He keeps nothing from me.

It hadn't occurred to me that I could actually be living with a tongue-speaker. That she could be, like, you know, tongue-speaking with me in the house. Just through the wall.

About a month ago, I realized that a whole bunch of people I know probably do. I started asking around, and sure enough, one by one--my world fell. I chillax with a bizzle-bunch of tongue-speakers. They're everywhere. It was kind of like finding out that everyone else in your family has six toes. You're the only one with five. But you never knew.

I was talking to my roomie and her visiting friend, both glossolalists, when she told me that she never mentioned it because she didn't want to wig me out. Much appreciated. Then she started chanting "Shandela, shandela, shandela" with this huge smile on her face, which is pretty much the funniest joke I've ever been told. You maybe had to be there.

It's not that I didn't know that it happened at James River. Like, duh. I've heard that guy who gets up and gives messages and stuff. And I've known that a couple of friends do. I just hadn't thought that it was so widespread. I absolutely refused to believe that Lindell spoke in tongues until I caught it during a moment of prayer, while I was standing close. Then, lightening-bolt, does Curt Cook speak in tongues? Probably, right? What about Brendon? Or any number of friends with whom I'd spent the previous 10 months in relative normalcy?

Yes, yes, and yes. All of them. Six toes. Totally like the six toes thing.

My Dad makes fun of it pretty much every time we end up talking about the church. Last week, I told him about wanting to go to Thailand and hang out with some AG-ers there, and he told me I wouldn't be able to tell who was speaking Thai, and who was speaking tongues during church. He thought that was way funnier than I did.

There's a definite prejudice against tongues, outside of the Pentecostal fold. I've often had to hold myself back from what I've thought which was-- but you're all so normal, and modern, and intelligent. How is it possible that you all do this? I don't understand.

I don't get to be quite so judgmental anymore, given my own experiences. And I'm mostly used to the small exposures in church. I figure there are at least two cameras running at any given moment--how crazy can it get?

But still...I can forgive people (and myself) for being apprehensive. Sometimes, I'm so used to what goes on now that I'm starting to forget how jarring it all can be. I'm forgetting what looks funny to the outside. What maybe needs explaining.

What is shocking.