From Everybody Here to Everybody "Out There"
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Monday, December 24, 2012
Monday, December 10, 2012
Book 16 of 2012 -- What the Dog Saw
It is the 4th book of Gladwell's that I have read (the others have been [in order] The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers). And I am still not sure what I think of him. He does have a way of putting things that have often been taken for granted in a new light. But he also tends (in this book which is a collection of essays) to appear to contradict himself. Sometimes he does so in the same essay! (admittedly that is a sign of good writing in my book, seeing as he appears to do so intentionally).
There is also a thread of small-c conservatism running through Gladwell's work (most obviously seen in The Tipping Point) such as the chapter in this book where I swear he was arguing that Ken Lay should not have been criminally charged for Enron that I find mis-aimed on some topics.
This was a very eclectic book. It covers issues important and trivial. For how I was reading it it was a good match. But it wasn't something I would call a "must read".
Saturday, December 01, 2012
Hope or Fear???
That is my sermon title for tomorrow. And here are some thoughts I think I will use to start it (or interspersed throughout)...
There was a support group for mothers of young infants, a chance for adult conversation and to share stories/ideas/hints about that sometimes challenging period of life. One day a new, quite young, mother joins with her young baby. The group goes through their regular routine and then starts to break for coffee when the new mother yells out “Wait! Wait! You haven't talked about it yet”. Seeing how upset she was the group sits back down and says, “OK, tell us what it is you need to talk about”.
"When? When? When?" is all she could say
"When what? What are you wanting?"
“When? Tell me when life gets back to normal?!?!”
Some changes mean life never gets back to normal. In our heart of hearts we know that. But still we have that part of ourselves that wants it to get back to normal again. Even if the change is something wonderful there is a part of us that wants life to get back to normal again.
At its heart Christmas is about birth. Both as a narrative (the story) and as a metaphor Christmas is about something being born. And in the end there are relatively few things more life-changing than birth. And how do we approach a change we know is coming?
Those of you are parents, think back to the day you first learned that a baby was on the way. How did you feel? Was it a long-expected and hoped for child or was it a surprise? Did you think you were "ready" to be a parent (at least as much as anyone is ready for such a task)? And, be honest now, during those next 9 months were there moments when the thought of caring for child left you totally terrified?
There is a commercial on these days with new parents taking their newborn home from the hospital and driving very "carefully" -- in fact so slowly and "carefully" as to be an impediment and danger on the roadway. That commercial always reminds me of a question my (then pregnant) sister asked the first time I called her after Sarah was born. "Weren't you afraid to drive with her in the car?" [For the record no I wasn't. Driving was not remotely high on the list of parenting fears in my mind]
AS we approach Christmas each year we are encouraged to, in the words of the Dead Dog Cafe, "Stay Calm, Be Brave, Wait for the Signs". The Scripture passages we just heard have talked about a promise to be kept, have talked about the world going to be changed, and have talked about the signs to look for. And as we wait and watch will we be calm and brave or will we be anxious and fearful? Do we look ahead to the birth that comes with Christmas with hope or with fear?
It strikes me that hope and fear are two sides of the same coin. I just asked you to think about waiting for a child. So much hope and dreaming goes into raising a child. There are so many possibilities about who he or she could be. The world ahead is full of maybes and unknowns. And at the same time as there are hopes and dreams the thought, if we ever had time to sit and think about it, maybe between feedings and diaper changes and looking after ourselves and working to earn a living, is terrifying. There are so many possibilities and unknowns about the future.
There is nothing wrong with hopes mixed with our fears. That is natural. That is part of being aware of our surroundings. Many years ago I was in a musical version of The Hobbit (one I am sure is nothing like the movie about to be released). At the end of the play Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the dwarves, returns to Hobbiton to give Bilbo his reward. And he says these words:
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Today we begin looking ahead to a birth. Today we begin the road that ends with angel song and shepherd adoration as God become human yet again. Today we begin waiting for the world to be changed, indelibly changed. There are signs (there are always signs that birth is coming) to be seen. We watch see the signs and we are filled with hope and know that we can trust in the promise. We see the signs and know that the change means things will never be "normal" again and we are anxious and fearful.
But we can choose which reaction we will feed. Will we choose to feed our fears and fight against the changes being born? Or will we choose to feed our hopes and embrace them, not denying our fears but in spite of them, so that we can embark on a new and exciting adventure?
There was a support group for mothers of young infants, a chance for adult conversation and to share stories/ideas/hints about that sometimes challenging period of life. One day a new, quite young, mother joins with her young baby. The group goes through their regular routine and then starts to break for coffee when the new mother yells out “Wait! Wait! You haven't talked about it yet”. Seeing how upset she was the group sits back down and says, “OK, tell us what it is you need to talk about”.
"When? When? When?" is all she could say
"When what? What are you wanting?"
“When? Tell me when life gets back to normal?!?!”
Some changes mean life never gets back to normal. In our heart of hearts we know that. But still we have that part of ourselves that wants it to get back to normal again. Even if the change is something wonderful there is a part of us that wants life to get back to normal again.
At its heart Christmas is about birth. Both as a narrative (the story) and as a metaphor Christmas is about something being born. And in the end there are relatively few things more life-changing than birth. And how do we approach a change we know is coming?
Those of you are parents, think back to the day you first learned that a baby was on the way. How did you feel? Was it a long-expected and hoped for child or was it a surprise? Did you think you were "ready" to be a parent (at least as much as anyone is ready for such a task)? And, be honest now, during those next 9 months were there moments when the thought of caring for child left you totally terrified?
There is a commercial on these days with new parents taking their newborn home from the hospital and driving very "carefully" -- in fact so slowly and "carefully" as to be an impediment and danger on the roadway. That commercial always reminds me of a question my (then pregnant) sister asked the first time I called her after Sarah was born. "Weren't you afraid to drive with her in the car?" [For the record no I wasn't. Driving was not remotely high on the list of parenting fears in my mind]
AS we approach Christmas each year we are encouraged to, in the words of the Dead Dog Cafe, "Stay Calm, Be Brave, Wait for the Signs". The Scripture passages we just heard have talked about a promise to be kept, have talked about the world going to be changed, and have talked about the signs to look for. And as we wait and watch will we be calm and brave or will we be anxious and fearful? Do we look ahead to the birth that comes with Christmas with hope or with fear?
It strikes me that hope and fear are two sides of the same coin. I just asked you to think about waiting for a child. So much hope and dreaming goes into raising a child. There are so many possibilities about who he or she could be. The world ahead is full of maybes and unknowns. And at the same time as there are hopes and dreams the thought, if we ever had time to sit and think about it, maybe between feedings and diaper changes and looking after ourselves and working to earn a living, is terrifying. There are so many possibilities and unknowns about the future.
There is nothing wrong with hopes mixed with our fears. That is natural. That is part of being aware of our surroundings. Many years ago I was in a musical version of The Hobbit (one I am sure is nothing like the movie about to be released). At the end of the play Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the dwarves, returns to Hobbiton to give Bilbo his reward. And he says these words:
A fool never cares when he's risking his life,
for excitement or thrills or for fame.
And if he survives other fools call him brave.
to the wise he's a fool all the same.
A wise man knows fear when there's danger to face.
So he's serious thoughtful and grave.
He'll do what he must in the best way he can.
And THIS is the one who is brave.
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Today we begin looking ahead to a birth. Today we begin the road that ends with angel song and shepherd adoration as God become human yet again. Today we begin waiting for the world to be changed, indelibly changed. There are signs (there are always signs that birth is coming) to be seen. We watch see the signs and we are filled with hope and know that we can trust in the promise. We see the signs and know that the change means things will never be "normal" again and we are anxious and fearful.
But we can choose which reaction we will feed. Will we choose to feed our fears and fight against the changes being born? Or will we choose to feed our hopes and embrace them, not denying our fears but in spite of them, so that we can embark on a new and exciting adventure?
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Halloween Pictures
Our Jack O'Lantern
THe Neighbours made use of the plentiful October Snow!!!
The Scooby Doo gang -- Scooby, Scrappy, Velma, Daphne, and Fred (I was Shaggy)
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Book 15 of 2012--A Nation Worth Ranting About
(Is it just me or has this pretty much become a book blog????)
I decided it was time for a light read. And so this was an obvious choice.
Canada is a country with a strong history of political comedy. For many of us the high water mark in this field was set by the Royal Canadian Air Farce (though admittedly their last few seasons were relatively poor). But I think that many would admit that the current Clown Prince of Canadian political comedy is Rick Mercer. Each week on his show The Rick Mercer Report he has a rant about some topic or another. Here is the latest one:
Yes, sometimes Rick takes himself too seriously. Far too seriously sometimes. Sometimes he is just too earnest. ANd certainly those wild camera movements get distracting at times. But for me the weekly rant is one of the reasons I watch the show. Which leads us to the book.
This is Rick's second book. (here is the first) Like the first it is a collection of his rants, but this one also includes some larger articles/stories and a selection of pictures from the show (pictures don't work so well on a KOBO though). When I heard it had been released I promptly went looking for it. And I am glad. It was good for many laughs, but also (as is the nature of well done political comedy) is a source of thought provoking commentary. Even non-Canadians would likely appreciate much of the book (though there is a lot of the content which requires a knowledge of the Canadian political and social scene). And of course a memory of recent history certainly helps (in fact I could almost remember watching some of the rants--especially at the end of the book when the rants were from the last 12 months)
I decided it was time for a light read. And so this was an obvious choice.Canada is a country with a strong history of political comedy. For many of us the high water mark in this field was set by the Royal Canadian Air Farce (though admittedly their last few seasons were relatively poor). But I think that many would admit that the current Clown Prince of Canadian political comedy is Rick Mercer. Each week on his show The Rick Mercer Report he has a rant about some topic or another. Here is the latest one:
Yes, sometimes Rick takes himself too seriously. Far too seriously sometimes. Sometimes he is just too earnest. ANd certainly those wild camera movements get distracting at times. But for me the weekly rant is one of the reasons I watch the show. Which leads us to the book.
This is Rick's second book. (here is the first) Like the first it is a collection of his rants, but this one also includes some larger articles/stories and a selection of pictures from the show (pictures don't work so well on a KOBO though). When I heard it had been released I promptly went looking for it. And I am glad. It was good for many laughs, but also (as is the nature of well done political comedy) is a source of thought provoking commentary. Even non-Canadians would likely appreciate much of the book (though there is a lot of the content which requires a knowledge of the Canadian political and social scene). And of course a memory of recent history certainly helps (in fact I could almost remember watching some of the rants--especially at the end of the book when the rants were from the last 12 months)
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Book 14 of 2012 -- The Poems of Jesus Christ
The author's base concept is I think sound. Barnstone suggests that Jesus of Nazareth, like many great oral teachers, used poetic speech forms to help his words "stick" but that in the progression of translation (from spoken Aramaic to the Greek of the written Gospels on through the plurality of translations available today) the poetic nature of these teachings has been lost. I agree. I think that is a valid supposition. Of course it is also unprovable and un-disprovable. Barnstone then claims that this volume will return the poetic form to the words [commonly assigned to] of Jesus.
But In the end I am not sure it succeeds. Poetry is based on the rhythm and conventions of its home language. Poetry is very hard to translate and maintain the effect. And just putting the English translations into lines doesn't quite do it. Sometimes it works but other times, well not so much. Still it will be a handy volume to have on hand for when I want a different translation or impression of a passage. {Barnstone also include the Gospel of Thomas}
Saturday, October 06, 2012
Happy Thanksgiving!
It is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. And so I decided it really was time to finish off the garden (well almost, we still have 2 tomato plants [which are really full of tomatoes] in the front flower bed to deal with -- anyone out there want some tomatoes????). So this morning I went out and dug the potatoes. Normally we dig them around Labour Day but this year we left them, other than a couple hills we dug and ate earlier:
Lesson learned: when you leave them in the ground that long potatoes can get REALLY BIG! some of them are big enough to be a meal for us with one spud.
Here are the 3 biggest (or at least 3 of the biggest) beside a pair of gloves for comparison purposes:
I also finished off the carrots (which we had been digging as we used them thus far):
And I knew this already but sometimes garden carrots take on some really odd shapes:
Here are the 3 biggest (or at least 3 of the biggest) beside a pair of gloves for comparison purposes:
I also finished off the carrots (which we had been digging as we used them thus far):
Anyways. HAPPY THANKSGIVING ONE AND ALL!!!!
Monday, October 01, 2012
Book 13 of 2012 -- Evolution Of the Word
In the end there was very little here that you would not pick up from other Borg books. And half the text in the book is in fact the text of the New Testament books--text that is really quite easy for most of us to access after all. The difference of course is the order that the books are in. Also Borg gives an introduction to each book, which at the least includes an explanation for why he has placed that book in that part of his chronology. But there is also some background to many of the books, and some commentary on the content. Interestingly Borg, even while acknowledging that it is a minority opinion (whereas for most of the other books he claims to be going with the consensus/majority of scholarship), places Luke-Acts as very late, post 100 CE, one of the latest books to be written.
Overall it was a worthwhile book to get. But, as I said, no earth-shattering new revelations (even the late date for Luke-Acts is something I heard suggested when I was in seminary and so was not new to me).
Sunday, September 09, 2012
Book 12 of 2012 -- Made to Stick
THis is a book well worth reading by any of us who regularly try to convey information to others. The authors lay out an acronym to help structure their argument -- SUCCESs. This acronym stands for Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories; 6 characteristics of sticky messages (each characteristic gets a chapter of its own).
The book is an easy read. There are lots of stories and practical examples. Frequently the include a "Clinic" to push the reader to delve into the characteristic being discussed. And then at the end there is a summary chapter. I liked it so much that I have also purchased another book by the same authors to read later this fall.
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