Easter: Mar. 27/05

.

She likes Tim.

Derek & Friend

Breakfast

Egg Story

In the Garden

Eggs!!

.

Birthday

I certainly want to blog my thanks and appreciation before too many days pass by to everyone who participated in my special birthday party and/or gift.

Thank you especially Tim and Miriam (Kia, Juliet & ?) who hosted the party and had special roles in the gift -- the makeover shopping trip(s). Tim was Exec. Producer and Glasses Expert. Miriam was one of my beautiful and stylish fashion advisors. (I suppose ? was, too.) The others were Erica and Sylvia. Charisse had signed on too but last minute circumstances intervened. Travis was the videographer and editor of the recorded version of our outings.

It was a fun day -- tiring due to late night hockey, Robin's Donutting and blogreading the night before. But really it was the ladies who did most of the running around up and down the aisles. For the most part I was just walking in and out of the changing room (accidentally locking it several times). I simply had to make decisions about what I was modelling at the time based on the amount of ecstasy expressed by the women's ooohs and aws.

It was nice to have several circles of my friends overlapping there, ranging from many from my Dorion Bible Camp years to some from Cambrian Players. The timing was a bit awkward for my new Anglican friends (due to Holy Saturday events) but several did wish me well in advance (well in advance).

Pictures

Thanks Shroom for phoning from our nation's capital.

(Ottawa)

FWIW

I am the Girl Next Door! I'm caring, warm, and the girl that nice guys want to marry. Uncomplicated and simple, I've got an easy going attitude guys love. But this doesn't mean I'm dull - far from it! I'm a great conversationalist, and I'm an expert at living the good life. What Kind of Girl Are You? Take This Quiz :-)

I saw this on a couple of girls' blogs and figured I might as well give it a try.

(Too much hanging around at mindsay.)

Thankful

Thankful
I was sitting in the sauna at my parents' condo today and thinking how thankful I am for them in helping me in so many ways (such as the meals I have with them usually 2x a week) and all the help & support they've been over these last couple of painful years

-- plus saunas!

(Like some people after a big event -- I won't list all you other people you have been of similar support, lest I forget anyone. As well, it might appear as if I'm listing references.)

PS Just trying to make sure I don't make onto Shroom's Blogger Hall of Shame (due to staleness).

This is for you, Robin. 

Frontline Cafes: March 2005

.

In no particular order.

.

The Bible

I really like the following paragraph from Brian D. McLaren's More Ready Than You Realize which we are studying together with Frontline.

"If you have grown up with the Bible, you have no idea how difficult the book can be for the uninitiated -- until you enter a spiritual friendship with someone like Alice. Meanwhile, we preachers constantly reassure people that the Bible is simple and easy to understand, I suppose motivated by a desire to encourage people to read it. But our reassurances are counterproductive as well as dishonest. We would be better off preparing people realistically: The Bible is an extremely difficult book for modern and post-modern readers alike. (The Bible is more honest about itself in this regard than we are. See 2 Peter 3:15-16, for example.) It is definitely worth
the effort, but make no mistake, it will take much effort.

... We are asking [readers] ...to step out of their modern and postmodern
paradigms and into the worldviews of people far removed geographically
and historically." (Emphasis mine)

I suppose this appeals to me, because -- besides the fact that this just plain seems to be true (but what is obvious to one is not necessarily obvious to another) -- I do tend to believe that life, faith and everything are not simple or answered "patly". I despair at people who disdain my attention to detail and am tempted to think of them as lazy and unintelligent, which, without a good knowledge of their thought patterns, is not fair. Just as people who pick at my my "pickiness" are not being fair either. I do realize that some people are Big-Picture people. OTOH I do believe that there are some people who are, in fact, neither. But they have other valuable contributions to make.

But I digress.

My only concern about the quoted paragraph above is that it may put the Bible back into the hands of the experts. But that is not McLaren's intention. I believe that he wants the Bible to be understood in the context of the entire community (throughout the world and all HISTORY). This can get messy. It will probably result in there often being a lot of possibly right answers and not just one. But I'm comfortable with that, too. I think that's how it is.

(To be honest, I'm comfortable in principle. Sometimes in encountering specific divergent points of view I may become agitated. However, these tend to be those POVs that arise from a simplistic reading of one proof text.)

Past week pastimes

Let's see if I can do this from memory.

Last Sunday afternoon was the Frontline Monthly Gathering at Pentneys'. In the evening was our church's Coffeehouse #5 and I premiered "Free Stanley" and also sang "Fanatics" from my never-to-be-performed musical "Philippi".

Monday I must just have worked on email, webpage and blog stuff. I think that's what I did in the evening too.

Tuesday "Free Stanley" was played locally in the a.m. and on As It Happens in the evening. I managed to catch it live at Lappalas' before Tim and I went off to the Steve Earle concert. Lots of music (and some ranting) for our money. I don't remember what I did during the day, probably email, webpages and so forth.

Wednesday: Met with Eric and Tim in the morning at Tim's and stayed there for lunch. Church Worship Ministry and Pizza mtg at supper time. After that I recorded a simple version of Free Stanley at home.

Thursday afternoon I had cawfy with Annika at Seattle Mem and then supper with my parents, followed by church Small Group at Lappalas'.

Friday: webpage stuff again and church worship planning. In the evening I attended St. Thomas' Anglican's youth's Soul Survivor night. Then I played hockey (not for Stanley). Eric, Matt and I clicked well. I got a couple of assists from my "office" behind the net.

Saturday: worship planning, church open skate (& hockey) at PA Arena. Christine Clark of Frontline was working the concession stand and told me that some of her friends had come with her to the Frontline-Attend-Silvercity-Together night the night before, which was good to hear.

Sat. evening was a goodbye party for Sylvia's roomie Ruth. Good food plus Battling Tops, Rummy and Pit-Spoons. Tim clobbered us in the latter.

This morning. Led singing, prayer and communion at church. Wendy's salad here at my parents' condo. Sauna followed by blogging.

Tada!

Skating Party: Mar. 5/05

.

JHMW

MCW1

"Move it!"

Bailey

Fri. Night Guys

Friends

"Buy a hotdog."

.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

To hear my song "Free Stanley" as it was aired last Tuesday on the national CBC Radio-1 show "As It Happens" click here. Advance the real audio 17:46 to locate the song.

Thank you Brian Jones (who has also been on national CBC Radio-1) for locating this. (A slightly different version was aired on local CBC-1 that morning as well.)

Millie Pytyck

Millie Pytyck
Carol Sainio (Camp Dorion assistant cook and former board member) writes,

Millie (former long-time head cook) is currently staying with her sister, but this is a temporary arrangement, and she is in need of a place to stay soon. The apartment has been totally gutted [by fire] -- all drywall has to be replaced, so the repairs will take some time -- no one has said exactly how long it will take.

Millie lost almost everything and will be in need of furniture, clothes and household items. Here dishes were saved and some of her books. Please, ask your contacts to pray for a place for her soon. She would like to be in the Port Arthur area. Thanks for your concern for her. I'll let her know that you are praying.

In Christ, Carol.
-----------------
I am reasonably sure that Millie has *not* decided to curse God and die over this, but it is a disturbing reminder that someone can serve God for so long (far better than I ever did or do) and still suffer tragic loss. An aggravating reality of life -- or, as I say, disturbing or even frightening. Gives some perspective. Shakes up the easy answers. I don't really know what to say. But anyway maybe there is something we can do to help.

Free Stanley

Yesterday morning local CBC radio aired my "Free Stanley" song (sung into the phone). Last night "As It Happens" aired it nationally and host Barbara (or was it Mary Lou?) responded "orgasmically" (as Shroom says, that is, with a lot more excitement and enthusiasm than I'm used to from women).

When I premiered it at St. Thomas' Anglican dinner I felt a little odd, because of what I called the "almost profanity". This isn't an apology and, if you've heard the song, you get the joke and you don't need an explanation. I just didn't want the kids to catch onto the sing-songy chorus and go around annoying and slightly-shocking their parents singing it (and me getting the blame!) I was probably giving myself too much credit!!

Pondering:

I've changed quite a bit in my attitude towards what people call swearing (and what I prefer to call "taboo language") in the last several years. I used to be quite proud of myself that I didn't "swear". Even now I want to tell you that I don't frequently use taboo words, not so much because I think that makes me good, but because I don't want you to think I'm bad. I still care what people think. This is a problem.

Now it *was* years ago in my university studies that I learned that most of the "bad words" (of the bathroom/bedroom variety, not the religious kind) acquired their unacceptable status because of class snobbery (the fact that these were the words which the common Anglo Saxons had routinely used for these functions and parts, while their conquerors, the French-speaking Norman nobility, used longer words of Latin or Greek origin and considered these polite).

Conquest of another people group with resulting racist attitudes about language doesn't strike me as an adequate basis for moral judgements.

But the guilt of association does make some people uncomfortable and even here I will observe the illogical conventions of blanking out letters to avoid unnecessarily making readers such as my mother uncomfortable.

Sometimes we do become aware of associations or origins and adjust our language. I remember when Shroom made us aware that he was uncomfortable with "that sucks" because of its original reference to fellatio (note: Latin word!) C'mon, don't pretend you didn't know that! Anyway, he had a good point.

But some word origins are so buried in history that it is useless to say "do you know what the really means?" when it now means what "everybody" understands it to mean (for better or for worse). I guess this also applies to the Anglo-Saxon origin concept given above BUT still knowing that helps me not to treat the current conventions of language as absolute and a moral issue in themselves. (The moral issues is how we treat people, which is reflected somewhat, but imperfectly, in how we speak.)

Another step in my change in attitude was experiencing disapproval of the word B-S- by B-S-ers (those with little regard for accuracies of detail). Objecting to the word, but not the practice. When I was young and (more) judgemental of people's "dirty" language, I must have fallen into this pitfall. God, help me avoid it in the future.

Once someone chided me for a (written) instance of "vernacular" language (not realizing "vernacular" simply means the language that people speak rather than "official" languages like Latin). This was Anglo-Saxon "bathroom" language to describe how I felt at the time. Later I heard this person say "damn" in vain. Well, to my mind referring lightly to damn(ation) is worse than "potty mouth" (although this is not recognized by the secular movie-ratings people). I'd rather land in a pile of crap (to use an acceptable vulgarity) than in damnation.

Well, I could say that I was feeling extremely emotionally provoked at the time. So was s/he at his/her time -- and if we had engaged in an arguement over which means of expressing those emotions is worse, especially if we were to ignore the emotions behind the words, it would have been the overflow of petty minds.

(Yes, I've given my opinion here, but I acknowledge that there are other factors of perception etc. that make the issue more nuanced -- if it even matters at all.)


Both of these conversations were relatively private, btw, which might be a different matter than performing a song or routine full of gratuitous "swears" in front of impressionable minds -- that is, pretty much anyone. But on the other hand reminding people [like me] who don't give a flying f--- about democracy by saying it in so many words might indeed solidly underline the point.

But what is "gratuitous"?

Usually your "swears" but not mine.

In "Demolition Man" citizens are automatically fined every time they use such objectionable language. A buzzer goes off, an announcement is made and a ticket spews forth from a slot in the wall. However, no buzz is heard when the various characters insult one another using "clean" language.

I realize that you parents face these issues in a different way than I do day to day (although I did face them at Camp Dorion and other camps -- in my earlier years with far too much reactionary legalism).

I was greatly influenced by Monty Parks (who was no potty mouth) in a staff meeting in which we were "freaking out" about the great amount of "swearing" among the campers. I sat through sessions like this every few years. Monty wisely reminded us that if all the campers learned that week was that they shouldn't say certain words, then we had missed the point of the week.

I guess that with very young children it may be necessary initially to teach them that "stupid" is a "bad word" even though it isn't always (is it?). I imagine it is probably easier to explain to them why that word is (usually) bad (that is, used to hurt people) than to explain why "sh--" is bad, "crap" is kinda bad and "poo" is cute. In many cases it might be most accurate to tell them that "sh--" is just a word that I don't want to hear you say, but which I might occasionally say myself. Now that would be hard to explain, but, as I say, in many cases, it might be the truth. Shouldn't we tell our children the truth?

But I would prefer myself to explain sooner rather than later to children that it is the *use* of words that can be bad. Fine "God talk" mixed with half-truths, "facts" undiscussed with the "accused" and altered details, in other words B--- S---, can be really used to hurt people and is a "bad" we need to eliminate from our lives.

(And it's stupid, too.)