suffering

I got an update from a friend today, doing something exotic, as so many folk do, and his signature quotes were striking:

"It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars."
-Garrison Keillor

"Live to the point of tears."
-Albert Camus

They hit me because I just preached on Sunday, and I had to look at a commentator (we're doing this sermon series with Ched Myers' book, "Binding the strong man," which looks at the Gospel of Mark) who was really focussing on martyrdom. Which, I mean, makes sense in terms of Mark's Jesus. But as sermons are all about seeing how scripture is relevant to our lives, it really forced me to stop and think about martyrdom and voluntary suffering and all that jazz.

No conclusions, as usual. Expect that I'm realizing my thoughts on such things have done some dramatic shifting in the last year or two. Although I'd agree with Garrison Keillor above, I'm not so sure about Camus (and it isn't just because I'm never too sure about Camus.) Yes deep emotion is an amazing thing (tears for me connote depth of feeling), and it makes life memorable. That said, when you are at the point of tears, often you are also incapacitated. Is there something to be said for building the walls around your mind and heart so that you can keep functioning (and ideally working towards change)?

I think these are actually related issues, not all the same thing I'm talking about. Hm...

In other news, guess what, I'm on holidays! Yay! As of...seven minutes ago!

cheers folks!

My supervisor...

...put this as his favourite quote, I think it rocks:

The businessman: "When you find a diamond that belongs to nobody, it is yours. When you discover an island that belongs to nobody, it is yours. When you get an idea before any one else, you take out a patent on it: it is yours. So with me: I own the stars, because nobody else before me ever thought of owning them".
The little prince: “I myself own a flower, which I water every day. I own three volcanoes, which I clean out every week. (for I also clean out the one that is extinct. One never knows.) It is of some use to my volcano and it is of some use to my flower, that I own them. But you are of no use to the stars.”

-from Le petit prince / The little prince, ch. 13, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Last week involved much good social time, lots of birthdays. A highlight was Sunday evening, we had two folk singers visiting and they spent three hours passing a guitar back and forth in the garden. The sun went down, the moon came up, candles were lit, and we just kept soaking it in.

Last week Kathy and I also did our last CPT presentation. Since then I've had an on-going email dialogue with a Rabbi who was there, which has been challenging in a good way.

Today I went to the launch of a report on issues around the treatment of Muslim bodies after death by the health services. It's an interesting case study of grassroots community action. I've never seen it happen quite so clearly before. But it's a particularly striking topic given that a number of people I know have recently lost friends and grandparents, and I can't even imagine what it would be like to deal with the logisitical nightmares the report highlights amidst the emotional turmoil already involved.

On a completely different note, écoutez l'extrait audio, it's heavy, but hopeful.

http://www.radio-canada.ca/radio/emissions/document.asp?docnumero=36182&nume
ro=62

why i should drink coffee every day or never

http://www.cannabis.net/weblife.html

is this really possible?

"Feist’s third album of new material, “The Reminder” is due for release May 1. It’s the album that should transform her from the darling of the indie-rock circuit to a full-fledged star, and do it without compromises."

I heard "Mushaboom" on a commercial the other day for fabric softner or something, and it made me sad. I know artists have to eat, but still...

On Tuesday for the first time I will be sacrificing something for my job. I have to go give (our last) presentation on our delegation to Israel/Palestine, and it just so happens that there is a Feist concert RIGHT HERE IN MY CITY the very same evening. And so it goes!

Speaking of artists, check out my big brother's little tribute to Vonnegut.

And if this isn't too cheesy: "In everyone's life sometimes the inner light goes out and bursts again into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be grateful for other people who rekindle our spirit." - Albert Schweitzer

"Palestine"

So Kathy and I are getting ready for our last two presentations on our delegation back in November. We're pinching and pulling and using past presentations to simplify things this time around. Maybe not surprisingly that means the presentations lack a lot of fire. To try and remedy that, I've started to read Joe Sacco's "Palestine."

And it brings it back. And I'm overcome by my own inability to do the situation justice in 20 minutes. But I'm reassured that at least someone somewhere has done a better job.


At the same time, evenings are growing eternal, and summer is on the wind.

Friday or Sunday

I chilled out in Montmartre on my way home from a fantastic visit with Becky in Tuscany, and it made me bizarrely homesick. It is strangely like Montreal. Or maybe just more like Montreal than anywhere else I've visited in the last nine months.

It's been good getting back to the Centre. I only had one day of work before the holiday week-end, which means that I think I'm actually read to start work tomorrow.

Highlights from my Easter celebrations would include a hymn sing in the garden yesterday (nothing says Easter like the old classics), followed by being part of a choir at St. Paul's for a Taizé themed service in the evening. I should get to Taizé before this chapter of my life is over.

And here's a nifty ancient ditty I heard for the first time yesterday, but of which I am now a big fan:
"Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

In the grave they laid him, love whom men had slain,
Thinking that never he would wake again.
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green,

Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain.
Quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Thy touch can call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green."

When I heard Tony Campolo the other month, he talked about a sermon he heard once where the pastor simply repeated "It's Friday...but Sunday's coming!" for an hour, and kept the congregation absolutely rapt. It's a simple message, but sometimes on "happy" occassions like Easter, I find it helpful to remember, for all intents and purposes, it is still Friday. So it's okay to not necessarily feel particularly joyous. But I guess that's what the faith bit is all about, Sunday's coming!(And yes, I did heard sheep in Tuscany.)

CPTnet: COLOMBIA REFLECTION: Blood on Our hands

"29 March 2007

By Suzanna Collerd

I have been envisioning a campaign where we connect our use of resources with their effect around the world. Imagine: pumping gasoline and reading a sign that says "Do you have blood on your hands?" When you leave the gas station you notice an imprint of blood on your hands. Purchases of gold, diamonds, plastics, clothing, Coca-cola (1), flowers, bananas (2), and much more put in bags with red fingerprints, and the question "Do you have blood on your hands?" Would this visible sign keep us from abusing the world to live in excess?

This idea took life this Lenten season in this passage from the Bible: "When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. 'I am innocent of this man's blood,' he said, 'It is your responsibility!'"
(Matthew 27:24, NRSV)

How often do I deny the bloody impact of my consumer choices? Driving to run errands saves me time while harming the environment and communities affected by the exploitation of petroleum. Cheap clothing fits my budget, my relatives enjoy flowers, and my family eats bananas. When I am in the U.S.
my distance from the struggle to protect lives, cultures and land facilitates my hand-washing.

The communities that suffer can not forget. In a scene from Shakespeare's Macbeth we are reminded of the effects of our actions: "[what need we] fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? -- Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?/ [all the] perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." (Macbeth Act 5 Scene 1)

The citizens of the global south currently have little space to "call our power to account." We must account for our own power and choices. As Lady Macbeth reminds us, the smell of blood stays on our hands: civil wars, irreparable environmental damage, and decreasing cultural diversity world wide. No amount of perfume, ignorance, or denial will sweeten these realities.

Is our excess worth it? What if we stopped driving everywhere we need to go?
In Narino, leaders spent one and a half years walking miles from community to community to start an organizing process; today they continue to walk to further strengthen their organization. In the mining zone of the South of Bolivar, the federation of farmer-miners walks days through mountainous terrain to organize mining communities.

Why walk so far to organize? Because without organizational processes to help protect themselves, the coalition of multinational corporations, the Colombian government, the U.S. government, the Colombian army and paramilitaries will end their livelihoods and their lives. Potentially, despite great efforts to organize, the greediness of the global north will still lead to destruction.

Multinationals are eager for the gold in the mountains of the south of Bolivar and the land in the foothills in Narino where African palm can be grown as a gasoline substitute. The communities have a different vision for their land: they live on and cultivate the land so that its wealth of resources can be used without damaging the environment, communities, or cultures. They are willing to walk miles upon miles for that vision.

Are we willing to respond with a similar commitment? Will we continue to abuse our power until the damage to the world's people is so great that there is no going back? Or will we choose a new path of solidarity that includes a commitment to deeply look at how we affect the global community?
As Jesus said after his sentencing, "For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dead?" (Luke 23: 31, NRSV) _____
Notes:
(1)Coca-cola has hired paramilitaries to assassinate union leaders in Colombia, see www.killercoke.org (2)The Chiquita banana company has paid paramilitary groups for protection in recent years. See articles: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/world/americas/19colombia.ready.html?_r=1&ref=americas&oref=slogin
and Colombia Journal Online http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia253.htm."

"my sweet lord"

good for a laugh:

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/4967