Sep

2018

Maligning my lifelong friend

On my last visit to Vancouver, I took a walk along False Creek.

Vancouver's waterfront is open to everyone, regardless of age, ethnic origins, or income.

And the Parks Board has thoughtfully placed benches along the way, where passers-by can sit, catch their breath, enjoy the view, or just meditate.

Most of the benches have small bronze plaques attached -- memorials to a family member or friend. I read them, casually, as I strolled along. Until I got to one that offended me.

It eulogized a child who had died. It described how wonderful she was. And the last line said, “Jesus always picks the finest flowers first.”

And I found myself instantly angry.

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Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: Jesus, Vancouver, False Creek, park bench, plaque, friend

9

Sep

2018

Brazil’s national lobotomy

Author: Jim Taylor

The video images of flames shooting skyward out of the National Museum of Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, stabbed me in the heart.

I spent close to 20 years alternating between president, secretary, and grunt volunteer with the infinitely smaller Lake Country Museum. I know from personal experience how hard it is to document the past, especially from societies that maintained no written texts.

Every artifact, every letter, every story, is like a clue in a mystery novel. Clue by laborious clue, a museum puts together a coherent picture of what life was like, back then -- whenever “then” was.

The Rio fire, in effect, ripped out almost all the pages from the novel about South America.

How can you read a novel that isn’t there any longer?

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Categories: Sharp Edges

Tags: museum, Fire, lobotomy, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, artifacts

5

Sep

2018

Change is the only constant

Author: Jim Taylor

I had my 82ndbirthday last weekend. I’m headed for 100! Wooo-hooo!

Anticipation makes me think back to how things have changed over the last century, or two. My wife Joan’s grandfather arrived from Sweden a century ago with an axe-head, a plane blade, and a handsaw. With those, he made all the rest of his carpenter’s tools.

I wonder what he would think of modern chainsaws.

A century before that, my ancestors arrived from Scotland, to farm 40 acres in southern Ontario. I wonder what they would think of tractors with air-conditioned cabs. Of hay-balers and combines and automatic milking machines.

Nothing stands still. Ever. And it shouldn’t.

Not even religion.

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Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: birthday, Evolution, change

2

Sep

2018

Abuse of power applies to all institutions

Author: Jim Taylor

The Roman Catholic church is taking flak from the mass media. The most recent attacks follow revelations from a grand jury in Philadelphia, described by Pennsylvania’s Attorney General as the "largest, most comprehensive report into child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church ever produced in the United States."

According to the report, more than 300 "predator priests" in six Pennsylvania dioceses have been credibly accused of sexually abusing more than 1,000 child victims over 70 years -- prior to 2002, when scandals involving Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston forced the U.S. Catholicbishops to adopt new rules for reporting abuse.

The reaction has even led to demands that the Pope himself resign, for failing to act sooner.

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Categories: Sharp Edges

Tags: Roman Catholic church, Pope, sexual abuse, pedophile

29

Aug

2018

Hello. Hello? Anyone there?

Author: Jim Taylor

I tried to pray about a controversy over sex education in our schools -- what should be taught, and how.

A heavenly voice answered: “Thank you for your prayer. All our angels are presently busy dealing with other customers. Please stay on line and an angel will be with you shortly.”

Some harps played mood music.

“Your continued devotion is very important to us. Please note that your prayer may be recorded for training and/or monitoring purposes.”

I prepared my church membership papers, my baptismal certificate, my password (“Jesus,” of course) and my Personal Identification Number (666, of course) just in case they asked for authentication.

“For service in English, press 1. For service in Latin, press 2. For service in any other language, press 3 and wait for a Google translator to assist you.”

I chose English.

“King James thanks thee for thine loyalty. To speak to a confessor about sins thou mayest have committed by thought, word, and deed against thy Father Almighty’s divine majesty, press 1. To confess sins committed against another human, press 2. To confess sins of omission, press 3."

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Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: prayer, options, voice mail

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

Maligning my lifelong friend

Brazil’s national lobotomy

Change is the only constant

Abuse of power applies to all institutions

Hello. Hello? Anyone there?

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