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28
Nov
2018
We had just arrived in the Okanagan. We moved in, unpacked, and went church shopping.
The first church we tried was Winfield United. The service itself was, well, so-so. Solid. Perhaps even stolid. Nothing exciting, but nothing offensive either.
Then, on our way out, Marg Kyle grabbed me. “We need you in our choir,” she insisted.
I’ve been singing in that choir for 25 years now.
In the church — and I guess in other contexts too — we talk a lot about community. We value community, even the virtual community supposedly offered by the internet.
And yet we often get it wrong. A seniors’ care home is not automatically a community. Neither is a housing sub-division. Both can become a community — but that will depend on the relationships of the people who live there, not just on living in close proximity.
And having a million followers on Twitter or Facebook does not create a community either.
Categories: Soft Edges
Tags: transcendence, community, choirs
8
Jul
Last Sunday, provincial MLA Norm Letnick and I were cooking pancakes together for the Canada Day celebrations in Lake Country organized by the Lake Country Rotary Club.
“What does Canada mean to you,” Norm asked, flipping a pancake.
“That I don’t have to be an American,” I replied flippantly.
“I can’t say that,” he laughed.
So I tried again: “I like what Joe Clark said, years ago. That Canada is a community of communities.”
Norm nodded. Then he used that line in his speech at the opening ceremonies.
Good for him. Because it really is a good description of how Canada differs from the much larger nation south of us.
Categories: Sharp Edges
Tags: Canada Day, community, individualism