Happy Hollowed Eve

From Goat Creek Trail

Geek Pun

If you don't get this it's ok, it just means you don't write code. A couple of guys were debugging code in the office today when

Jay: 'Where are my variables?'
me: 'Oh no, Jay's lost his variables!'
Jay: 'No if I lost my variables I would be a constant annoyance'

ouch. groan.

- Peace

Manufacturing Glamour

We're bathed in images of beauties that don't exist.

- Peace

Goat Creek

Five of us rode Goat Creek from Canmore to Banff and then took the transcanada back to Canmore on Sat. I'm posting pictures to my Goat Creek Oct 2006 set.

- Peace

Elbow in Motion

The Long Slow Wobbel

Rick Bass, a very good writer, is another Montana neighbor of mine. Besides being an excellent writer, Bass is a fervent environmentalist. Environmentalists care deeply about this creation, which is a good thing, but a lot of them are also pretty mean-spirited, angry, even violent—verbally if not physically. Bass is small of stature, elf-like, energetic, and laughing, it seems, most of the time. There's not a polemical bone in his body. He hosts parties for the loggers and the miners, working for common ground, developing a language of courtesy and understanding.

Bass wrote an essay recently that I consider required reading for anyone who cares about the contemplative life, immersed as we are in this impatient, shortcut addictive culture. He writes that when confronted with a complex and difficult task, he used to imagine himself laying down one brick after another, brick by brick by brick, to eventually accomplish his aims. But he's recently changed his metaphor from bricks to glaciers. A glacier is the most powerful force the world has ever seen. Literally nothing can stop a glacier.

A glacier is formed by the falling of snow that collects over a period of time. As the snow deepens, the weight compresses, ice forms, then more snow, then more ice, year after year— and nothing happens. Nothing happens until that glacier is 64-feet thick. Then it starts to move and nothing can stop it.

Bass notes that one theory about the origin of glaciers is that they are "the result of a wobble, a hitch, in the earth's rotation. . . . Glaciers get built or not built, simply, miraculously, because the earth is canting a single one-trillionth of a degree in this direction for a long period of time, rather than in that direction." And then this comment: "When I am alone in the woods, and the struggle seems insignificant or futile, or when I am in a public meeting and am being kicked all over the place, I tell myself that little things matter—and I believe that they do. I believe that even if your heart leans just a few degrees to the left or the right of center, that with enough resolve, which can substitute for mass, and enough time, a wobble will one day begin, and the ice will begin to form, where for a long time previous there might have been none. Keep it up for a lifetime or two or three, and then one day—it must—the ice will begin to slide" (The Roadless Yaak, Lyons Press).

Transparent Lives by Eugen Peterson.

This story also appears in Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Peterson.

- Peace

A Calgary Tradition

Kevin Bike Elbow

Lunch With Jordon (the Oracle) Cooper

Jordon is on his way to so-cal to meet some rebel friends and subvert the empire. On his way back he's stopping at the Calgary Airport on Monday Oct 16th for lunch. Anyone interested in joining him? We'll be at Montana's Cookhouse Saloon from noon till one.

For those who don't know Jordon is an emergent guru, A-List blogger and moisture farmer from Tatooine Saskatoon. He's also one of the founding members of Resonate.

- Peace

A Short Film

Things You Can't Do When You're Not In A Swimming Pool - Part of the Paste Rock N Reel Festival.

- Peace

Reminds me of a couple verses

I was just going to post this as a comment but I think it stands on it's own
Isaiah 58:6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
58:7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Matthew 25:40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
25:41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
25:42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
25:43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
25:44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
25:45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
25:46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Hard words but we all need to practice comapassion and hospitality

Rejection and the Cornsertone

If we refuse to host strangers
in the house of God
where the cornerstone declares
to the glory of God
then the cornerstone declares
that we are the strangers
to the house of God.

In respose to Mike.

- Peace

All the different shapes of kindness (from Fruits Basket)

Tohru:
... But think of all the girls at school who like you and say you’re really nice
Yuki:
But I’m just being nice because I WANT them to like me. It isn’t how I really feel. Really I’m just selfish. But you Tohru are a nice person.
Tohru:
Well maybe I’m just being nice because I want you to like me. Maybe I’m the one being selfish.
Yuki:
You couldn’t be even if you wanted to.
Tohru:
Well I don’t know about that. Mom said anyone can be selfish sometimes.
When we’re born all we know how to do is want. We want food, we want attention. It’s just instinct I guess… but kindness,..
We aren’t born with it. It grows inside us like our bodies do…
(Tohru’s mom in flashback)
Not everyone has kindness but I think everyone has the potential. Sometimes it’s hard. You’ll find someone who doesn’t seem to have it but if you look really hard you’ll find it.
Tohru:
That’s why I always try to find the good in people. So I can see all the different shapes of kindness and sometimes that’s all it takes for someone to find the goodness in themselves.

Ok, ok, I’m a big sucker for this stuff.

Seven Adults and Twelve Children, Inn from the Cold

We hosted seven adults and twelve children at with Xalt and Inn From the Cold latst night. Here's the scary part. One family moved here from out of province, the father is better educated than I am and has a full time job in his proffession. Finding an affortable place to live has been impossible, so they're moving from Church basement to Church basement with Inn From the Cold. That helps explain this CBC headline: Nowhere to live in Calgary, activist tells migrant workers.

- Peace

The Last 1000 km

I passed the 2800 km mark this morning, so I'm now working on my last 1000 km towards my goall of 3800 km in 2006. The last couple of weeks of Sept I only got 100 km in, being sick, bad weather and a couple of flat tires killed me. I don't know 1000 km in Oct/Nov/Dec that's a tall order.

- Peace

Google Gadgets Anywhere

Now You Can Have Google Gadgets on Your Webpage. Like the 70's flashback on the left, MindMaster. Coming to a blog near you. - Peace