I now have goals in my life. One of them is to see how many times during the day I can get the look before I totally tick her off and she says, “If I had one of my guns or swords on me I would use them on you right now!” Another goal of mine is to draw her out of her silent side and get her to say a complete sentence before 10 in the morning. That’s really hard to do, especially when my “Happy Day” brings automatic shut down sequence and lock down procedures to her already silent side. Her silent side actually is really loud and says a lot. Just like the look. Her silent side is different than her introvert side. It’s a mystery to me. It’s different than when she’s deep in thought or being contemplative. If someone wants to write about that side of Jessica, I’d be interested in your thoughts.

Even though I can be a thorn in her side, we do get along and actually have fun together. One of those times was last November when we were working on a Christmas video for One Mission Society’s Christmas dinner. She wrote the script, directed, produced and was the camera women. She did an awesome job, I have to say, and dealt well with the stress of making a large screen production. Her trust in me was evident when she allowed me to help with her costume and arranging her hair for her character, Pi. Since I was the lead in the massive on-screen production, we had to work together in every scene and not once did I hear a reference to her guns or swords.

I have massive respect for Jessica. Sometimes I view it as one who has respect for a lion. You admire its strength, beauty, power, claws from a distance, not wanting to meet face to face with no barrier between you because you don’t know what to expect.  There are days when the lion looks soft, playful and full of energy. Those are the times of many jokes, funny YouTube videos and sharing good music.

I would even say we are friends. Good friends with quarky personalities and rough edges. A friendship with two different personalities finding common ground on Christ and finding we do enhance each others lives. If our lives would ever go separate ways I know I would miss the multifaceted looks of Jessica because underneath the look are roots of friendship and I believe that she would miss my robust and enthusiastic, “Happy Day!”

 

(You can find our Christmas production here.)