Thursday September 21, 2022

Municipal elections are coming up. “Why don’t put your name in?” a friend asked the other day. “You’ve always got a lot to say.”

            I hope he was kidding. Because politics already has too many people in love with the sound of their own voice.

            Besides, if I got elected, I would have to attend meetings. I’ve missed four meetings in the last two weeks, unfortunately. I suspect that my forgetter is telling me that I don’t like meetings. 

            Perhaps I never did like them. 

            In the past, I tended to resent meetings. They took a block of time when I could have been doing something productive. I felt obligated to attend because feared the organization might do something catastrophic without me.

            Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to imply that all meetings are a waste of time. Now and then, meetings do wrestle with serious issues. Out of the ferment of diverging views comes a new or revised understanding of the organization’s goals and values. 

            We learn and grow. 

Two classes of meetings

            More often, it seems to me, meetings fall into two classes. 

            The first calls people together to approve actions that someone has already deemed necessary. The roof or the bank account is leaking. Someone has resigned or been fired. Contracts must be issued or rejected. 

            Whatever the issue, someone closer to the action has determined already what needs to be done. A municipality’s planning department, for example.  A charity’s chair or treasurer.

            There’s open discussion, but the non-experts typically rubber-stamp the experts’ recommendation.

            The second kind of meeting calls people together because, well, because this group always meets on the first Wednesday of each month. Or every Tuesday morning. We hear the same reports. And approve the minutes of the last meeting, which did exactly the same things as this one. 

            The meeting is more to keep the organization going than to accomplish anything.

            I consider such meetings a hold-over from a time when meetings were a means of communicating with a larger group -- before social media, e-mail, and 24/7 news. I remember my father travelling by train across the country to Toronto (important meetings always took place in Toronto)  so that he could learn about his church’s current policies, which he then shared with his circle of associates, who shared with their circle… ad infinitum.

            We don’t need that process anymore.

Building relationships

            Today, I go to meetings mainly for the people involved, not out of loyalty to the organization. The older I get, the less I care whether this club or charity or business group survives. If the work is worth doing, and needs doing, someone else will run with it. Or they won’t. Which will prove, retroactively, whether the task was worth doing in the first place.

            But I enjoy working with people. Especially with people I like. I will cheerfully work with those people to clean up a graveyard. To repair a hiking trail. To fry onions.

            Along the way, I may hear about a sister’s wedding, a son’s graduation, an uncle’s accident. We build a kind of kinship. 

            That’s a side benefit, while we accomplish something worthwhile. 

            Exactly what business meetings with rigid agendas don’t do. 

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Copyright © 2022 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.

                  To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca

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YOUR TURN

In last week’s column, I told the story of how Chris Fraser circumvented Eaton’s regulations to get her teapot shipped across the country. 

            Apparently, others have similar wit and resourcefulness. David Gilchrist sent this story as told to him by some friends: 

            “We went to breakfast at a restaurant where the 'seniors' special' was two eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast for $1.99.

            “'Sounds good,' my wife said. 'But I don't want rwo eggs.' 

            “'Then, I'll have to charge you $2.49  because you're ordering a la carte,' the waitress warned her. 

            “'You mean I'd have to pay for NOT taking the eggs?' my wife asked incredulously. 

            “'Yes!' stated the waitress. 

            “'I'll take the special then.' my wife said. 

            “'How do you want your eggs?' the waitress asked. 

            “'Raw and in the shell,' my wife  replied. She took the two eggs home.”

 “The wit and determination of some people is an inspiration,” Laurna Tallman wrote. “Material stuff certainly triggers memories more powerfully than most photos. I am in somewhat of a quandary as to what to do with considerable ‘stuff.’ I’m not sure that you have helped me to dispose of it!”

The column evoked some nostalgia for Ralph Milton: “It brought memories around a kitchen clock which hangs in our apt. A gift to mom & dad on their wedding. It has a brown stain on the face of it, which several people have offered to remove, but I won't let them. I don't know how the stain happened, but it says to me that my family, stains and all, is what makes me who I am. The stain is part of the memory and represents home.”

Teapots seem to have significance for many. Isabel Gibson wrote, “Thank you -- two delightful stories for the price of one.

            “There's something about teapots. My mother-in-law wanted her ashes to be buried in an old, stove-top, metal teapot. And so it was.”

Mirza Yawar Baig: “Yes indeed, the story is enough.”

Frank Martens: cast an opposing vote: “That was a terrible analogy, Jim!”

            When I asked Frank to elaborate, he replied, “What similarity do you see in your story and the one you wrote of the Rabbi?   I don’t see it.”

Andrea Firth and Tom Watson just sent thanks for a “great teapot story.”

Marge Hildebrand was in the middle of “doing my annual ‘Cleaning of the Cupboards’.  Many items (junk?) bring good memories. Thank you.  I am normal.”

Bob Mason offered a different view of the old Eaton’s stores: “My wife and I lived in a small community on the shore of Lake Ontario, about an hour by road east of Toronto. The local Baptist pastor had previously been a missionary in Africa.

            “He once related how, while home in Canada on furlough, they bought a table from Eatons, which was shipped by the company to their home in Africa. But there, they found that the table wasn't quite what they wanted. So they contacted Eatons to enquire how they might return it and get a different one. 

            “After some time, they received a message from Eatons to the effect that it wasn't worth it to the company for them to send it back, and they might keep it, while Eatons sent the replacement at no cost.

            “With that type of service and guarantee, it's no wonder the company folded.

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Psalm paraphrase

Rather than using my paraphrase of Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16, might I suggest you sing Michael Joncas’s wonderful hymn, “On Eagle’s Wings”?

            Okay, if you must read something, here’s a paraphrase, written from a small child’s perspective (on the assumption that we have all been small children once, and some of us still are).

I hide behind Mommy’s skirts, 

    behind her knees,

    and peer around them  at a fearful world.

I can trust her.

I don’t trust strangers.

Especially men with candy in their pockets, 

    or men who want me to help them find their lost puppy. 

Mommy’s skirts keep me safe.

I don’t need to be afraid – 

    of ghosts, and goblins, and things that go bump in the night. 

Mommy’s skirts protect me. 

I think God must be like my Mommy. 

God will comfort those 

    who call God’s name in the darkness.

God will come, 

    God will wrap her arms around the weeping ones

    and will soothe away their fears.

God will tuck them back into their beds. 

You can find paraphrases of most of the psalms in the Revised Common Lectionary in my book Everyday Psalmsavailable from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

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TECHNICAL STUFF

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PROMOTION STUFF

To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. Some spam filters have blocked my posts because they’re suspicious of some of the web links.

                  Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca He’s also relatively inexpensive!

                  I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom. She also has lots of beautiful photos. Especially of birds.

                  Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom (NB that’s “watso” not “watson”)

ALVA WOOD’S ARCHIVE

                  I have acquired (don’t ask how) the complete archive of the late Alva Wood’s collection of satiric and sometimes wildly funny columns about a mythical village’s misadventures. I’ve put them on my website: http://quixotic.ca/Alva-Wood-Archive. You’re welcome to browse. No charge. (Although maybe if I charged a fee, more people would find the archive worth visiting.)