CNN.com - Pastor electrocuted while performing baptism - Oct 31, 2005

Churches do not often consider health and safety issues in worship, but they need to. I remember last year during the SARS crisis in Canada, we Catholics had to modify the pax, which had become risky behaviour.

Touching electrical equipment while standing in a conductive fluid is a very bad idea. The immersion baptisms that baptist churches do should involve no microphones whatsoever. As a musician, I can't tell you how many times I have been shocked while touching my guitar strings and the microphone ball at the same time... and that was while totally dry!

CNN.com - Pastor electrocuted while performing baptism - Oct 31, 2005

CNN.com - Cheney's top aide quits after indictment - Oct 28, 2005

Well the other shoe dropped. From my perspective here in Canada, where senior bureaucrats seem to be charged in AdScam every other day, it doesn't seem like a very remarkable thing. However, I imagine it will be very much the topic of conversation down in the States!

CNN.com - Cheney's top aide quits after indictment - Oct 28, 2005

Loose Canon: Is Barack Obama a Spiritual Leader?

Poor Loose Canon at BeliefNet. She writes that she is not a "spiritual person" but believes in the Magisterium.

Loose Canon: Is Barack Obama a Spiritual Leader?

But how can you reconcile those two statements? Belief without spirituality is not faith. And it certainly is not authentic Catholic faith, which requires a conversion of heart every time one approaches the altar rail.

In the Bible, Jesus continually singles out the different, and puts them before the religiously-correct Pharisees to show them what authentic faith really is. Consider the Roman centurion who has been made immortal in our liturgy: "Lord I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word..."

Of this man, probably a Greek pagan in Judaea, Jesus said that he had not seen faith like that in all Israel.

The Vatican II declaration NOSTRA AETATE, says on this:

In Hinduism, men contemplate the divine mystery and express it through an inexhaustible abundance of myths and through searching philosophical inquiry. They seek freedom from the anguish of our human condition either through ascetical practices or profound meditation or a flight to God with love and trust. Again, Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination. Likewise, other religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing "ways," comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites. The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions.

She takes to task a 19th century writer named Higginson saying, "But I never for an instant have supposed that this concentrated moment of devotion was more holy or more beautiful than when one cry from a minaret hushes a Mohammedan city to prayer..." I think she may have been trying to make the point that we can't develop a mushy ecumenicalism in which we all merge our religions into a single ecumenical whole.

In that, I agree. However, I'm not sure this was Higginson's point, he was simply waxing poetic from his own perspective. He would not have been able to have those experiences without the fervent and specific adherence of each faith's own believers.

For those of us who are in specific religions, we do our best to immerse ourselves as fully as we can. But as in Nostra Aetate above, that can still include accepting there can be much that "is true and holy in these religions."

Idiotic despot calls for genocide

CNN.com - Iranian leader: Wipe out Israel - Oct 27, 2005

Woman sees husband off to war, gets fired - U.S. Life - MSNBC.com

Here's a story that will raise your hackles...

Woman sees husband off to war, gets fired - U.S. Life - MSNBC.com: "Benefit Management"

Which reminds me of a joke

Frankie wants to win the lottery. He wants to win the lottery so badly that he slips into the sanctuary at St. Anthony's every night, looks around, and if he sees the confessionals and pews are empty, he pleads at the altar rail. He says, "Lord, please, please, let me win the lottery! I just wanna catch a break in life!"

This goes on for twenty years, every night that exposition takes place. "Please, Lord!! Let me win the lottery!!"

Finally, a booming voice, shaking the pillars and stations, announces itself from on high.

"FRANKIE. MEET ME HALFWAY. BUY A TICKET!!"

Silly Greed

CTV.ca | Lineups long for tickets to $40M lotto jackpot

Whenever I go up to the corner store counter, the guy at the counter says, "You want lotto tickets?"

"No thanks," I reply.

"Why not? You know the jackpot is seventeen million?"

"What would I do with seventeen million dollars?"

The clerk usually stands there dumbfounded, as though they cannot comprehend my question. But I think it is a salient point - what would I do with that much money? Oh, I know the usual, pay some bills, go on a vacation, get various relatives out of debt, secure the kids' futures.

But you know what? Everything's going to be just fine without all that money. So why I do I need it?

In the link above, CTV notes the jackpot has gone higher than it ever goes in Canada, although this is quite tame by California lottery standards. Statistically, we should know the score. The more people there are buying tickets, the less likely you are to win. The higher the jackpot goes, the longer your odds go.

Consider the community center raffle - let us say they are giving away a toaster, but a really nice one. Now - if you buy a raffle ticket and ten others do as well, are your odds better or worse than if a thousand other people buy that ticket?

It works the same in a lottery. The bigger it goes, the longer your already long odds. And who really needs forty million dollars?

The Globe and Mail: Polluted reserve to be evacuated

This is totally inexcusable. A native community on the shores of James Bay has been without drinkable water for two years. The Federal government oversees aboriginal communities, and is responsible for native health and welfare. Unlike most other G8 countries, our government's coffers are bursting with cash. The federal government has been swimming in budget surpluses for seven years.

It is absolutely criminal at a time when they have money flowing like water, that they cannot be bothered to tend to the water of some of our poorest people!

Polluted reserve to be evacuated

A grim marker

Much as I oppose the war, I can spare more than a thought and a prayer for the American soldiers. Why we fix on big round numbers like 2,000 I don't know. Losing 1990 soldiers was a terrible tragedy for the families who lost the 1990th soldier. In turn the 1991, 1992, 1993 marks were just as final and tragic for other families.

Losing a family member to war is an experience most of us don't know directly, but even we in that number have some sense of it. Somewhere in our family tree is someone who did not come back from a war, and as children, most of us knew an aunt with a sad smile she saved for a picture on the mantle, or a great grandmother who spoke longingly of an uncle you never knew...

First Coast News | Top Stories - U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Reaches 2,000

Transit strike

The local bus and train drivers are threatening to reject the offer made to their union here in Ottawa. If they do reject it, they could be out on strike within a week or two. Now I am a public transit user - I take the O-Train and the bus a lot. But I began to kick my transit addiction a bit this year, as I started biking just about everywhere that I go. Biking is even better for the environment than transit. (Public transit could be called a glorified car pool with lots of stops and rather large cars.)

But I am a little bit nervous about biking in late October and November. If it rains overnight, the bike lane could be icy first thing in the morning. And snow is not too far away. I'd be terrified, even with pretty ridgy tires, of trying to ride in that. Also, there is not a lot of daylight right now, and there will potentially be even less when Daylight Savings kicks out.

But the exercise will be good for me. In the last few months of biking, I have paradoxically felt worse and better than ever: worse in that my knees and backside were always sore; and better in that I don't get out of breath much and feel healthier now. We have an old exercise bike out in the garage. I wonder if I should bring it in? :-)

I betcha this gets GREAT mileage!

Puts hybrids to shame, I bet. But the trunk space is likely limited.

Rice scientists build world's first single-molecule car | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

CNN.com - 'God blogging' workshop spreads faith - Oct 17, 2005

This is an interesting quote: Some predicted bloggers could play a role in reforming the modern church by keeping televangelists and other high-profile Christian leaders honest. One of the ironies of blogging on religious topics is that the blogger can confront both rampant apostasy, and yet also rattle the cages of orthodoxy. While it is possible to do this without the Internet (think Ole Anthony), the Internet does more to blow the doors wide open. It serves perhaps as a uniquely 21st century spin on the prophecy that "There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known." (Luke 12:2)

No religious leader will be able to avoid the scrutiny of the flock in this day and age.

CNN.com - 'God blogging' workshop spreads faith - Oct 17, 2005

Grey skies

The sky in mid to late Autumn is always grey. This can be a very oppressive thing. I have at least one friend who has to be treated for the depression resulting from the lack of light.

One of the good things about the eventual coming of Advent and Christmas is all the candlelight. I imagine the same is true of Channukah. When the darkness surrounds, even one candle lit in hope has the power to put it out.

Ardeth Wood case

Two years ago, a woman using recreational trails that are all over the city of Ottawa was abducted and killed by an assailant whose sketch artist picture was on the cover of papers for weeks. The city was traumatized.

A suspect has been charged, one Christopher Myres. I've done some digging and found information about the North Bay incident that got the suspect into custody.

Here's the North Bay incident as announced in the North Bay police's news reports:

http://www.northbaypolice.on.ca/news_release_details.asp?Release_no=484

A North Bay blogger, Faith Love Dreams, has quoted a North Bay news story from that time period. It seems the woman who was assaulted was potentially saved from Ardeth's fate by a rescuer with a shovel.

blog.myspace.com/faithlovedreams

Hurricane Wilma

My parents just arrived in Florida. They say the weather is great, but needless to say, they are nervous about this:

ABC News: Wilma Roars Toward Yucatan, Southern Fla.

They're in the Gulf Coast, so hopefully they're going to avoid the brunt of this. Hopefully, everybody who is in the way of the storm can find a way to get out of the affected areas before the hurricane hits.

The way things tend to move on...

No sooner am I out of a music group when friends from church may have invited me to join theirs. Funny how these things just kind of happen. Part of the relentless movement of life from one phase to the next. This is a thing I think about a lot, as I have only four weeks or less to go before my fortieth birthday. How the heck did that happen? I was a young father not too long ago, and now my eldest is all grown up, and my youngest is a tween. :-)

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Stallone tries to regain eye of tiger

Yo, Adrian!! Where's my teeth??

Yes, it has been a while

The leaves have peaked. It usually all happens in a single weekend, and it did. We drove up to the cottage Saturday with a friend, and as we promised the oaks and maples looked like they were on fire. A heavy wind Sunday took many leaves off the limbs, undoing much of my work to remove them from the lawn.

My parents have gone down to Florida. They are undoubtedly there by now, and likely exhausted from the trip. I haven't blogged a lot lately. I have not really had a lot to say. And sometimes it is good to say little. A little listening, for a change, can go a long way. :-)

The music group I have belonged to since 1988 has, from what I can tell, finally folded. It ended on my door-step on Thursday, when the drummer returned my Fender Twin amplifier. He handed me an envelope, saying, “I think you should have this.” Inside were sheets of music, songs I had written long ago. “The horn charts,” He said, before turning around to help me get the amp out of the trunk.

So it is over. And an important part of my life is empty, right now. It is partly filled by my work with the folk group at church. But singing hymns that other people have written, as beautiful as they are, does not complete the picture for me. I have to be involved in creating. I have to figure out some way of breaking out of my shell, holed up in the basement recording studio. I have to learn how to make that connection again, and shed my hermit ways.

I was pleased with one thing, though. I wrote a song this weekend. And while I began it as a secular songwriting exercise, it quickly turned into another spiritual work. And I am grateful for that. I don't want my faith to dry up and wither, and I do worry sometimes that it might.

Tagged

I will shortly be doing this:

The Rules:
1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five other people to do the same.

....with the exception of #5. I hate imposing on people. So if anyone wishes to self-tag on this go ahead. I'm too.... well, deferential I suppose to try and make you. :-)

As to that sentence:

One of the critical elements of a stable government is (relative) security for its leaders - Iraqi "democracy" will not be able to survive attacks like this of any frequency - if Shiites start blaming Sunnis, or either look at the Kurds as agents of this sort of thing, the whole deal is off.

Funny how slowly things can change in the world. I remember once I cracked open a yearbook from 1969 or thereabouts. I did this for a school project in the 1980s. The first article I read was about world leaders being outraged by a coup in Libya, carried out by one Moammar Qadaffi. And of course, in the 1980s, world leaders spent a lot of time being outraged by Moammar Qadaffi, as at that point in time he was involved in quite a lot of mischief and terror. The headlines hadn't changed much.

So I can't say I'm surprised that my sentence reflects today, too, in a sense - in fact, so little has changed that maybe I am shown to be wrong. The effort to bring about democracy is still struggling along a year and a half later. Not truly succeeding, perhaps, but neither is the whole deal off.

God with us

I have a private miracle. It is the joy of the Eucharist, and it is private somehow even though it is in the presence of an entire congregation. It is the living flame of God's presence, real and made physically manifest through the accidental appearance of bread and wine.

Who could know that when Jesus said, when two or three of you gather in my name, I am there with you, that this is only the vaguest hint of how true that could be? Who could know that the saying that scared off so many disciples, who found it so disturbing and cannibalistic - my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink - reflects a grace of such profundity that it sends shivers and sparks up and down my spine to know about it?

Communion, the Last Supper, Eucharist: it is the alpha and omega of all Christian mysticism, and the true rapture. We are hoisted up to heaven for a moment as in our everyday skin we are lifted up to literally and actually touch God.

In memory of Mike Gibbins

Mike Gibbins, the drummer for Badfinger, a group I wrote about recently, died in his sleep October 6.

I met the man at one of their shows at Barrymore's downtown (the old Barrymore's.) He was a quiet man who did not say a lot, but a proud one. When I asked him and Joey Molland to sign my records, he took great care only to sign those records he had played on. What was remarkable was how well preserved they both were.

I had gone backstage between sets, and I noticed there were a number of hangers-on. I wondered how they felt about this, as various hangers-on, leeches, glory hounds, and siphoners had played no small part in their downfall. I remember one of the hangers-on claimed to be a "Rolling Stone" journalist. I didn't believe him, but what-the-hey. He intercepted me as I wound my way into the large backstage, anxious to meet my heroes. The guy said to me, "They like meeting their fans, but keep something in mind. The Apple days were the good days. Its a good idea to talk about the Apple Days. They won't want to talk about the other stuff."

I knew what he was alluding to. In 1973 Badfinger had switched labels to Warner Brothers as Apple collapsed. It was the beginning of the end of the good times for them. Mismanagement by their business managers, changing music tastes, embezzlement would soon cause problems. Guitarist Joey Molland would learn while staying in California that the whole industry knew the band was being screwed. He would leave the band after failing to convince Pete Ham of the problems. When Pete Ham finally learned it for himself, in April of 1975, he went into his garage and hanged himself. Tom Evans would follow over more band difficulties eight years later.

This was still fresh as I ignored the fake Rolling Stone guy and went back. The first person I met was the energetic and always smiling Joey Molland, though I soon spied Gibbins with the corner of my eye. They still looked exactly like the guys on the album sleeves 10-13 years later. Everything I had learned about the band, in these pre-internet days, I had pieced together from old newspaper reports, rock history books, and the scant details that could be gleaned from the albums – the songs and the album credits. So I asked Joey Molland about what it was like to work at Apple. And interestingly enough, he began telling me about the hangers-on. He told me about some guy who called himself “Dr. Magic” or something like that, and claimed to be an electronics guru/genius who could invent special special effects and sound equipment. He told me how the Beatles were just regular guys, and he'd see them around all the time.

My instincts were right about what I could ask. When I asked whether the medleys on “Wish You Were Here” were played right through or spliced together (recorded in 1974 as the dark times began inching towards their apex), he brightened up like I was asking a question he'd never been tossed before. In animated fashion he described how “Should I Smoke” had been welded to “Meanwhile Back at the Ranch,” going into great detail what happened in the studio.

Both he and Mike started talking about the medleys and how they'd done the vocals, and all the neat effects in them, (Mike Gibbins wrote half of the first medley.) It became clear that, whatever the problems, those times they made music and magic in the studio were always good times.

Mike's drumming was distinctive. Few drummers in the seventies worked harder at getting good drum sounds, and it is one of the reasons albums like 1974's “Wish You Were Here” hold up so well, as the drum sound is quite modern. Although Badfinger had the same melodic instincts as the Beatles, they were far stronger instrumentalists than anyone but Harrison – whom guitarists Molland and Ham could both go toe to toe with. Mike Gibbins played lots of fills and press rolls like Ringo Starr, but he knew how to groove and throw some power behind all that power-pop Ham, Evans, and Molland churned out up front.

Gibbins leaves behind a wife and three sons, who all appear to look exactly like him. Godspeed Mike. Look over your family from your new home...

BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | Tragedy-hit group's drummer dies

My other blog

Not updated since June... sorry about that!

The Gospel of John: John 1:41-51

Lord I am not worthy to receive you

It is no small coincidence that the person whose faith Jesus commends most in the gospels of Matthew and Luke is that of a foreigner - one whose cultural and religious beliefs were among the least like those of anyone else he met.

Who was this foreigner? By the accounts a Roman centurion, who was asking for Jesus to heal his servant. Jesus was prepared to yet again go out of his way and heal a person, but the centurion made clear he believed Jesus' had the power to simply make it so - without ever going near this servant. It is for this simple and trusting faith that he commends this Centurion through the ages to us as an example of how to believe.

Who we are is not defined by the accident of what race, gender, class, subgroup, or country we are born into. Who we are is what we do. And it is what we share. What we own up to. And how big our hearts are.

This makes no sense

Now I realize that the coalition is unhappy about how well the war has worked out for Iran - without lifting a finger, it has gained tremendous influence in Iraq. But this accusation, that Iran is helping the Sunnis, makes no sense. Why would Iran help:

- the ethnic group killing their co-religionists?
- the ethnic group that waged war on Iran and brought it tremendous death and misery?
- the ethnic group opposing its political allies in the Shia south?

I have to think Britain is just making this stuff up for the home front. Nobody who knows anything about the Shiite could easily believe such a fantastical thing - its the equivalent of that nutty French-originated conspiracy theory that Israel attacked New York...

The Globe and Mail: Iran called out

Home

We're in the middle of a heat wave. Now I remember many warm Indian summers. But this is actually a heat wave! I've been going around telling everyone that if this is global warming, bring it on!

This last weekend, we visited my parents on Quinte's Isle. They go south to Florida soon, and I'm always uneasy when they leave us and go out of range of travel for so long. The leaves in the County are starting to turn, but not on the very southern tip by the water where they are.

There it still felt like summer. In fact, with the good weather, I was determined I was going to take summer as far into October as I could. After starting a fire for my still sleeping wife and daughter Saturday morning, I got my water shoes, headed down to the water, and slowly, painfully eased myself, inch by inch, out into the water. After about ten minutes of doing this, I sunk myself in up to my neck, and shocked myself into acceptance. Then I dove under the water, and began swimming along the limestone cracks. It was summer again, briefly. I did this three more times on the weekend. The water, though cold, still had a summer look to it - normally the water goes darker and bluer. But it held its rich blue green colour. The trees on the limestone ledges were still green - those that were still standing from the big winds two days earlier. And down the bay, Outlet beach still shone with the bright white sand.

My parents threw me a kind-of birthday party - "kind of" because my birthday is still six weeks off. But it is a big one - four oh. I was touched. And even a little surprised - more surprised than I will be when the inevitable real surprise party comes.

When we left I had a long look at them - trying to memorize their features, their clothes, their stance. It will be a few months before I see them again. I have to hold onto that.

Yesterday, I saw another family member of mine. I was headed to Toronto on business first thing in the morning. I called my daughter from the airport, to make sure she was up. She mentioned that my brother had called looking for me - he hadn't seen me at the airport.

I looked around for him, round the back of the Tim Horton's and in the seats by the gate. I did not find him. I boarded the plane and took my seat. A newspaper whacked me in the head. I looked up, and he said, "My crazy brother!" I was relieved (the last time I was on a plane with him he announced loudly to the entire cabin that we were engaged, and headed to Ontario to be married.)My brother fiddled with his Crackberry for much of the flight, trying to arrange for a rental car at Pearson airport. We talked pleasantly about his business, his step-children, my daughter's horse lessons. My brother is usually hurrying from one priorityto the next, so it was good to have him captive for an hour.

There were no relatives on the flight home, but like my trip on the summer solstice, I flew home in the sunset. The haze from the heatwave blended the pink into the blue again, just like my site's background image does here. The orange glow of the deep sun drenched the rudders on the wing in warmth. Over in the distance, Quinte's Isle shimmered beautifully in the huge expanse of Lake Ontario. I looked up the sandbars, and found the point where Ihad been two days earlier. I considered how apropos this was. My moments of late have been filled with my family.

I touched the glass with my hands, and whispered softly, "Home."

Chimp no longer has monkey on his back

Even apes find it hard to give up the habit....

Chimp no longer has monkey on his back