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Originally appeared in APeX Attack #2 (August 1998)
Zen and the ART of Internship Maintenance
By Adam Hermanson (the 1998 APeX Apprentice)
I begin this, my initial and final contribution to this elaborate
ministry manifesto, I would like to state for the record that
the APeX Lazlow Summer Internship Program has survived its initial
growing pains despite the merciless efforts of one Paul Q. Lindauer
and one Michal X. Horace, Esq. who attempted to beat it into
the ground during its infancy. Hence, it shall be heretofore
agreed upon that the term “-boy” shall not be attached,
especially in any derogatory or diminutive manner, to any titles,
official or temporary, that the APeX Lazlow Summer Intern may
assume during the course of his duties. All parties involved
appreciate your compliance.
An open letter to my dear mother, I love you, Mom!!
Dear Mom,
I am APeX's third wheel for the summer. I guess that makes me
a training wheel on this well-oiled machine called APeX. Someone
has to keep Gene and Brad from falling over, like the training
wheels on that first Huffy I had, remember that? I take my job
very seriously, well, I guess as seriously as I can, living in
a house of "entertainment professionals."
After ten grueling weeks of living the life of an itinerant preacher's
apprentice I can honestly say that one of the most important
lessons I have learned is to hold very loosely to expectations
and preconceived notions. The field of itinerant preaching seems
to be full of land mines that tend to blow away a lot of those
notions and ideas. Let me tell you Ma, I have seen, heard, tasted,
smelled, and touched some pretty amazing and pretty bizarre things
this summer, but I still have not touched Brad's hair! Over the
course of a summer I have gone from stirring orange Gatorade
with most of my right arm to passing clubs around a regional
youth minister (quite nervously) and quacking very loudly from
the middle of a very quiet, and very confused audience. And the
funny thing is I can call all of that and everything in between
evangelism! Ha! Go figure.
On a more serious note, (How about an C#? Thanks for always laughing
at my dumb jokes, Mom) I can remember being asked on one of my
first trips with APeX, "What have you given up to be here
this week?" I suppose that it was the blank deer-in-the-headlights
stare that gave everyone a chuckle, but the reason that I could
not come up with anything was that I had not thought of this
summer's ministry opportunity as a sacrifice. My thoughts were
more along the lines of what I was gaining by being there, as
well as being with APeX for the whole summer. Besides the time
that I would have spent with my family, of course, and my friends,
the only major drawback is that for ten weeks I have been sleeping
in Gene's closet. Oops, I may not have mentioned that, Mom. I’ll
explain later. Well, I made the decision not to refer to it as
my "bedroom" because no room that is too small to actually
fit a bed in should be given this title.
My summer has been so full of blessings. One of the greatest
of these has been the opportunity to travel around the country.
Robert M. Pirsig wrote in his book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
Maintenance (voluntary reading Mom!), "Sometimes it is greater
to travel than to arrive." I am not so sure that you could
have convinced me of this during the 34th straight driving hour
coming back from Wyoming, but as far as the whole summer is concerned,
it has been a wonderful trip! I knew at the outset of the summer
that my journeys would end up with me returning for my senior
year at The Catholic University of America. Yes, Mom, I am going
back to school, don’t worry. Although I am excited for that
"arrival" the blessedness of this summer has made the
"travel" truly wonderful. Thanks for all your support!
Your loving son,
adam.
This Summer I
- Edited this newsletter
- Had the opportunity to live simply
- Watched eighty-one teenagers blow the roof right off of San
Damiano
- Began to deepen my prayer life
- Lived with two amazing young men who are answering the call
to evangelization
- Had more time for spiritual reading
- Was able to feed my newfound guitar addiction
- ENUNCIATED!
- Screamed the number "eleven" more times in one
week than ever before
- Spent sixty-four hours driving to Wyoming and back
- Performed on stage in Dayton
- Saw a group of twelve professional youth ministers play with
an industrial size coffee filter for over thirty minutes
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