Mar

2016

Irreverence won’t hurt God

A few years ago, I wrote a satirical ditty to the familiar sea shanty whose chorus goes, “Way, hey and up she rises.” Only I connected it to Easter: “Way, hey, and up He rises… early Easter morning.”
The first verse asked, “What shall we do with a risen saviour…?” The rest of the verses were, umm, a shade more irreverent:

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Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: irreverence

27

Mar

2016

Re-thinking the Resurrection

Author: Jim Taylor

This is not one of my usual columns. The newspaper which gets “first publication” rights is not publishing today, Easter Sunday. That leaves me free to muse about Easter, in general. Easter, as seen by the secular world, is about bunnies and eggs. And chocolate. And spring in the northern hemisphere. And did I mention chocolate? But in the Christian church, it’s about The Resurrection (with capital letters). When I was much younger, the Rev. Jim Campbell invited his congregation to submit topics they wanted him to preach about. My note said, “Resurrection -- I’d love to see how you handle it!” I knew that Jim was too honest a minister to simply repeat conventional platitudes. He didn’t disappoint me.

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Categories: Sharp Edges

Tags: resurrection, Easter

23

Mar

2016

Games that shape our later lives

Author: Jim Taylor

Today is halfway between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. It’s also Spring Break for my grandchildren -- five extra days off school, plus the Easter weekend.
Most of the year, parents have their children’s after-school free time fully organized. Soccer practice, perhaps. Or swimming. Music lessons. Boys and girls club. Gym classes. Ballet. Whatever it is, it keeps the kids occupied, with some kind of adult supervision, until the parents get home from work.

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Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: games

20

Mar

2016

A eulogy for disappearing trees

Author: Jim Taylor

I went for a walk in the wood last weekend. But the woods weren’t there anymore. I hadn’t been on that network of trails since autumn rains and winter snows began. When the snow melted, I headed back to my favourite hillsides. The gravel road leading to the trailhead was gone. “Closed,” a sign said. The hillside slopes looked like a testbed for a Mars probe -- not a living thing left anywhere. The developer is expanding his subdivision. Okay, I accept that he has a legal right to do so. I also accept that a municipality cannot collect taxes from trees. But why this obsession with eliminating everything green?

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Categories: Sharp Edges

Tags: eulogy, trees, green

16

Mar

2016

Epitaph for a song writer

Author: Jim Taylor

The world’s Joy Quotient declined a little on Sunday March 6, when Ian Macdonald died.
Ian was one of those rare people who never let his inner child get buried under the overburden of grown-up concerns. He took an almost wicked delight in wit. The prospect of trying something new and different -- whether a children’s tale for adults, or Bible study through improv drama --brought out a crooked grin, a glint in his eye.

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Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: epitaph, song writer

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

Irreverence won’t hurt God

Re-thinking the Resurrection

Games that shape our later lives

A eulogy for disappearing trees

Epitaph for a song writer

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