Props to Gwyneth for pointing this one out to me.
Seeing Vigelands Skulpturparken and Karl Johans gate made me smile.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
This is what happens when I'm forced to write 7000 words in a formal, academic style with footnotes and other proper citations:
Here we all sit,
in our blue jeans.
Poring over books and notes and doodles we have left in the margins.
Like soldiers on a battlefield,
we bond over a shared sense of hardship:
the pressure of the next exam,
the stress of rewriting those final two pages.
It seems all too present now, yet I can't help but think that in 20 years we will barely remember these times.
20 years from now...
We are young, we are white, we are rich.
We are tomorrow's leaders (or so they keep telling us).
The guy on my left - where will he be 20 years from now?
How about the girl who just walked through the door?
Will we have accepted our responsibility as stewards of the planet?
Will we use our wealth and education to eradicate climate change and global poverty?
The realist, who is also called the pessimist, inside of me says "no, nothing will ever change."
But it's got to.
It's the only thing that keeps me going.
The potential to alter the course of human history with
Love and Grace.
and Hope.
Why am I alive if not for this purpose?
20 years from now...
I'm not entirely certain how the whole thing will roll out.
And frankly, I'm a little scared.
But I do know that it starts here,
sitting in my blue jeans.
in our blue jeans.
Poring over books and notes and doodles we have left in the margins.
Like soldiers on a battlefield,
we bond over a shared sense of hardship:
the pressure of the next exam,
the stress of rewriting those final two pages.
It seems all too present now, yet I can't help but think that in 20 years we will barely remember these times.
20 years from now...
We are young, we are white, we are rich.
We are tomorrow's leaders (or so they keep telling us).
The guy on my left - where will he be 20 years from now?
How about the girl who just walked through the door?
Will we have accepted our responsibility as stewards of the planet?
Will we use our wealth and education to eradicate climate change and global poverty?
The realist, who is also called the pessimist, inside of me says "no, nothing will ever change."
But it's got to.
It's the only thing that keeps me going.
The potential to alter the course of human history with
Love and Grace.
and Hope.
Why am I alive if not for this purpose?
20 years from now...
I'm not entirely certain how the whole thing will roll out.
And frankly, I'm a little scared.
But I do know that it starts here,
sitting in my blue jeans.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Homosexuality
I've been working a lot at Lixian's place lately in an effort to finish my final essays for the semester. Tonight, she went to bed early but I stayed up chatting with her friends/roommates and eventually realized that I was alone in a room with 3 gay people (2 guys and a girl).
As I thought more about it I realized that, perhaps sadly, this was the largest number of homosexuals I'd ever knowingly been in a conversation with. They are all great people, and I will make an effort to get to know each of them better.
As I thought more about it I realized that, perhaps sadly, this was the largest number of homosexuals I'd ever knowingly been in a conversation with. They are all great people, and I will make an effort to get to know each of them better.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Addendum
Today I also came across this article about Canada's role in Afghanistan and thought it nicely complemented my previous post.
11-11-11
It's Rememberance Day. Or at least it is in Canada and the UK. I kinda forgot cuz they don't celebrate it here.
My friend Matt from back home suggested that I write something about it, so here it is. 'This Bud's for you.'
The point of Rememberance Day is to honour the veterans of wars. This is typically displayed by wearing a red poppy. The problem is, I don't believe in violence. I never asked anyone to harm another human being on my behalf, so for this reason I don't show visible support for such actions.
I recognize that this is a rather controversial view and as such, when discussing it in real life, I tend not to be as blunt as I was above. Nevertheless, people go on about how brave their relatives were and how if it weren't for them we'd all be speaking German right now. And maybe that's the case. For the record, my own grandfather served in World War II and had a shell land right beside him which damaged his hearing for the rest of his life. He died almost 10 years ago now, but I have a feeling he wouldn't agree with what I'm about to say either.
The thing is, I believe that when Jesus said "Love your neighbour," and more than that, "Love your enemies," he actually MEANT it. Not in a theoretical, abstract way but in a conclusive, down to earth fashion. And if this results in your personal subjugation or even destruction, well y'know what? There's more to existence than just this life. At least, I hope to God that there is. That's the whole point of martyrdom. It's not easy, and it's certainly not desirable, but I don't understand how followers of Christ can, in good conscience, harm or kill another child of God.
Violence is the least creative solution. It takes no imagination to punch someone in the face when I'm angry, but it takes much more creativity to work through problems and come up with a way that both parties can leave a conflict with a sense of justice and dignity. Where is that sense of inventiveness? Where is our compassion for our fellow human beings? Although it does not make it any more acceptable, I can see how in days past it would be quite easy to demonize the 'Other,' and see the enemy as less than human; but in our increasingly globalized world, now more than ever it is a travesty that people from one culture would want to kill people from another and not see them as brothers and sisters. Equality. and Love. We need to believe that love conquers all evil because if we lose that then we are hopeless as the human race. If we can't come up with a better solution than killing one another off then we might as well pack it all in right now.
Now, I recognize that after these comments a lot of people will think that I'm naive and idealistic, and I'm fine with that. To further add fuel to that particular fire, consider this: war is declared by countries but made by individuals. If soldiers chose to put down their guns, if pilots refused to get into their bombers, if the guy sitting in the base 5000km away didn't push the button to launch the cruise missiles, then war would cease to exist. I believe there are better alternatives, even if that means dying in a way that our culture considers inglorious. Because ultimately we aren't judged by our society, but by the Big One Upstairs. I don't see courage in blindly following an order that is handed down to you by a commanding officer; I see courage in those who challenge the existing norms and dare to dream of a brighter future for every single human being on this planet, which we all share together.
This is why I don't wear a red poppy on Rememberance Day.
My friend Matt from back home suggested that I write something about it, so here it is. 'This Bud's for you.'
The point of Rememberance Day is to honour the veterans of wars. This is typically displayed by wearing a red poppy. The problem is, I don't believe in violence. I never asked anyone to harm another human being on my behalf, so for this reason I don't show visible support for such actions.
I recognize that this is a rather controversial view and as such, when discussing it in real life, I tend not to be as blunt as I was above. Nevertheless, people go on about how brave their relatives were and how if it weren't for them we'd all be speaking German right now. And maybe that's the case. For the record, my own grandfather served in World War II and had a shell land right beside him which damaged his hearing for the rest of his life. He died almost 10 years ago now, but I have a feeling he wouldn't agree with what I'm about to say either.
The thing is, I believe that when Jesus said "Love your neighbour," and more than that, "Love your enemies," he actually MEANT it. Not in a theoretical, abstract way but in a conclusive, down to earth fashion. And if this results in your personal subjugation or even destruction, well y'know what? There's more to existence than just this life. At least, I hope to God that there is. That's the whole point of martyrdom. It's not easy, and it's certainly not desirable, but I don't understand how followers of Christ can, in good conscience, harm or kill another child of God.
Violence is the least creative solution. It takes no imagination to punch someone in the face when I'm angry, but it takes much more creativity to work through problems and come up with a way that both parties can leave a conflict with a sense of justice and dignity. Where is that sense of inventiveness? Where is our compassion for our fellow human beings? Although it does not make it any more acceptable, I can see how in days past it would be quite easy to demonize the 'Other,' and see the enemy as less than human; but in our increasingly globalized world, now more than ever it is a travesty that people from one culture would want to kill people from another and not see them as brothers and sisters. Equality. and Love. We need to believe that love conquers all evil because if we lose that then we are hopeless as the human race. If we can't come up with a better solution than killing one another off then we might as well pack it all in right now.
Now, I recognize that after these comments a lot of people will think that I'm naive and idealistic, and I'm fine with that. To further add fuel to that particular fire, consider this: war is declared by countries but made by individuals. If soldiers chose to put down their guns, if pilots refused to get into their bombers, if the guy sitting in the base 5000km away didn't push the button to launch the cruise missiles, then war would cease to exist. I believe there are better alternatives, even if that means dying in a way that our culture considers inglorious. Because ultimately we aren't judged by our society, but by the Big One Upstairs. I don't see courage in blindly following an order that is handed down to you by a commanding officer; I see courage in those who challenge the existing norms and dare to dream of a brighter future for every single human being on this planet, which we all share together.
This is why I don't wear a red poppy on Rememberance Day.
Friday, November 09, 2007
From the ends of the earth
Last night I went to Chateau Neuf and sat through an hour and fifteen minute long interview with my favourite Norwegian author, Erlend Loe. The whole thing occurred in Norwegian, naturally, which made it a bit tedious (given that I understand almost no Norwegian), but I still think it was worth it! I got to chat with him a bit afterwards and got him to sign my copy of Naive. Super. (Which I told him was one of the best books I've ever read and he responded "Really?! Well that is nice to hear.") He was a gigantic man (nearly as tall as me!) and really soft-spoken. Not what I expected at all, but awesome nevertheless!
Now totally unrelated, check out this video of seven guys beatboxing on the subway, it's amazing! I need to give credit to Oria for bringing it to my attention. Almost better than the performance itself are the reactions of the passengers around them!
And actually, in many ways it reminds me of the folks at Improv Everywhere, which I have mentioned before and clearly think are fantastic.
Now totally unrelated, check out this video of seven guys beatboxing on the subway, it's amazing! I need to give credit to Oria for bringing it to my attention. Almost better than the performance itself are the reactions of the passengers around them!
And actually, in many ways it reminds me of the folks at Improv Everywhere, which I have mentioned before and clearly think are fantastic.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Courtesy of Burlington, Ontario
My dear friend Matthew Nigel Howell sent me the following message on Facebook and I thought that it was too good to keep to myself. Thus I asked his permission to share it with the world, and permission was granted. So without further ado:
"Last night was 'devil's night', typically a great night of adrenaline and mischief for young folks. Jody and I were sitting in the living room, which has a rather large window with an unobstructed view right to the road (Drury Lane), watching TV when SPLAT, an egg appeared on the window. We arrived at the front door just in time to see a little red car drive off. Slightly bitter, more because in our old age we had let our devil's night guard down than because of the egg on the window, I stood out front with the hose washing the window off.
I then prepared for round 2, now realizing how tempting our window was, by placing a tomato near the front door so that we could return the favour to our next eggers.
About one hour latter the second SPLAT came and I was up and gone like a bat out of hell! I exited the front door with enough time to see two young souls turning down the side street (courtland).
Now let me intervine in this story and explain that the street they were parked on was a dead end... yes a dead end. So as I rounded the corner and stood in front of their car, enjoying the intense looks of fear on each face, they had nowhere to go. I menacingly signaled for them to exit the vehicle to no avail. Not realizing they were on a dead end they reversed down the entire street right to central park, only giving jody enough time to put his shoes on and join the fun.
The car returned trying one final time to make an escape but with my body planted in between their front bumper and freedom they knew I had won. Jody told them to get out of the car, which they did... well all of the girls at least, the little bastard boy (who I am sure up until this incident had been feeling like the 'cool guy' 'mr. badass' driving around town egging houses with a bunch of girls), the one who actually threw the egg stayed cowering in the back seat.
Any way we had a laugh with the girls (their friend thought I was going to 'kick the shit out of him' - I then told them how violent I tend to be... and then the girls thought we would call the cops, to which we responded " BAH HAHAHA ya right!"), as they cleaned the window we explained to them that you should never turn off your engine when egging a house, let alone park on a dead-end street, along with this we taught them the drive-by technique of just pulling to the side of the road opening a door firing an egg, hopping back in and driving away, as a much more effective means of egging a house.
Another lesson taught by Jod and Matty"
"Last night was 'devil's night', typically a great night of adrenaline and mischief for young folks. Jody and I were sitting in the living room, which has a rather large window with an unobstructed view right to the road (Drury Lane), watching TV when SPLAT, an egg appeared on the window. We arrived at the front door just in time to see a little red car drive off. Slightly bitter, more because in our old age we had let our devil's night guard down than because of the egg on the window, I stood out front with the hose washing the window off.
I then prepared for round 2, now realizing how tempting our window was, by placing a tomato near the front door so that we could return the favour to our next eggers.
About one hour latter the second SPLAT came and I was up and gone like a bat out of hell! I exited the front door with enough time to see two young souls turning down the side street (courtland).
Now let me intervine in this story and explain that the street they were parked on was a dead end... yes a dead end. So as I rounded the corner and stood in front of their car, enjoying the intense looks of fear on each face, they had nowhere to go. I menacingly signaled for them to exit the vehicle to no avail. Not realizing they were on a dead end they reversed down the entire street right to central park, only giving jody enough time to put his shoes on and join the fun.
The car returned trying one final time to make an escape but with my body planted in between their front bumper and freedom they knew I had won. Jody told them to get out of the car, which they did... well all of the girls at least, the little bastard boy (who I am sure up until this incident had been feeling like the 'cool guy' 'mr. badass' driving around town egging houses with a bunch of girls), the one who actually threw the egg stayed cowering in the back seat.
Any way we had a laugh with the girls (their friend thought I was going to 'kick the shit out of him' - I then told them how violent I tend to be... and then the girls thought we would call the cops, to which we responded " BAH HAHAHA ya right!"), as they cleaned the window we explained to them that you should never turn off your engine when egging a house, let alone park on a dead-end street, along with this we taught them the drive-by technique of just pulling to the side of the road opening a door firing an egg, hopping back in and driving away, as a much more effective means of egging a house.
Another lesson taught by Jod and Matty"
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