Today's Agenda: A Photo Shoot at a Hindu Temple

Today I have a photo shoot at a Hindu temple.

How often does a writer and an administrator get to say that?  So let me say it again.

Today I have a photo shoot at a Hindu temple. 

That sounds very glamorous, doesn’t it? A photo shoot, a Hindu temple.

You're probably asking yourself, is she the one taking the pictures?  Nope, not this time.  I'm the subject.

Why? 

Some time ago, I was commissioned to write an article about the new face of ecumenism for The Lutheran magazine.  My article talks about how when we talked about ecumenism 40 years ago, we were talking about reaching out to Catholics or Baptists, or maybe Jews if we were adventurous.  Now an ecumenical outreach might include Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and others.

My article, at least as I originally wrote it, talks about doing yoga at my friend's Hindu temple with my Hindu friend.  And so, today, my Hindu friend and I will got to her temple, and a photographer will take pictures outside, which is allowed.  We will not be holding yoga poses.  It is not that kind of magazine.

A photo shoot at a Hindu temple.

It sounds so very Eat, Pray, Love, except that my article is written about an entirely different topic, and there won’t be a movie, and if there was, Julia Roberts would probably not play me.

It didn’t pay quite as handsomely as a blockbuster memoir and movie would pay.  But it did pay, and it will be a publication, and who knows where these things may lead?

And in the meantime, it's fun to tell people that I have to be out of the office today because I have a photo shoot at a Hindu temple.  I'm trying to say it breezily, the way that Julia Roberts might say it, if she played me in a movie.