Peace Be With You...I Think

               I have been a part of the Catholic Church since I was a baby. I was confirmed last fall and became an adult of the Church. When I was younger, as a Catholic child, I attended religious education. At religious ed. we were required to learn and memorize certain prayers. These prayers that we learned were the ones that were recited during a regular church mass. As a child and an older sister, when I was younger I had this sense of satisfaction when I could go an entire mass without glancing at the prayer book and recite the whole mass with the adults.

                My grandparents, my mother’s parents, are both deeply religious. They both grew up going to church and sitting through a Latin mass, as opposed to the English translated mass; that most Catholic Churches practice today. My grandfather attended Loras College and majored for a while to be a Priest in the Catholic Church. He had to do extensive studies on the religion and the practices that we do in a service.

                Two weekends ago, I went to church with my family, as usual. When we got into church, we grabbed our hymnals and continued into the sanctuary. As we entered the doors, we were handed a prayer card. Normally, we do not get a prayer card unless it is a special day and we are doing something different in mass. When I looked at my prayer card, I found, to my surprise, the entire mass in a packet. As I started reading through the packet I noticed that the prayers that I have grown up with were now different. I didn’t recognize some of the songs that are a part of our everyday mass.

                As the mass proceeded, the Father presiding explained that from now on every Catholic Church would be doing things a bit differently. I did some research and this is a process that has been going on for some time now. The new text is supposed to be “closer” to the Latin text. Different little things have changed For example, when the priest says, “the lord be with you,” instead of saying “and also with you,” the new response is “and with your spirit.” I understand that this is something that is closer to the original text, but I am not the one this is making problems for. The people these changes are affecting are the older Catholic generation, my grandparents.

                My grandpa, who studied to be a priest, was lost the entire mass. Things are completely different. I just wish that the Vatican would have considered this before they changed everything. The new translations are not even much different. In the Apostles’ Creed there is a line that used to be recited, “…all things seen and unseen…” the new translation reads, “…all things visible and invisible…” these are the exact same thing. Are they not? I just don’t understand why we have to go and change something that has been set for generations.

Don't Sweat It!

                Being a performer, I am used to hearing about my fellow actors’ pre-show nerves and the tendencies that come along with them. Among the butterflies in the stomach and the near unconsciousness, there are some people who sweat when they get nervous; most of the time it is on their hands. When we talk about it I just go along and say that I get clammy hands before a show as well. This is the first time that I have ever said otherwise.

                The other week, over my Thanksgiving Break, I was watching a docu-series, True Life. True Life is a series on MTV that films real people and tells their stories. On the episode that I was watching, it was following two young girls, who suffer from “embarrassing medical conditions”. Krystal, one of the girls, has a condition called Hyperhidrosis. As I was watching and she began to describe the symptoms, I don’t know if it was the Hypochondriac inside me but, I found myself connecting with the symptoms she was describing.

               I did more research on the condition that she had and came to the conclusion that I do indeed have this condition. Hyperhidrosis is basically excessive sweating. Kind of gross right? Most people don’t even realize that they have this condition. I have what is called, palmar hyperhidrosis or excessive hand sweating. This is the most common and troublesome form of hyperhidrosis. People with palmar hyperhidrosis have cold and clammy hands that sweat excessively. So, basically I have non-stop clammy hands. Because my hands sweat a lot, my skin on my fingers peels a bit more than normal.  This condition is not the most pleasant thing in the world, but it could be worse.

                Though there are treatments for this condition, I don’t think I will pursue any of them. This condition hasn’t affected my life as much as it does to most. The first step in this whole process was accepting that I do have this condition, and here I am, telling the world. So if I happen to exchange a handshake with you some day and you find that my hand is unusually clammy, I honestly can’t help it. This condition is not something that I can control and I am not sure what exactly triggers it, if anything. In the small research that I have done, some sources say that it is sometimes onset from overstimulation, so nervousness, but I do not get nervous, so it is most likely something that is not triggered by stimulus. So, stay dry. If you can’t help it, don’t sweat it. (Information received from International Hyperhidrosis Society)