After a disappointing Dream Country, the Sandman series has bounced back strongly with Season of Mists. I guess even Neil Gaiman has his slumps. I've put A Game of You, number 5 in the collection, on hold at the library. Season of Mists has introduced me, further in some cases, to six of The Endless. (The seventh sibling, apparently, is missing - no doubt this will be the subject of a future storyline.) This series is full of enigmatic clues, ripe for discussion or reflection (or to be dismissed as just a comic book). I love the poetic descriptions of The Endless, especially the descriptions of their shadows.

Desire, the sister (or brother) who casts two shadows: one black and sharp-edged, the other translucent and forever wavering, like a heat haze; Despair, twin sister of Desire, whose shadow smells musky and pungent, like the skin of a snake; Destiny, the oldest, the brother who leaves no footprints and casts no shadow; Delirium (who was once Delight), the youngest, the sister whose shadow's shape has no relationship to any body she wears; Dream, the brother who casts a human shadow when it occurs to him. "And there is Death." (That's all it says about her.)

For a very brief moment this morning, I thought I saw Lee standing in front of Starbucks. I feel left out that I got to know that popular man only after his death.

I went to the Random Name Generator, via The Rose & Thorn, and came up with the name Hugh Royall. (The obscurity factor was set at 15.)

24 is not without its faults. Mexicans hold private conversations in English in front of Americans. President Palmer, like Kim last season, suddenly doesn't have anything to contribute to the story, so he's left to deal with a string of personal crises. Without a deadline, like a bomb set to explode at midnight, the whole "24 hours told in real time" concept seems a bit lost. But the writing is still outstanding. I have no idea how this "day" is going to play out. That initial conversation between David and Sherry, divorced, distant, pained, but not exactly hostile, was very realistic - very well done. And the ending of tonight's episode was quite the shocker!

Tuesday nights seem to be my nights for plans. It is, as I've written before, my TV night. Now one Tuesday night a month will be taken up with a church council meeting. I'm guessing that Carol will be teaching the next Spanish class on Tuesday nights again. I'm glad that Writers' Group is on Sundays.

I'm still not confident about being elected to church council this morning. It's not that I'm not sure if I'm going to like it. It's more that I'm not sure I'm going to do a good job. I'm not feeling much into a leadership mode these days.

I felt quite a bit better about my nomination this morning, when I stood up at the calling of my name and Brian (who had marched in one peace march with me) turned around and gave me a friendly, encouraging thumbs up. Then Bob & Karen assured me I was going to do great, and I felt better.

So, if I'm not sure about this thing, why didn't I say no to Jamie's request? Because I don't know if I'm going to like it or not. I don't know if I'm going to do a good job or not. I've enjoyed a lot of things in my life that I wasn't initially sure about. More importantly, this is about my church - it's not about me.

So now it's council meetings on the second Tuesday night of the month for the next 36 months.