Ok, so what happens is i read any newspaper i can get my hands on at lunch or coffee break and sometimes find good articles. This one should be of interest. I found it so. I'm sure its a step in the right direction. Do you think it can work?
Click to link.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Good Article
This guy might get smeared for speaking his mind but i guess he gets diplomatic immunity as a writer. What if I agree with him then. I'll say as much. I think he's very right. He talks about Britain, but you can certainly put Canada in its place.
I like immigration and I like immigrants. I think we have a lot we can learn and experience with peoples of other religions and cultures and countries. I have nothing to say against other races because thats not what i'm talking about. I'm talking about cultural toleration and the fact that there are still moral lines in this country. These are human right issues that i believe we've been fighting for in Afghanistan and other places. If we can't enforce them in Closed Cults, cultural centres or land reserves, then it feels a little confusing to be fighting for them in other countries. Not that i think we shouldn't be in those situations, but you see my point? These morals apply whether you are chinese or indian, muslim or Mormon, Aboriginal or fifth generation canadian dutch. This writer says there is a universal morality. I must agree. If you think i sound offensive (and believe me, it feels like it too) maybe we need to realize that our sensitivity to offend is what can breed ignorance and set us up for a serious fall.
Your thoughts?
Click to link to the article
I like immigration and I like immigrants. I think we have a lot we can learn and experience with peoples of other religions and cultures and countries. I have nothing to say against other races because thats not what i'm talking about. I'm talking about cultural toleration and the fact that there are still moral lines in this country. These are human right issues that i believe we've been fighting for in Afghanistan and other places. If we can't enforce them in Closed Cults, cultural centres or land reserves, then it feels a little confusing to be fighting for them in other countries. Not that i think we shouldn't be in those situations, but you see my point? These morals apply whether you are chinese or indian, muslim or Mormon, Aboriginal or fifth generation canadian dutch. This writer says there is a universal morality. I must agree. If you think i sound offensive (and believe me, it feels like it too) maybe we need to realize that our sensitivity to offend is what can breed ignorance and set us up for a serious fall.
Your thoughts?
Click to link to the article
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Remember
I thought that today I might not go to the cenotaph. I was working and figured that from the field i'd be in at 11:00am I would take a minute to remember the veterans to the pastoral scene of ocean, hills and surmising Canadian Geese.
However, as i began to think on the nature of the day (and also listened to some BBC World Service Podcasts and one with Stuart McLean from CBC- all themed in some way around freedom and rememberance day) I changed my mind.
I came inside the farm house for a coffee and asked my employer where the assembly was held on their island- because i wanted to go. She, who wouldn't have minded if i took the whole day off, offered the Jeep to my use for the rest of the day.
The blue jeep had actually belonged to her late father who had, himself, been a WWII Vet. The Jeep sped and cornered with a spirit that makes one joke that it has a bit of the old Dr. (known for his frenzied driving- perhaps adapted in the war) embedded in it's engine's soul.
The pipers, the RCMP, The Veterans.
The heartstirring anthem and the buglers.
The horn sounded from the fire hall. I think it might have been an air raid signal- although i don't know if such small towns in far-removed Canada were outfitted with them. Whether or not, it was the most stirring moment for me as the incredibly loud signal ripped through me. it was reminiscent of movies that i'd seen with that sound, except this was the real thing. I suddenly felt a reminiscence and empathy for the people who lived through such times.
As the names of the fallen were called I looked into the crowd to see a woman with her daughter's arm holding her- reddened eyes holding back tears. To her this was no mere list of names.
If you were never raised going to your local cenotaph on Nov 11th, i encourage you to not let your habits stop you from getting out of your way next year. The WWI vetrans passed on, it won't be long before the WWII Vetrans are gone before you can stand to salute them.
I hope that Nov 11th is as important to you as it is to me. I feel it is the only day of the year (excepting perhaps Canada day) that all residents of this far and wide should observe.
If you are a vocal pacifict then you are a hipocrite to not lead the way.
If you are an immigrant then these vetrans sacrificed for you as well.
If you are an idealist then learn from those who took self-sacrificing action in the face of the less than ideal, so that you could have ideals.
Other holidays are mostly of cultural or religious affiliation- and therefore you have your freedoms not to be involved (although i wish we'd all share our own cultures and religious affiliations with each other more) but Rememberance day is for every one who calls themselves a free Canadian. It is a moral obligation.
Apparently the silence on Rememberance day was suggested by an Austrailian visiting Britian and seeing the young people dancing and boys kissing the girls in the streets and thought that a silent rememberance would be more appropriate. I certainly agree with him. we don't want the day lost in a party.
However, i must also immagine what it might have felt like to have the war over. The war was reason for solemness. Its end was reason for dancing.
Two days ago was the 20th aniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. I don't want to over-romanticise this event, but there is no getting around its incredible symbolic and physical significance when it was breached and crossed and torn down. Freedom employed. Wow.
I watched Swing Kids recently and was influenced by the way that the freedom to dance like Americans was threatened to the utmost in youth culture in Germany. I started swing dancing this year, and am pretty glad that i can do so without fear of being shut down or locked up.
I think along with remembering those who sacrificed for our freedom comes a sort of inner obligation to celebrate the aspects of that freedom. Speak freely of religion and culture and art. Get a great education, research history and literature and reach for the sky. Today we remember and we do not forget. For tomorrow we will dance (and maybe even kiss some girls).
Join with me, become aware of our fighting men both past and present. Our boys are supposed to be back from Afganistan in 2011. Let's remeber them too.
However, as i began to think on the nature of the day (and also listened to some BBC World Service Podcasts and one with Stuart McLean from CBC- all themed in some way around freedom and rememberance day) I changed my mind.
I came inside the farm house for a coffee and asked my employer where the assembly was held on their island- because i wanted to go. She, who wouldn't have minded if i took the whole day off, offered the Jeep to my use for the rest of the day.
The blue jeep had actually belonged to her late father who had, himself, been a WWII Vet. The Jeep sped and cornered with a spirit that makes one joke that it has a bit of the old Dr. (known for his frenzied driving- perhaps adapted in the war) embedded in it's engine's soul.
The pipers, the RCMP, The Veterans.
The heartstirring anthem and the buglers.
The horn sounded from the fire hall. I think it might have been an air raid signal- although i don't know if such small towns in far-removed Canada were outfitted with them. Whether or not, it was the most stirring moment for me as the incredibly loud signal ripped through me. it was reminiscent of movies that i'd seen with that sound, except this was the real thing. I suddenly felt a reminiscence and empathy for the people who lived through such times.
As the names of the fallen were called I looked into the crowd to see a woman with her daughter's arm holding her- reddened eyes holding back tears. To her this was no mere list of names.
If you were never raised going to your local cenotaph on Nov 11th, i encourage you to not let your habits stop you from getting out of your way next year. The WWI vetrans passed on, it won't be long before the WWII Vetrans are gone before you can stand to salute them.
I hope that Nov 11th is as important to you as it is to me. I feel it is the only day of the year (excepting perhaps Canada day) that all residents of this far and wide should observe.
If you are a vocal pacifict then you are a hipocrite to not lead the way.
If you are an immigrant then these vetrans sacrificed for you as well.
If you are an idealist then learn from those who took self-sacrificing action in the face of the less than ideal, so that you could have ideals.
Other holidays are mostly of cultural or religious affiliation- and therefore you have your freedoms not to be involved (although i wish we'd all share our own cultures and religious affiliations with each other more) but Rememberance day is for every one who calls themselves a free Canadian. It is a moral obligation.
Apparently the silence on Rememberance day was suggested by an Austrailian visiting Britian and seeing the young people dancing and boys kissing the girls in the streets and thought that a silent rememberance would be more appropriate. I certainly agree with him. we don't want the day lost in a party.
However, i must also immagine what it might have felt like to have the war over. The war was reason for solemness. Its end was reason for dancing.
Two days ago was the 20th aniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. I don't want to over-romanticise this event, but there is no getting around its incredible symbolic and physical significance when it was breached and crossed and torn down. Freedom employed. Wow.
I watched Swing Kids recently and was influenced by the way that the freedom to dance like Americans was threatened to the utmost in youth culture in Germany. I started swing dancing this year, and am pretty glad that i can do so without fear of being shut down or locked up.
I think along with remembering those who sacrificed for our freedom comes a sort of inner obligation to celebrate the aspects of that freedom. Speak freely of religion and culture and art. Get a great education, research history and literature and reach for the sky. Today we remember and we do not forget. For tomorrow we will dance (and maybe even kiss some girls).
Join with me, become aware of our fighting men both past and present. Our boys are supposed to be back from Afganistan in 2011. Let's remeber them too.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
and get dead
The lone ranger is I
I ride alone despised
Shotgun if anyone should get too close
Rifle for a pot shot at a crow on a post
I ride alone I fight alone
My dying cause is mine alone
I've two handguns with six rounds each
But I'm down to one last shot
I stand alone
I plan alone
I hide alone
I'll die alone
It was here in the wilderness i turned loneliness to strength.
I kept crowds at arms length doing good. doing good.
I can make it on my own. I ride alone
I ride alone.
I've been playing this card game for years now
playing mine close to the chest
every play a poker face
So you can never guess
The stakes are high
They are too high
But I can't let the raise go by
It's hope versus pride
And I'm on the wrong side
The dealer catches fear in my eye
And I'm gambling my life
The stakes are High they are too high
First my saddle then my arms and my spurs
on this line that i walk alone
The game is set it is too set
and I'm fearing that everyone knows how it ends
I've no defence.
I gambled and lost and at the break of dawn
To meet you in a draw
I lost my hand and all my pride
its love versus fear
and I'm on the wrong side
You looked for me high and dry
Wanted posters saying dead and alive
So before my fingers are on the trigger
I'm shot dead in the street
I couldn't have expected any different
Thought I had a licking speed
My career livelihood reputation and shame
is my opponents in a moment by an earth shattering pain
and takes me off my high horse.
Then he ripped out my heart and he put his
in stead
I came up a new man
while Jesus was dead
It's truth versus fear
the stakes are high
I'm walking in here
But I'm on the wrong side
I ride alone despised
Shotgun if anyone should get too close
Rifle for a pot shot at a crow on a post
I ride alone I fight alone
My dying cause is mine alone
I've two handguns with six rounds each
But I'm down to one last shot
I stand alone
I plan alone
I hide alone
I'll die alone
It was here in the wilderness i turned loneliness to strength.
I kept crowds at arms length doing good. doing good.
I can make it on my own. I ride alone
I ride alone.
I've been playing this card game for years now
playing mine close to the chest
every play a poker face
So you can never guess
The stakes are high
They are too high
But I can't let the raise go by
It's hope versus pride
And I'm on the wrong side
The dealer catches fear in my eye
And I'm gambling my life
The stakes are High they are too high
First my saddle then my arms and my spurs
on this line that i walk alone
The game is set it is too set
and I'm fearing that everyone knows how it ends
I've no defence.
I gambled and lost and at the break of dawn
To meet you in a draw
I lost my hand and all my pride
its love versus fear
and I'm on the wrong side
You looked for me high and dry
Wanted posters saying dead and alive
So before my fingers are on the trigger
I'm shot dead in the street
I couldn't have expected any different
Thought I had a licking speed
My career livelihood reputation and shame
is my opponents in a moment by an earth shattering pain
and takes me off my high horse.
Then he ripped out my heart and he put his
in stead
I came up a new man
while Jesus was dead
It's truth versus fear
the stakes are high
I'm walking in here
But I'm on the wrong side
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Drop my Iron
You know what stinks about being a Christian in our society?
Sometimes its the best thing ever. It means we can have freedom of speech and expression and hold congregational meetings reaching into the thousands without overt persecution. It allows for us to share our faith in a country that often as not encourages morality and where we can build our empires without having a governmental system tear them down to equality.
Sometimes it sucks. I find that i become so comfortable in my self-indulgence and convenience that i start thinking that somehow i built the wash machine that cleans my clothes. My race is self sufficient and powerful and democratic which makes us all gods. Praying for the meal sometimes makes me feel ridiculous because i think, "what am i thanking God for. I paid for this meal. I cooked it. Why are we giving the credit to God?" On the flip side, when something goes wrong we have ourselves to blame.
I know. Stupid right? I don't need to explain why... According to James every good and perfect gift comes from God. More elementally- he created me, this world, and the plot of land that i was born on. Its just dangerously easy to fall into this self-worshiping mentality.
In a few months I'll be getting on a plane (according to plans) so as to live for 6 or more months in a impoverished society. For 6 months i will have the opportunity to change my world view and maybe keep it for a while upon re-immersion to a 1st world state. When I'm there i will be praying for the food- that it doesn't make me sick. I will be thanking for the food- because i will see others who have to fight for it. I will be grateful for my health- for i will see others who's health keep them from their full potential and yet they tarry on. I will be conscious of my upbringing- that handed me everything from education to opportunity on a silver platter. But will I truly, here or there, learn to give up and Die to myself.
This is the crux, I believe. Jesus doesn't want half of us or most of us. We are better off giving all of us. I won't pretend that its not like loosing everything you've ever learned to lean on, but I'm starting to think that that was all a crutch anyways.
We live in a society that worships security. If we have enough money, asset and investments; If we have enough friends, debtors and dependents; If we have military and freedom and capitalism; If we have a self sufficient homestead with enough stores built up for Armageddon and enough television to help us forget that we're all gonna die someday anyways; then we are OK.
I'm not saying its a bad idea to plan ahead, but depending on your plans is a little different. There is always the element of unpredictability that proves that we are in fact not in control. If those things spin in our favor- we call it our luck. if they spin from our favor we blame God. If we're smarter than that we realize that we are but mortals.
I guess what I'm getting at is that its time to give up- to surrender- my rights to a new system. Dying to the mortality in the hand of divinity. Its not all about me here.
Sometimes its the best thing ever. It means we can have freedom of speech and expression and hold congregational meetings reaching into the thousands without overt persecution. It allows for us to share our faith in a country that often as not encourages morality and where we can build our empires without having a governmental system tear them down to equality.
Sometimes it sucks. I find that i become so comfortable in my self-indulgence and convenience that i start thinking that somehow i built the wash machine that cleans my clothes. My race is self sufficient and powerful and democratic which makes us all gods. Praying for the meal sometimes makes me feel ridiculous because i think, "what am i thanking God for. I paid for this meal. I cooked it. Why are we giving the credit to God?" On the flip side, when something goes wrong we have ourselves to blame.
I know. Stupid right? I don't need to explain why... According to James every good and perfect gift comes from God. More elementally- he created me, this world, and the plot of land that i was born on. Its just dangerously easy to fall into this self-worshiping mentality.
In a few months I'll be getting on a plane (according to plans) so as to live for 6 or more months in a impoverished society. For 6 months i will have the opportunity to change my world view and maybe keep it for a while upon re-immersion to a 1st world state. When I'm there i will be praying for the food- that it doesn't make me sick. I will be thanking for the food- because i will see others who have to fight for it. I will be grateful for my health- for i will see others who's health keep them from their full potential and yet they tarry on. I will be conscious of my upbringing- that handed me everything from education to opportunity on a silver platter. But will I truly, here or there, learn to give up and Die to myself.
This is the crux, I believe. Jesus doesn't want half of us or most of us. We are better off giving all of us. I won't pretend that its not like loosing everything you've ever learned to lean on, but I'm starting to think that that was all a crutch anyways.
We live in a society that worships security. If we have enough money, asset and investments; If we have enough friends, debtors and dependents; If we have military and freedom and capitalism; If we have a self sufficient homestead with enough stores built up for Armageddon and enough television to help us forget that we're all gonna die someday anyways; then we are OK.
I'm not saying its a bad idea to plan ahead, but depending on your plans is a little different. There is always the element of unpredictability that proves that we are in fact not in control. If those things spin in our favor- we call it our luck. if they spin from our favor we blame God. If we're smarter than that we realize that we are but mortals.
I guess what I'm getting at is that its time to give up- to surrender- my rights to a new system. Dying to the mortality in the hand of divinity. Its not all about me here.
When i give up
You know what stinks about being single?
Sometimes its the best thing ever. It opens up avenues that never could otherwise be opened. It allows for flexibility and mobility and living life a little more dangerously. ( But sometimes you wonder if what you do falls to no accountability that can tell you if it really matters. )
Sometimes it sucks. Being a guy puts several meanings to this, but it can make some days so lonely and meaningless that you feel like if you don't have so much as a life to mean something to or so much as a hand to hold that you'll go crazy.
Theres a lot of pack where this punch comes from, but i think at some point you need to realize that having nothing to loose doesn't cut it once you live up to your own fear and gain everything to loose. Do you really have anything worth saving if you have nothing worth loosing? Or anything worth living for if you have nothing besides yourself to die for? I don't know... i just wonder if all my adventures as self-rightious as they might seem still fall flat if i still can't handle love. ref. 1Cor13. And I mean Love.
Problem is i don't know what i fully mean when i'm beginning to think that love is something you do more than something you feel and something you prove more than a dotted line you sign. But thats another issue altogether i suppose.
I guess what i'm getting at is that its all about self sacrifice isn't it? Its all about risking it all to gain it all; about surrendering to get on the right side; about giving up your own security and ideal that you can rule your own life and realize the incredible truth. It's not all about me here.
Sometimes its the best thing ever. It opens up avenues that never could otherwise be opened. It allows for flexibility and mobility and living life a little more dangerously. ( But sometimes you wonder if what you do falls to no accountability that can tell you if it really matters. )
Sometimes it sucks. Being a guy puts several meanings to this, but it can make some days so lonely and meaningless that you feel like if you don't have so much as a life to mean something to or so much as a hand to hold that you'll go crazy.
Theres a lot of pack where this punch comes from, but i think at some point you need to realize that having nothing to loose doesn't cut it once you live up to your own fear and gain everything to loose. Do you really have anything worth saving if you have nothing worth loosing? Or anything worth living for if you have nothing besides yourself to die for? I don't know... i just wonder if all my adventures as self-rightious as they might seem still fall flat if i still can't handle love. ref. 1Cor13. And I mean Love.
Problem is i don't know what i fully mean when i'm beginning to think that love is something you do more than something you feel and something you prove more than a dotted line you sign. But thats another issue altogether i suppose.
I guess what i'm getting at is that its all about self sacrifice isn't it? Its all about risking it all to gain it all; about surrendering to get on the right side; about giving up your own security and ideal that you can rule your own life and realize the incredible truth. It's not all about me here.
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