To make Comments write directly to Jim at jimt@quixotic.ca
18
Sep
2021
Thursday Sept. 2, 2021
My minister starts her morning with yoga. “Then I do the dishes. Something about putting one’s hands in hot soapy water is a reset for me -- a mindless task that produces something valuable. I dry the dishes and put them away, so I can begin again.”
Her confession elicited mild snickers from the congregation. All of them had had, at one time or other, the experience of washing dishes in a sink. Most of them had automatic dishwasher snow, so that they could avoid the chore.,
But why not let dishwashing be a significant time?
After all, the Bible often uses the metaphor of washing.
Categories: Soft Edges
Tags: Dishwashing, togetherness, Psalms
Sunday August 29, 2021
Three days left until the last western troops leave Afghanistan – unless President Joe Biden changes his mind at the last minute.
Afghanistan has been the U.S.’s longest war. Twenty years, give or take a couple of months. Longer even than Viet Nam – and with a strikingly similar ending.
Who will forget the pictures of America leaving Saigon. Helicopters lifting Americans to safety. Desperate people clinging to wheels and handles..
It was an ignominious and humiliating ending.
Likewise, who will forget footage of desperate people running along a runway beside a troop carrier the size of a freight train, hoping to hitch-hike a lift out of their country? Who will forget people clinging to the plane’s undercarriage, its doors, its fuselage, as the plane lifts off into the skies?
Categories: Sharp Edges
Tags: Afghanistan, Vietnam, humiliation
Thursday August 26, 2021
I no longer believe in conversions. I mention this, because conversion therapy has become an election issue.
I had a classic conversion experience, once -- down on my knees, acknowledging my sinful nature, turning my life over to Jesus, emerging wrung out and tearful.
In truth, I’ve probably had a dozen conversion experiences. They might better be called Epiphanies -- moments when the pieces I had been shuffling suddenly snapped into place, a “Aha!” moment.
A couple of friends have been trying to change my mind -- and I theirs -- on several topics for about 20 years. I see no sign that I have influenced them.
And all they have done for me is push me farther along the direction I was already going.
Tags: bullying, Conversion
Sunday August 22, 2021
Dear God,
Why do you keep picking on Haiti?
It is, by far, the poorest country in the Americas. It has the fewest resources to recover from a disaster. It has no industries, no exports, no assets, and no hope.
Perhaps that’s overstating the situation, but only slightly. Of all the countries that could be afflicted by an earthquake, Haiti is probably the country least capable of surviving.
But you hit it with a 7.0 earthquake in 2010, which resulted in at least 20,000 deaths and left millions homeless. It’s not possible to discuss property damage, because most of the property that fell down was already falling down anyway.
Now, while it’s still recovering from the 2010 earthquake – if it ever will – you whack it with a bigger 7.2 earthquake
Tags: Haiti, earthquake