Last weekend I attended a workshop for "Ministers of Care" (people who take communion to nursing homes, hospitals & the homebound) for the parishes in my area. My church occupied two tables. I was, of course, the youngest person in the entire room by a good twenty years. But I do enjoy the company of Seniors so I was not bothered by that, nor did I feel unwelcome.

The workshop consisted of a talk by a Franciscan Brother and then a sheet listing hypothetical situations that we, as Ministers, could experience while making our rounds. The idea was to read the situation and then discuss our solutions as a table and present to the entire group.

One situation was described as: "You are making rounds in the hospital and run into a neighbor; you learn that their mother is there for a face lift and tummy tuck. You offer to visit her and put her on the prayer list. The family is adamant that you do not do this."

So, our table began to discuss this, and most agreed, "Well if they don't want the prayers then no big whoop!" One woman stated, "You know you can just say a prayer privately becuase even though it is elective, it is still very serious and painful surgery."

I chimed in with my own example, "Yes, just look at what happened to Kanye West's mother."

Blank stares.

I continued, "She went in for a tummy tuck and died on the operating table."

Finally one lady asked, "Kanye who?"

"Who is she talking about," was the growing din around the table.

"He's a rapper from Chicago," I offered. More blank stares.

Finally I noted, "His mother has been on Oprah."

"Ohhhhhh. Ok!" rang the sudden recognition amongst the ladies at the table.

As Greg brady would have stated, "I think we have a generation gap going here."