What I think about while I eat...

So, the ponderings I was considering as I sat down to supper this evening:
I had a simple supper of some fresh, organic rosemary bread eaten with home-made raspberry jam, a spinach salad with almonds and organic grape tomatoes, and then some fair-trade chocolate. How yuppie! How granola! How so-like-Julia!
That being said, however, I was considering the various issues around each course that I was eating, as I was eating them...
My bread: most of the ingredients were, in fact, from Canada, and local, however, I was thinking about how world-wide wheat crops have actually done disastrously over the past two years, and world supply is, in fact, getting to critically low levels, spelling disaster for the developing world, and increasing pasta and bread prices for us in the near future. Sigh... I wondered about how North Americans were going to accept increasing bread and pastry prices, and I worried about those who are dependent on couscous, pasta and various breads as their staples around the world...
My jam: Well, that was mainly a warm, fuzzy feeling, thinking about the person who made the jam, just for me! And knowing that they had used raspberries from their own backyard!
My salad: Now it starts getting complex - I was certainly thinking about how all the components of my salad came all the way from California, and how out-of-season spinach and tomatoes are, but then I started thinking about the almonds.
90% of the world's almond supply comes out of one very large and vast tract of land in California. This is a problem, in terms of monoculture and intensive agriculture. It is likely one of the major causes of this collapsing colony disorder that is wreaking havoc amongst honey bees throughout the United States. It is thought that these poor bees, due to being forced to work, in stressful situations, in AND out of season, dealing with only one type of plant, and not being allowed to eat anything else, or diversify their diets, are causing them to die with disturbing alacrity. This is demonstrated in the California almond harvest - the trees are in bloom only for a few weeks every year, and almond growers are heavily dependent on proper pollination of the almond trees within these few short weeks in order to ensure adequate almond production. There are not enough honeybees, even before CCD was a problem, in California, to pollinate all these trees. For years, honeybees have had to be imported to California, just for this huge, four week almond orgy. However, until recently, they were able to deal with exclusively American bees. Because of CCD, bees are starting to be imported all the way from AUSTRALIA to help with the pollination. Changing their time zones, having them wake out of hibernation (if they are not from California) in order to force them to work - it's just too much for a poor little bee to handle. Sigh... I felt sorry for the bees, and wondered how the future of the almond industry, as well as most agriculture, is going to survive without them...
My dessert: Well, it was fair-trade chocolate - there's not really much else to say, except for then I thought about how far it had to come in order to end up on my plate. Admittedly, not quite as far as the Ivory Coast, which is good, but still from Central America, which is still quite a ways away...
This is usually what I end up pondering while I eat; what about you?

FFT

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village. He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. He then became an itinerant preacher. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He didn't go to college. He had no credentials but Himself. He was only thirty-three when the public turned against Him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His clothing, the only property He had on earth. He was laid in a borrowed grave.
Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life.
-Anon.

Can you smell it on the air?

I was walking to the Post Office this afternoon, and there it was, unmistakable - the squawking and honking of Canada geese, flying in formation, back towards High Park! You can almost smell it on the air - spring! I know there's still piles of ice and snow everywhere, but today, you could feel just a smidgen of warmth and smell a bit of dirt and freshness coming... it's a comin'!!!!

FFT

I came across this amongst some papers that I have; I know it's an old one, but I thought I'd just leave it here for posterity's sake:

Socialism: If you have two cows, you give one to your neighbour.
Communism: If you have two cows, you give them both to the government, and they will give you milk.
Fascism: If you have two cows, you keep them, give the government all the milk, and the government sells you the milk.
Capitalism: If you have two cows, sell one of them, and buy a bull.

Bye bye, baby...

I think I can't help but be pessimistic about the future of humankind after I go through a stint of delivering a lot of babies for completely dysfunctional families. I think after a parade of a motley crew of various drug addicted, very young and immature, very old and overly anxious (think bubble wrap/helicopter parents), abused AND abusive, raped, rude, irresponsible, uneducated and unaware of the awesome responsibility they're about to undertake, uncaring and selfish women and their families, I get quite discouraged of the future generation of children that we are creating. I suppose this is a monster of our own making.
Not that the Church gets away from it either; I think some pat themselves on the back that -we- are doing a better job, or that -our- children will do much better, for we will put them in better schools, teach them to eat better and take full advantage of the middle-class banality of what presents as most modern-day Christianity.
However, these are still ALL our children; we are still responsible for them, and we are responsible for the society that shapes them into who they become. To write them off as 'not ours' is a crying shame.
I can't help shedding a tear sometimes for some of these babies as I hand them off to their families and God-knows what kind of life and future ahead of them... and all I can do for them is give them a blessing before they go...

Heroes and Giants

So, I was referred over to this website to watch this movie: http://www.storyofstuff.com/ , which was a succinct way of delineating the Problem. However, I already know that I'm part of the choir that it's preaching to - my angst and reluctance of having to go shopping over these few past months for basically everything is one of the reasons why everything has been moving at the rate of molasses. Why on earth would I buy a frypan "just for now", "you can replace it later", when that is part of the Problem? I thought, dear small number of readers, that I would also pass on this movie to you; to challenge you on your consumption patterns, and whether that is truly being a good steward of all the Good Things that have been made by the Good One....

Take this city, if it be Your will....

OK, so I feel, as usual, like I just experienced church, in one of the best senses of the word, courtesy of Bono and his boys, on the big screen, in 3D. I must say, there's something downright religious in U2's music and their performances. As I've gotten older, I'm less "screamy" and more cognizant of their choices of songs, and the natural arc of the story through the concert. And, like most good stories (including the Best One of All), there is the arc of conflict, suffering, redemption, solace and then hope. Wow. It's rather late, and I would much rather pontificate more about why U2 is the best aural thing that has happened in this century, and the last, but I am biased, and this could take a whole whack of time (maybe even a Master's thesis - ha ha!). Suffice it to say that I am deeply moved, yet again, by the Story that their music tells...

Robert Zurrer is the most selfish man on the entire planet

I can't even to begin to explain the sheer pompous, colonialistic, selfish actions of this man. I am terribly afraid that it does, however, reflect our general Western values and arrogance. Luckily, however, a very eloquent letter writer to the Toronto Star today states it much more clearly, so, as I'm rather tired, I will just quote the letter verbatim:

Robert Zurrer, a two-time kidney transplant recipient, claims it is "arrogant" to tell him he can't buy a kidney from a poverty-stricken person in a poor country. Dialysis, he says, is "a living death." I would say the arrogance is on the part of Zurrer and the rest of the consumer-oriented developed world.
He continued to live an active life, sometimes putting himself in jeopardy by playing hockey when he knew he shouldn't and playing golf four days after his first transplant operation. Twenty years later, he cashed in his savings to buy a body part from a man who perhaps didn't know the ramifications of his actions, perhaps wasn't even paid for the kidney. And Zurrer knows nothing of what happened to his donor after the operation.
This is nothing but a case of neo-colonialism, where a white man benefits from the destitution of a brown man living in poverty. And let's not forget that the whole transaction is based on the profit motive – profit for the intermediaries, not the individual who makes the sacrifice. Zurrer sees it as his right to live a full life, but based on what? The fact that he is white, living in the comfortable West with the cash to buy a body part? This sense of entitlement is endemic to Westerners.
Having to undergo dialysis to stay alive, perhaps dying at a young age (by Western standards), is a terrible thing. But even having the ability to live on dialysis, to live into one's 50s, as Robert Zurrer has done, is not an option for many people living in the poverty of Asia and Africa. And still we take their kidneys, as well as their labour and resources, so that we can improve our lives.
Stephen Bloom, Toronto

Bravo, Mr. Bloom!

That's Dr. Handywoman to you, buster...

So today, I kind of learned the basics of how to change faucets, replace toilets, fix leaking taps and repair drywall. I think that's mighty impressive. It's been kind of sad how I've been a bit of a 'damsel in distress', seeking men I know to help me fix problems around the house. Admittedly, they've all been awesome, and most of them are actually professionals in their area of expertise. However, there's something a bit empowering in unearthing some of the magic and mythology around basic plumbing and home repair. Now, I am no wizard in this domain, certainly not even an apprentice, but I do feel like I learned some useful tips. Whether I'm brave enough to hazard them on my own is something entirely else...

Luckily, Truth is a diamond, not a line...

It's funny how in retrospect, you can see how your views about certain matters change. When you can clearly remember from what facet you would approach an issue, and then realize that, a few months, a year, later your facet has changed entirely. And yet, I cannot pinpoint exactly what caused the shift in perspective.
There are lots of examples of this in the journey of my faith, that, even a year ago, my views would be incompatible with what I understand now. Finding truth, and Truth, in 'unexpected places', does that. I suspect also reintegrating faith back into reality also helps - not allowing it to run in a dimension all its own, but to see that it conforms to the norms and patterns of what makes sense as well. I think also (even though I am a few decades late) coming to accept that I am a product of this culture, this generation, and I do need to speak into that, and not desperately hold onto models and ideas that made sense generations ago...