Imagine We the People ...

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored," just three days before Imbolc! If you don't know what Imbolc is, you're not alone. We'll talk about it tomorrow, and we hope to post a fabulous poem on Friday, pending permission of the author of the poem.

You, too, can post a poem on Friday and be part of the Great Imbolc Blog-a-Poem! Spread the word.

If we don't get the poem we want, brace yourself for one about buzzards. I've written volumes and volumes of poems about buzzards, so the only hard part will be picking the best one.

Okay, tonight I'm asking my legions and legions of readers for their prayers and/or positive thoughts.

I have sent my resume, a copy of my book, Defining Moments: The Scopes Monkey Trial (Omnigraphics Press, 2006), and a cover letter that falls just short of an abject plea to ....

Drum roll ...

The National Constitution Center Museum.

The resume was solicited by an employee there, so I am on my knees to every bored god and goddess of every pantheon in every lovely land, and of every lovely era.

Oh, pleeeeeeeeeeeze!

If you've never been to the National Constitution Center Museum, you're missing a treat. It's in Philadelphia, cheek-to-jowl with Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. And it is just a wonderful, terrific, fabulous, inspiring, and humbling place to spend a long afternoon. It opened I guess about four years ago. I've visited it three times.

One of the most interesting aspects of the NCC is how they have managed to make the U.S. Constitution interesting to people of all ages. The first time I went there was with my daughter's Middle School class. Her teacher had given the kids a bitch-long study sheet of stuff they were supposed to learn and write down while they were there. The kids groused and moaned about it all the way to the museum. But once they got there, it was like a scavenger hunt for information. They loved it. And they learned a truckload about how our government ought to be run.

The next time I went was with my other daughter's class. She was in 4th grade at the time. Having seen the museum, I couldn't imagine how kids that young could get anything out of it at all. But trust me, the 4th graders loved it even more than the Middle Schoolers. The NCC has interactive exhibits designed especially for kids, and one of those spiffy multi-media introductions that the young set seems to crave.

As for me, I was most impressed by two things. Each Amendment has its own black marble monument, running around the roof in chronological order. Beneath the Amendment are exhibits geared to that Amendment and the time period in which it was passed.

The other thing that fascinated me about NCC is that it gives visitors a chance to air their views on constitutional issues. They'll ask a question like, "Do you think public schools should teach the creation story as told in Genesis as a viable alternative to evolution?" And they have those little post-it notes there for you to write your opinion on. Well, that's just right up my alley. Of course you're gonna get the usual teenage crap like "For a good time call Buffy." But you'll see some thoughtful answers stuck up there, reflecting both sides of the issue. We the People. I like that.

So, being a pessimist I predict that I'll either never get an interview at NCC, or I'll get a job and find myself in some underground cubicle dealing with impossible deadlines. But I don't think even that would blunt my enthusiasm for working at the National Constitution Center. Fragile though it may be, our U.S. Constitution is the document that separates us from fascists and barbarians -- for the time being, anyway.

Today I sent them my resume. Gosh, you'd think they'd want to hire America's only Pagan member of the Daughters of the American Revolution!

Wish me luck.

FROM ANNE

THE MERLIN OF BERKELEY SPRINGS

Image: "Waiting," by Seitou.