Great ways to meet other singles and look sensitive doing it Volume IV, or, How I learned to not leave seminary on internship being single.

Unfortunately, as a married dude with ninos, I no longer have certain pleasures: nights to myself where I may or may not elect to watch Elmo videos, early mornings where I simply refuse to get up and rather sleep till noon, the triple (three days with the same pair of scivvies [sp?]), and the uninterrupted melancholy of listening to Postal Service wondering if "she" is out there somewhere. Some single folks at seminary, however, desire to be coupled up prior to internship or at least first call for a variety of reasons. Some don't want old ladies offering up their nephews as dating fodder while they are serving their first call. Others know marriage can be a helpful way to alleviate Visions and Expectations pressure on singles. Still more have garnered the keen insight that couplage is the key to happiness and personal fulfillment.

Thanks to a grant from Thrivent, the seminary has developed a program with the state of Minnesota and the city of St. Paul. It's called the Minnesota Children's Museum. It's a great place where kids can learn while they play. It's also the place where sensitive, caring, supportive, though financially less-than-desirable seminarians can meet single moms and dads and make a love connection. Through the genius of sociological engineering and a daring partnership of church and state, the play edifice gives off the vibe of educational learning for tots and tweens even as its true purpose of thirty-something-meat-market hums along at full steam. No other Twin Cities hook-up locale offers the caliber of amenities MCM boasts: the pillow lined Habitot; the nook-and-cranny filled, exotic vacation vibe of Earth World; not to mention the journey back into one's childhood that is the current Sesame Street exhibit (I saw a couple couples making out in the Sesame Street theater just today while the Count counted David Robinson's consecutive dribbles on the 6 foot surround sound screen). No, not the Science Museum of Minnesota, not the Augsburg Fortress Publishing offices, not even the many offices of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans located throughout the Twin Cities can boast the successful coupling rate that MCM announces year after year.

So if you're coming to Luther as a single person, take courage...and get a year long pass. Look how happy the couples below are, pictured vacationing together in Paris. All but one are seminarian love matches made possible by MCM.