Years ago when I was telling Tracey (a dynamic woman from my church) about my writing, she suggested that I should try writing monologues.  I forgot all about it.  Then last year she suggested it again.  That night I got up from bed with an idea and couldn't go back to sleep until I wrote one.  Tracey loved it.  Then she told me that she is starting a women's ministry and she wanted me to write a series of Christian monologues similar to "The Vagina Monologues" for her to perform.  I was overwhelmed, but started considering possibilities.

Back in college I took a creative writing class.  It was terrible.  I wanted to write rhyming picture books and the student teacher wanted me to write about stoning, suicide, etc.  To satisfy us both I wrote a short story of seven high school girls who each envied the next one.  The last envies the first to complete the circle of envy.  So, for my monologues I decided to write seven women with different problems who each think the next one's got it made.  When the last envies the first, the first then comes back out and shares the message of hope that God has given her, thus offering hope to each of the women.  

I didn't mean to make it "The Potty Monologues", but the first woman is a young mom on the toilet, alternating between talking to the audience and yelling at her kids outside the bathroom door.  She then breaks into song: "I just can't wait to go pee" to the tune of The Lion King's "I just can't wait to be king!"  (Picture background dancers waving toilet paper as Mommy kicks her legs from the pot.)  From there each new woman shared her toilet trouble--bulimia (barfing in the toilet) to caring for an aging father (the need for adult diapers.)

I just finished the monologues tonight and I'm so excited to see them performed.  Tracey has been asked to take the stage at the Boise State Christian Week this month.  Then in October she'll be performing at the women's conference she's starting.  www.sistersync.com  

I pray that God will use my writing, but this is never what I would have expected.  And I need to thank Jenster for writing the cancer monologue.  I'm sure she'd also agree that God has used her in ways she's never expected.  She's a living example of the hope I want our monologues to offer.  Sometimes life seem to get flushed down the toilet, but if we believe in God there will definitely be beauty from drain.  (Pun intended.)