Nov

2018

The old systems don’t work anymore

Our son was 14 when he came up for confirmation. For those not familiar with the policies of the United Church of Canada, confirmation was a ritual by which young people who were already members of the church by their baptism became “full” members by “confirming” the promises made on their behalf by their parents before they were capable of making any decisions for themselves, so that they could participate fully in church life.

Back then, it was still believed that young people actually wantedto join the church.

So they went through a three-step process. First, they had to learn what the church historically believed. And why. And why it mattered.

Then they were allowed to belong to this community of faith. And then, once they been absorbed into the body politic, they were expected to act – to behave, in other words – like true Christians.

Believe. Belong. Behave. That was the way it was done.

Comments (0) Number of views (3222)

Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: Confirmation, United Church of Canada, joining

18

Nov

2018

Paradise Lost, again and again

Author: Jim Taylor

I can’t help wondering how British poet John Milton would have written about the fires in California. In the opening lines of his greatest epic, Paradise Lost,he describes the Hell into which a rebellious Satan fell:

“As one great Furnace flam'd, yet from those flames

No light, but rather darkness visible

Serv'd only to discover sights of woe,

Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace

And rest can never dwell, hope never comes

Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed

With ever-burning Sulphur unconsum'd…”

Milton’s description from 1667 seems prophetic.

Paradise has been lost again – this time the town of some 26,000 residents in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in central California. As I write these words, 63 people have been confirmed dead; 600 are missing; over 11,000 structures reduced to ashes.

Comments (0) Number of views (963)

Categories: Sharp Edges

Tags: Fire, Paradise, California, Eden, Eve

14

Nov

2018

The wonders and terrors of touch

Author: Jim Taylor

It started as a straightforward presentation, with the usual statistics and PowerPoint slides.

Holly Routley from Okanagan College had come to to raise awareness -- and funds, of course -- for a new Health Sciences complex.

Then Holly did something unexpected. While speaking, she stepped down from the podium and began to massage the neck and shoulders of a young woman near the front.

I heard an audible gasp. Because in our culture We. Just. Don’t. Do. That.

But Holly made contact deliberately, to make a point. Nursing is one of the few professions where the practitioner has to make physical contact with the other party.

Comments (0) Number of views (924)

Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: touch, nursing, Okanagan College

11

Nov

2018

The cost of war also paid by the living

Author: Jim Taylor

Today is Remembrance Day. And it’s a special Remembrance Day -- the Armistice that ended the War to End All Wars came into effect exactly 100 years ago. At 11:00 a.m. on the 11thday of the 11thmonth of 1918 the guns fell silent.

If only we could say that they had stayed silent.

They haven’t. They’ve gotten more lethal. With the Second World War. Then with the Korean War and the Vietnam War, both of which I think of as outbreaks of the first World Civil War, with an incessant parade of people taking up arms against their own people. In Yugoslavia, in Rwanda, in Kashmir, in Sudan…

And then there are the eruptions where outside forces get involved in local conflicts: Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen…

To mark this special anniversary, the Canadian Legion erected 240 crosses in Kelowna’s City Park -- one cross for each Canadian soldier from this area who died in the two World Wars.

I applaud their effort. But I think by focussing on the fallen, we miss something important.

Comments (0) Number of views (949)

Categories: Sharp Edges

Tags: PTSD, Remembrance Day, armistice, war

7

Nov

2018

Beyond my understanding

Author: Jim Taylor

At this time of year, the trail that I walk daily with my dog along the shore of Okanagan Lake is littered with long brown pine needles.

They lie on the ground looking like that old game of Pick Up Sticks. Pine needles lie on top of each other in crazy patterns, pointing every which way…

As I crunch those needles underfoot, I find myself wondering about the chances that the pattern of fallen needles in any one square inch (okay, 2.54 cm squared) might exactly duplicate the pattern in any other square inch. Vanishingly small, I’d guess.

I find big numbers – really big numbers, I mean – meaningless. The U.S. federal deficit, the chance of winning a Power-Ball lottery, the diameter of the universe – are all incomprehensible.

Comments (0) Number of views (1063)

Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: numbers, Peter Principle, Rickenbacker, pi

Jim Taylor's Columns - 'Soft Edges' and 'Sharp Edges'

The old systems don’t work anymore

Paradise Lost, again and again

The wonders and terrors of touch

The cost of war also paid by the living

Beyond my understanding

Categories

Archive