Jan

2016

Mental mindsets of political positions

I watch the U.S. political scene from north of the border, and wonder who writes the script. Lewis Carroll, with Donald Trump playing the Queen of Hearts who wants to cut off everyone’s head? Franz Kafka, with a bewildered everyman trying to penetrate a nightmare labyrinth of misinformation, contradictions, and downright lies? J.K. Rowling, creating a parallel world that mere muggles can never comprehend? Even they would be hard-pressed, I think, to imagine a situation where a presidential candidate deliberately alienates the ethnic and religious nations he’d have to negotiate with if elected. Where a handful of armed rebels dare the feds to re-enact Waco. Where a gunman kills three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic and gets praised for saving lives. The logic escapes me.

Comments (0) Number of views (814)

Categories: Sharp Edges

Tags: politics, mindsets

13

Jan

2016

Spontaneous collaboration at work

Author: Jim Taylor

In another column, I wrote about five years of effort by the Rotary Club of Lake Country to provide the Lake Country Food Bank with a permanent new home. The ceremony for turning over the keys to the new building took place just one week ago.

Comments (0) Number of views (741)

Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: collaboration, work

13

Jan

2016

How does it feel to feel like God?

Author: Jim Taylor

I’m going to borrow some thoughts from Fr. Ron Rolheiser for today’s column. I knew Fr. Rolheiser briefly, while he was Roman Catholic bishop of Saskatoon, mainly through the enthusiasm he inspired among his staff. Fr. Rolheiser is now president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. Like me, he sends out two columns every week. This one apparently came out first in 1996.

Comments (0) Number of views (766)

Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: feel, God

10

Jan

2016

Spontaneous collaboration at work

Author: Jim Taylor

In an earlier column, I wrote about five years of effort by the Rotary Club of Lake Country to provide the Lake Country Food Bank with a permanent new home. The ceremony for turning over the keys to the new building took place on Wednesday. Like many things, the planning started so simply. The ceremony was originally scheduled for December 23, as a Christmas present for Food Bank founder, Phyllis MacPherson. That plan got abruptly postponed when Phyllis died four nights before.

Comments (0) Number of views (735)

Categories: Sharp Edges

Tags: collaboration, work

6

Jan

2016

Lessons from a few snowflakes

Author: Jim Taylor

Snow fell heavily Saturday night. By Sunday morning, 25 cm (for metric deniers, that’s 10 inches) covered the ground.
I shouldn’t say that snow fell heavily. Snow can’t fall heavily. Each snowflake weighs next to nothing. Snow is, in fact, frozen air. What we call humidity, the invisible water vapour in the air, freezes. And sifts down. Sometimes gently. Sometimes viciously, as tiny needles of ice in a blizzard.

Comments (0) Number of views (775)

Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: snowflakes

3

Jan

2016

From improbable beginnings, big results

Author: Jim Taylor

You never know what you may be starting. Sometime in the late 1970s -- no one now remembers exactly when -- a tiny but indomitable woman named Phyllis McPherson began supplying food to struggling individuals in Lake Country. The Lake Country Food Assistance Society must have operated informally for some time before it achieved charitable registration October 25, 1988. Her food bank was a temporary effort. The economy was slumping. People needed help. So Phyllis offered it. In the beginning, she and a few friends worked out of her house. Then out of a rented house. Then out of a series of short-term facilities. But the need never ended.

Comments (0) Number of views (741)

Categories: Sharp Edges

Tags: beginnings, results

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

Mental mindsets of political positions

Spontaneous collaboration at work

How does it feel to feel like God?

Spontaneous collaboration at work

Lessons from a few snowflakes

From improbable beginnings, big results

Categories

Archive