Tactics of a Disgruntled Organist

A few days ago I was having lunch at the home of one of Princess' preschool classmates. We chit-chatted over the chinese chicken salad and soon got on the topic of families. She briefly mentioned a number of her brothers and sisters. When I added them all up, it came to eight--just like my family. I was a little surprised at this similarity (especially with a non-mormon). She immediately asked if my family was religious. I smiled and said yes. Hers too--Catholic. "Mormon." I responded-- yes the two religions usually blamed for overpopulating did not fail their stereotypes in this instance.

"Are you still practicing?" she asked.

"Yes"

"Not me. I like to call myself a recovering Catholic."

Not knowing exactly how to respond I said "Oh."

She continued on to tell the story of her last days in the church. She played the church organ for many years. She finally got so sick of it that she asked the "powers that be" (not sure who) if she could quit. She was told that God had given her the calling to play the organ and she needed to keep doing it. Bitter, she went back to playing the organ. Soon after, she got the "great idea" of playing "inappropriate" music during communion.

I was a little puzzled. What did she mean by "inappropriate"?

She must have seen the question on my face because she continued with details. The Beatles, Queen. The soundtrack to The Godfather.

It didn't take them long to free her from her "God-given" organ playing calling after that.

This is probably blasphemous, but I couldn't stop laughing. The thought of the sweet woman who is the organist in my ward playing "Bohemian Rhapsody" as the sacrament meeting prelude music was just too much. Then I thought about the people in our church who really dislike their callings - it does happen on occasion I think :). It made me wonder to what lengths one might go to get released from said calling. I mean, in this case, the woman was obviously not just ready to leave her calling--she was also ready to leave the Catholic church. But you have to give her some creativity points for her exit.

If anyone else has heard of (or fantasized about) creative ways to get released from your calling please share. I promise I won't judge. Although the blasphemous laughter might take me down to hell anyway.