To make Comments write directly to Jim at jimt@quixotic.ca
14
Dec
2016
Around Christmas in North America, children (and many adults) hang their hopes on a man with a white beard.
In the war-torn Middle East, they’re more likely to hang their hopes on men in white helmets.
The White Helmets are standard construction-worker hard hats. The men need those helmets, because they go into places where no North American construction worker would venture. Into shattered buildings, where concrete block walls teeter. Where floors have collapsed, trapping victims beneath tons of rubble. Where snipers’ bullets fly, and unexploded bombs await the unwary.
In Syria, the White Helmets – officially the Syrian Defence Force -- have saved at least 70,000 lives, and probably many more.
Categories: Soft Edges
Tags: hope, mercy, rescue
11
A week ago, outside the Alberta legislature in Edmonton, we had a rather un-Canadian event, eh?
A crowd had rallied to protest Premier Rachel Notley’s proposed carbon tax. As former federal minister Chris Alexander spoke from the steps of the legislature building, the crowd – many of them bused in from Red Deer and Calgary for the occasion – began chanting, “Lock her up! Lock her up!”
Clearly, they were mimicking the “Lock her up” chants against Hillary Clinton in the Trump presidential campaign.
That’s just not what Canadians do. Eh?
Categories: Sharp Edges
Tags: politics, courtesy
7
Christmas is just three weeks away. Silver bells ring on city sidewalks, sleighbells jingle in lanes. Coloured lights brighten the long dark nights.
And indoors, Christmas trees light up.
Our family used to go out and cut a tree. About 11 years ago, for various reasons, we switched to an artificial tree.
I figure 11 trees are still alive today, that wouldn't be otherwise.
“So what?” you scoff. Pines and firs on a Christmas tree farm were never intended to grow to maturity. They were grown to be cut down, weren't they?
Maybe. But like us, they're living things. The ancient Druids had sacred groves. I suggest that every tree should be considered sacred.
Tags: trees, Christmas
4
Newspaper journalists are supposed to be dispassionate observers of the subjects they write about. They’re not supposed to have feelings themselves.
Stan Chung flips that dictum upside down. In the columns he writes for the Kelowna Courier, he’s more than just personal. He spills his guts. And then he lays his guts out on the operating table and dissects them. Stan bares his soul to grab us by the heart.
He describes his writing technique as “creative non-fiction.” It’s real. It’s fact. But it’s dramatized for impact.
Most of us – and I include myself in this generalization – tend to sandpaper smooth the raw edges of our psyches. We find rationalizations for our actions. We shift some of the blame to someone else.
Stan refuses to buy into that pattern. He’s ruthlessly honest with the feelings most of us try to forget. Or to bury. He writes a biography of pain that is also a celebration of survival.
Tags: stories, immigrants, bullying
30
Nov
She looks happy. A smile wreathes her face, which is smudged with charcoal. So is her frilly pink dress. She’s on her hands and knees inside the fireplace, one small hand raised in greeting.
Our daughter Sharon was eight months old when we moved into our dream home in North Vancouver. The rest of us were busy carrying boxes. Sharon was too young to carry anything, so we parked her inside and carried on carrying. How much trouble can a still-crawling child get into in an empty house?
Then my wife asked, “Where’s Sharon?”
No one had seen her. We scattered through the rooms, searching frantically. Panic rising in our throats, we gathered in the living room.
That’s when we heard the happy gurgle coming from the fireplace.
Tags: stories, Bible