"I'm the Modern Day Saint of Optimistic Pessimism or maybe a Cynical Romantic. I can't decide, I'm both! I know things are pretty well screwed up but I'm still enjoying it. I'm a hopeless romantic with a poetic soul but I also see things just as they are. I can't help but fall in love. I'm laughing at it lots of the time even when it's really ugly, and even when there's no hope. It's like 'What a ride, Can't we just have fun?' But then even when I'm hopeful I have that little dark angel cloud and I go 'Well, this is too good.' I still think there is this true love out there. Although intellectually I know better and at my age it's silly. I know life's shit but wasn't that a lovely meal?"

What Modern Day Saint are you?

k
Originally uploaded by Charrmer.

Kim
"If I were to consider myself saintly in any way, I would like to think of myself as the Modern Day Saint of Unconventional Motherhood. I do all the things my mother taught me I couldn't do, and all the things she said I can. There is something about motherhood that can naturally weigh a woman's spontaneous spirit down. I suppose that's just nature making sure we don't take our newborns bungie jumping. But it does more than that - it makes women wear dresses with smocks and speak only in sing-songy voices. It makes them watch Ricky Lake everyday and only order pink makeup from Avon.

Being a mother is more sacred and powerful to me than anything else, but I have fought the urge to get dumpy and stagnant and allowed that power to inspire me. I work hard to be what I was and then something more. I will not be defined as a "mom", I'm too complex and creative for that. I teach my children to be polite, though I am often vulgar. They learn to look both ways before crossing the street, and witness me blindly run through intersections. I don't talk to them about my sex life, but they will one day see me as a sexual creature, and I'm going to pull it off without making them want to throw-up.

I am a creative freak and a domestic guru. I bake cookies at noon and drink beer after bedtime. I dance like I look 16 and sing like it sounds good to everyone. I love my children like they are prophets and they are. They know so much more than I ever will and as their mother all I have to do is let them lead the way."

What Modern Day Saint are you?

stevemdst
Originally uploaded by Charrmer.

Steve Mahoney: "I'm the Saint of Too Many things on my plate. I'm not a good juggler. I work really hard on achieving all the dreams I have put out there for myself and then I hit the wall. I get burned out. I'm playing in four rock 'n roll bands, I've also taken on managing two bands. I have a partnership doing artist development and recording studio, I write TV jingles and have a day job... not to mention the dog, a girlfriend and momsitting... And I want to do more. The more I involve myself with other people and do more, the more I feel like I am accomplishing things. When I sleep I feel like I'm missing something."
"My mom and dad always said 'work hard and you'll get what you want'... and I'm still working. When I was a kid as long as I kept my grades up I could do anything I wanted. At one point I took guitar lessons, piano, vocals, karate, gymnastics, bowling and baseball-- all at the same time. I've been doing this my whole life."

Prolific artist, sculptor and gallery owner Greg Barton: "I consider myself the keeper of passion, especially in the arts, so I can give people a chance to do it, show it, get it out there. People need a patron saint to help them show their work." When asked why he started on this mission he says with a hearty laugh "I hate plumbing. I tried it... I am a creator. I've been one since I was five years old playing with tinker toys. cars, buildings, houses, gardens, walkways. I create. I love to make stuff, but I can't make money, and you can quote me on that one!" He muses a bit more and adds "When you create art you don't need a permit. You're an outsider, you're free, so go for it, go do it."

Karin proudly calls herself the Saint of Militant Individualism, aka Rebel Without a Cause.
Karin says "I can never be a joiner. If there's a standard I just won't do it, simply because it's a standard. I don't like to be categorized and I don't like it when people think they have me figured out!" Then she adds after thinking it over, "I actually don't mind when people have me figured out, I love it. But I don't like to be pigeon-holed. I want to be myself, not any type."

Supergina

supergina
Originally uploaded by Charrmer.

"I am the modern day saint of self-enforced naive hopefulness.
I tend to look on the bright side. I try to see the good in people, even those who don't have much good in them. I don't see when people are taking advantage of me, or if I do, I turn myself away from it (hence the "self-enforced"). No matter how much people say that something isn't going to happen or that's not how the real world is, I don't care. I keep going and do what I do. I like to skip on the sidewalk and smile at people I don't know."
Photo courtesy Gina

Dion

DionandBillyIdol
Originally uploaded by Charrmer.

"I might be called the Saint of Truth. I don't know if that title is taken. But you'd be suprised how many people can't handle the TRUTH. I usually can handle it, even if I don't like it. But I for one have to tell it like it is. It's really hard for me to hold back my thoughts... Stay Strong, Dion"

Modern Day Saint

How many of us relate to this example? I think it's rare...
Maria walks to and from church most days of the week and in preparation for the journey she always puts a few dollar bills in her pocket in case she runs into someone in need. It so happens that the city she was about to leave for a new home in another state has a high number of homeless people unafraid to ask for a handout. On one particular day Maria happened upon a man she has given her dollar bills to many times before and as she handed him the last one he would ever receive from her she said with all sincerity and kindness "I'll miss you." He took the dollar gratefully and smiled. As Maria left the man she looked back over her shoulder and said sweetly "Pray for me, and I will pray for you."

"I, Andrew Lawson, am the Modern Day Saint of: Procrastination!
The fluid continuity of my technique is unparalleled. I embrace the universe with my brain in park and with the best of intentions to accomplish everything I want to do, sit back and do... Nothing! It is perfection in its simplicity.
The chores I am tasked with tend to sit for so long, they lose relevance
and importance until they become "Unchores". (Patent pending). Not to
say I am shiftless and sloth like. I go to work and shower, etcetera.
It's just that I subconsciously seem to pick specific tasks that just
simmer indefinitely. When I look within for reasons I find a myriad of
voices telling me to- relax and stop worrying about it. Couch up! one
says. Another confides in me- the XBOX is lonely, you never cuddle him
anymore. And so it goes. Resistance is futile. I am confident that even
though many others share this affliction, none have achieved the utmost level that I attain effortlessly each day."

"Mir i am", self proclaimed Modern Day Saint of Chaos...
"I'm naturally opposed to order but in the chaos is a higher order of something I've created, something higher than myself." She pauses and looks upward as she thinks further. "See! I wanna change my mind now! Create and destroy, create and destroy... And I'm called to places of natural disaster-- 911 in New York, The '89 San Francisco earthquake, the Berkeley fires in 1991, Hurricane Katrina... But no matter how chaotic something is if you get the right perspective there is still a pattern in it."
(It should be noted that Mir i am was in each of those cities when the events actually occurred and is currently writing about her personal experiences.)