Thursday March 2, 2023

A recent survey says that Canadians like the idea of working from home. “Hybrid workplaces” mean, among other things, that you can attend a Zoom meeting in your pyjamas. You don’t have a daily commute of up to five hours – yes, I’ve known people who spent five hours a day commuting from northern Ontario to their offices in Toronto.
And, of course, you can prevent that new puppy from chewing the legs off your grandmother’s coffee table.
The Covid-19 lockdown apparently resulted in a huge increase of people adopting pets. Mostly dogs. Because dogs look as if they’re listening to you. Cats are more likely to ignore you.
Having a pet around your “digital workplace” helps to combat “social isolation” – an unexpected consequence of pandemic restrictions.
Three friends went for a walk recently along Kelowna’s waterfront. All three had lost dogs over the previous months.
The three loved their walk because everybody – yes, they said, everybody! – was out walking their dogs on a warm sunny day.
“Of course, we stopped to talk with every dog,” one of the three said later. “And people just glowed when we gave their family some attention.”

Dog walker etiquette
I’ve noticed that dog walkers develop certain protocols when they meet each other.
First we shorten the leash, gathering our dogs in close, hoping to keep them under control. But the dogs always take over. No matter how tightly we rein them in, they surge towards each other.
They sniff each other’s breath. And butt. The equivalent of exchanging business cards.
Occasionally snarling ensues. Sometimes, a full-blown donnybrook.
Then the owners yell at their respective charges, while the dogs act like berries in a blender, a pas-de-deux not even Nureyev would attempt.
Their leashes tie themselves into a Gordian knot.
Until the two dogs -- now tethered neck to neck -- look around, a little bewildered, wondering what all the fuss was about. The owners untangle the leashes and, being Canadian, apologize profusely to each other..
And they go on their way, bearing no ill will towards anyone but their recalcitrant dog.
It reminds me that we humans are really quite good at working out systems and procedures for getting along with each other. Most of the time. Our systems are not always fair and equitable – gender, politics, and race prejudices pop to mind – but they do seem to work.
Another friend, Ruth Buzzard, has half a dozen rules for living. One of them is, “Always talk to strangers.”
But it helps to have a reason for making that contact. So it’s not just prying.
If I stopped a stranger on a downtown street, and said, “Tell me your life story,” I’d get a cold shoulder. Or worse.
But if I ask about that person’s dog, they’ll tell me their life story anyway.
I ask a stranger in the grocery store, “Where might I find cheese slices?” She not only takes me there, but tells me about her cycling holiday visiting cheese-makers in Holland.
Ruth’s right. The three friends are right. Talking to strangers can brighten a whole day. All you need is to find some common ground that’s not threatening. Such as their dog.
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Copyright © 2023 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
Last week’s column was about coincidences – and whether they’re random chance, or programmed by a Supreme Intelligence.

Frank Martens describes himself as an atheist, and writes, “You sometimes surprise me, Jim. You get so close at times in denying a Supreme Being.” Not so – it’s just not the Supreme Being denied by most atheists.

Steve Roney writes of the God that Frank rejects: “Seems to me, the instant you accept the existence of God, an omnipotent, omniscient being, there are no coincidences. Everything must happen due either to his active or his permissive will.”

Tom Watson: “I love the idea that, by chance or by coincidence—or by the strange coincidence of chance—our personal story is connected to the larger story of history itself.”

David Gilchrist told me about a chance meeting in a café in Hong Kong, which he believes cannot have been pure chance: “I can’t help feeling that I was being used to answer this man’s unspoken prayer. I still remember that frustration when something kept me from entering those several cafes, and how it disappeared at that cafe.”

Isabel Gibson: “I see coincidences as things that look like they ought to be connected causally, but are not.
“The connections we create between our own story and "the larger story" are, indeed, in a different category.
“On a side note, my favourite quote about coincidences is from Goldfinger: ‘Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.’”

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Psalm paraphrase

Psalm 121 invites us to look up.

1 Let others seek their gods in the executive suite;
Let them put their faith in rising to the top.
2 I know where my help comes from;
It comes from the one embodied in heaven and earth.
3 This God watches over every aspect of creation;
As a doting parent tends a toddler, God holds out a hand when we stumble;
God will not let you fall.
4 God does not play off one person against another.
God has no favorites;
God never tires of caring.
5 God's compassion is as constant as the attention of a bedside nurse;
6,7 No crisis can destroy you;
Even if you lose loved ones, career, or health,
if you retain your relationship with God, you will not be embittered;
You can emerge from the experience a better person.
8 Wherever you go, whatever you do, God will watch over you.

Update – there are still about 60 copies of my book of psalm paraphrases in stock at Wood Lake Publishing. The book includes paraphrases of most of the psalms in the Revised Common Lectionary. So you can still order a print copy of Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com, or 1-800-663-2775. But, I’m told, there will no further reprints. If you don’t already have a copy of Everyday Psalms, get one while they last.