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Posts from the ‘Random Musings’ Category

Aug 12

1 Comment

Notes to Self

Some of the bigger blogs I subscribe to typically have something like a weekend round-up type post which serves as an aggregator of the miscellaneous articles, video clips, and other assorted cyber-scraps that the author(s) happen to have come across over the course of the past week.  I don’t usually spend much time on these posts because there are just too many links and rabbit trails and I can’t be bothered.  I have occasionally found the odd gem in these laundry lists of links, but I’m increasingly finding that I just don’t have the patience for the random nature of these posts. Read more

Aug 3

4 Comments

(S)trolling Through the Archives

The other day I was visiting a blog I admire and spent some time wandering around the “Archives” section. It occurred to me that many blogs have a lot of good stuff that is buried in the archives—unceremoniously consigned to the cyber-scrap heap, as it were. So, as way of addressing this “problem” (and because everyone who writes thinks that the stuff they produce is incredibly important and worth preserving in perpetuity), I have created a “Favourites” page that can be accessed here and, more consistently, from the bottom of the header above. Read more

Jul 9

8 Comments

So Here I Am, Not Being Entertained!

My wife and I recently decided to cancel our cable TV. There were a variety of reasons for this, some principled, some just plain old pragmatic (we don’t watch much, and we can’t afford it). I thought that we would still pick up the odd station even after we got rid of cable, but it turns out that we now get precisely zero channels.  ZERO.  It’s very strange. I have been watching CBC’s coverage of the World Cup on my laptop, so I am surviving thus far, but I wonder what will happen once fall rolls around and hockey season starts. My resolve will certainly be tested…

Anyway, given my new television-less reality, I got a kick out of this when it came through the inbox the other day (Calvin’s family has just had their television stolen).

Jun 7

18 Comments

Are We Worth the Trouble?

Any piece with a title like “Should This Be the Last Generation?” is bound to provoke a bit of curiosity, especially when the famous misanthrope Peter Singer is discovered to be its author. Today, the issue on Singer’s mind is whether or not human beings should consider ceasing to reproduce as an ethical response to our predicament, whether from the perspective of ecological responsibility (i.e., human beings are bad for the planet, therefore less of us are better than more) or based on more existential concerns (every child born will suffer, and we have a duty to prevent suffering). Read more

May 31

13 Comments

Respect the Right to Be Different

A few months ago the kids each came home from school with one of these lovely yellow T-shirts as a part of their school’s Anti-Bullying Day.”  Of course their cynical father’s mind instantly began to wander down all kinds of philosophical and theological rabbit-trails (the intellectual problems of pluralism, the political challenges of multiculturalism, etc), but on the less arcane level of how people actually treat those who think/look/act differently than them, I of course happily affirmed the T-shirt’s message! Read more

Apr 28

Writing: We Claim What We Have Lived

During my first year as a pastor, a wise friend told me to make a habit of journaling through and about the many and varied experiences and people that I encountered in my daily work.  I’ve not been as regular with this as I should, but I have found that when I do make a practice of writing about experiences and how they affect me, it invariably brings a measure of clarity and, often, newfound resolve to whatever situation happens to be looming large, whether positive or negative. Read more

Apr 27

11 Comments

A New Network and a New(ish) Look

Sometimes I (somewhat hypocritically) lament the limitations of the blogging world, the kind of discourse it does/does not promote, the nastiness and/or triviality that can creep in, etc, but there are many good things about blogging as well!  And one of these good things is discovering thoughtful and intelligent writers and thinkers out there whose reflections are all brought together into blog networks (I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the CC Blog Network, for example). Read more

Jan 30

7 Comments

Home

I’ve had the opportunity to travel back to my hometown in southern Alberta twice over the last month or so, once for a late Christmas and once for a funeral. A small town on the prairies was home for virtually all of my first thirty years until we left four and a half years ago to begin graduate studies in Vancouver. Going back always feels good and often leads to interesting times of reflection. Read more

Jan 12

1 Comment

To Become a See-er

One of the blogs I have come to deeply appreciate over the last little while is that of Winnipeg singer/songwriter Steve Bell.  Steve is an enormously talented human being whose music I have admired for some time and who I have gone to see in concert whenever and wherever the opportunity presents itself (most recently, I saw him perform at Regent College last September).  I began following Steve’s blog last year and have discovered that his talents are many and diverse!  Not surprisingly—he is, after all, a songwriter—Steve has a way with words and his posts often leave me with much to ponder. Read more

Jan 4

7 Comments

Paying Attention

A New Year is upon us and it seems like as good a time as any to take a step back and think about any goals, hopes, expectations I might have for 2010.  I’ve never been one for making New Year’s resolutions, but if I could isolate one thing that I would like to characterize the coming year to a greater extent than it has any of my previous years it would be this: I would like to pay better attention. Read more

Dec 23

49 Comments

A Christmas Story

Tuesdays are usually a bit different than other days for me. My wife works from 2-9 pm so I pick the kids up from school and work from home. Or at least I try to. Of course, there are inevitably numerous distractions, minor crises and irritants to put up with, as well as such essential tasks as dinner preparation, help with homework, the circus of bedtime, and any number of other things to deal with. Suffice to say, that Tuesday afternoon/evening is not typically the most productive time of my week. Read more

Oct 1

18 Comments

A (Mini) Milestone

A few months ago, I came across this picture on Gil’s blog and had a good chuckle. There is much that is true about this caption. Blogs are a dime a dozen, and most vastly overestimate both the scope of their influence and the significance of their content. I printed the picture off and it hangs beside my desk as an omnipresent reminder of the perils of blogging. Read more

Sep 7

14 Comments

On Fish Wars and a “Drive-By Culture”

Vancouver Island is not a place known for being a hotbed of some of the “culture wars” that take place south of the border. As far as I’ve been able to tell in one year, it is a very post-Christian environment with a whole bunch of eclectic spiritualities from quasi-paganism to charismatic Christianity to the garden variety unreflective secularism that you see anywhere else in the modern west. Having said all that, I’ve been surprised to notice that the “fish wars” seem to have a small but noticeable presence over here. Read more

Sep 2

32 Comments

It’s 1989 All Over Again!

From the “it’s about time” file comes today’s news that my beloved Calgary Flames have decided to rewind the clock and wear retro jerseys from the 1980’s for five home games this year in order to commemorate their 30th anniversary.  These jerseys will always have a special place in my heart.  The Flames wore these the night they became the only visiting team ever to hoist the Stanley Cup in the hallowed Montreal Forum (and made a 14 year old boy very happy!).  The return of the jerseys are just the first step.  I can see it all now… The glory of 1989 is returning! Read more

Jul 6

19 Comments

Hockey Heaven

Well, we’re nicely into July now so I figured it was high time for a post about… hockey? What can I say—I’m as Canadian as they come. Like many kids growing up on the prairies, I was obsessed with hockey as a child. I played on ice, on grass, and on concrete. I played table hockey and video game hockey. I watched hockey religiously every Saturday night (we didn’t have a TV for part of my childhood so every Saturday night my brother and I would race across the yard to my grandparents’ house to watch Hockey Night in Canada on their black and white television). I collected hockey cards and my brother and I would spend hours arranging them according to every conceivable category, memorizing endless numbers of players and their statistics along the way. Read more

Jun 21

12 Comments

Freedom, Decency, and the MMVA’s

A few weeks ago I discovered that one of the many useless channels that I am now privileged to have access to as a cable television subscriber is a channel called Much Music (I wasn’t aware that my TV went above channel 100… or what combination of buttons on my remote would lead me to this uncharted territory; for most of my life, I’ve made do with five channels or less).  I used to sneak a peak at MM whenever I could as a teenager because I rarely got to see music videos and was strangely fascinated by this brave new (at least to me) world of music and entertainment. Read more

Mar 18

11 Comments

The Magniloquent David Bentley Hart

I remember a friend from graduate school remarking last year about the experience of reading David Bentley Hart and the challenge to one’s vocabulary this presented.  While I have not read Hart’s magum opus (The Beauty of the Infinite), I did enjoy The Doors of the Sea and am currently making my way (slowly) through his recent collection of essays entitled In the Aftermath: Provocations and Laments.  Let’s just say that the online dictionary is getting a workout… Read more

Mar 12

132 Comments

God Loves Women Too, Right?

Of the many things that Jesus might have been getting at when he urged his followers to become “like little children,” I think near the top of my list would be the flat-out curiosity and forthrightness that I see so often in my own kids. I have found conversations with a couple of seven year-olds to be about as interesting (and reliable) a source of theological insight as any books on my shelf or sermons I hear (or deliver!). Read more

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