i wanna study economics

Three economists go hunting.

They spot a deer through the trees. The first economists says, "Leave this to me!" He takes aim, shoots, and misses the deer by a meter to the left. The second economist says, "I can handle this." She takes aim, shoots, and misses the deer by a meter to the right. The third economist cries, "We got it! We got it!"

(Explanation: A lot of economic figures or what have you are based on averages.)

Lesson: Good economic statistics may not mean meat on the table.

orientation

"Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, mount of Thy redeeming love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer; here by Thy great help I've come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above."

float on

I've landed in once piece, yet again.
And this one's for you Jen, with your small world connections: I found out that the guy who picked me up from the airport and I have a past housemate in common. What are the odds?

It is very strange to be back in a menno land.

heroism

The day before yesterday one of my new housemates was riding the bus. It swerved to avoid something and a woman was thrown into a window and seriously injured. My housemate, who has 10 years of life-guarding under her belt, dove into the situation, trying to stop the woman's bleeding and keep her head and neck from being further messed up until the ambulance arrived. No one else on the bus seemed to have any idea what to do.

My housemate's hands got covered in blood. Since she had some little cuts on them, she called an AIDS helpline to ask if she should be concerned or what she should do. Apparently the people on the helpline laughed at her concern. Which on the one hand was good, but on the other hand, wasn't really what she needed immediately after a frightening experience.

The long and short of it is that I am so proud to know someone who would respond like that in a moment of crisis. Since I felt inspired by her example, I thought I'd share it with you guys.

In other news, Switzerland was fantastically Swiss. All my unconscious stereotypes were confirmed, and there was a strange feeling of familiarity, as a certain buzz in the air strongly reminded me of southern Ontario.

I also got a kick out of the week of mediation training I was just on. Middle-aged Anglican vicars rock. One night after training they got into a run of funeral and wedding mishap stories. Almost all the stories started with "when I was a new vicar and my superior had just left for vacation..." Ah the naivety of youth! Now is the time to make stories.

a year ago

I remember our church retreat last fall as being one of those surreal times of intense experience. Part of that was a serious sleep deficit, and part was working closely with two old friends, and realizing how you can know someone a long time and not know them that well. I guess we all have secrets. Anyway, I was remembering how close I felt to them by the end of the week-end. And I was particularly remembering that moment of lying in the middle of that country road, in the sunshine of an autumn afternoon, heads on bellies, sharing profound thoughts, before anyone else came to the camp.