Is this evasion or avoidance?

There are far too many things going on in my life that I'm anxious not to confront right now,- chief among them, of course, being the perennial problem of a sermon for Evensong on Sunday.
I really do struggle with this....the lectionary is often harsh to "Second Service" preachers, and even when the readings are good, I'm often defeated by the dynamics of preaching to a handful of people scattered across the church, while a far larger contingent sits behind me in the choir. This Sunday, actually, the readings are quite attractive if I can only apply myself to them,- but that feels like quite a substantial "if only" at this moment.

So, for the first time for ages I'm going to indulge in the Revgals Friday Five...something very close to bloggers' junk-food, quick and undemanding, which I've resisted successfully so far this year.
Not today, though.
Anything rather than concentrate on the job in hand!
For a once-upon-a-time semi-pro singer, a chance to revisit old dreams was really fun...but there's no obligation on anyone to read the results.

1) If I could sing like anyone, it would be lovely, lovely Emma Kirkby. Once upon a time in Cambridge, I got the chance to sub for her at the final rehearsal before we premiered a new edition of the Mozart Requiem...I love her absolute purity of tone - and she sings the sort of music I love most, and which my own voice, in its heyday, suited best. She's just heaven!

2) I would love to sing the song Dove sono, or come to that Porgi Amor - with a good orchestra. Well, let's be honest, I'd really enjoy the chance to sing the whole of the Contessa role from Marriage of Figaro. It's not going to happen,-and it would not be a musically pleasing event if it did, these days. However, dreams are free!
irl, the stuff I like, I sing all the time,- with more or less success. Public performances are a very different matter.

3) It would be really cool to sing at one of the lovely Wren churches in London. I'm specially fond of St James's Piccadilly, - where I depped as a chorister once or twice in my youth. I was also working just along the road, at Hatchards bookshop at the time, so St James's felt like my weekday parish church...There was a lovely early Eucharist that I could catch before work,- and I think it was then that I began to revolve my life around that particular sacramental pole. Definitely a Good Place (and I've just discovered, while Googling it for this post, that a friend's partner is on the staff there - lucky man!)



4) If I could sing a dream duet it would be with Ian Bostridge. Though I'm not sure I'd be able to make any sound at all, were he in the vicinity.

5) If I could sing on a TV or radio show, it would be...I honestly don't know the answer to this. There isn't an obvious show-case for the sort of singing I'd be likely to be doing...Perhaps I'll settle for one day precenting somewhere whose choir broadcasts on R3's Choral Evensong - assuming that this actually survives.

OK...having indulged in this cheerfully pointless activity, it's back to Genesis 1 and an ecology sermon. Unless, of course, I paint the dog's toe-nails...or rearrange the sock drawer...or...