So it begins...

I'm getting back into biking, but it will take a bit to get back to doing the full commute (35 km/day). Right now I'm mixing biking with taking the train. Took this pic just after hitting the 100 km mark for the year, 85 km from Jan and 15 km yesterday. My plan is to post a pic every 100 km, giving my 40 pics in the every 100 km set.

- Peace

Spadina Bus

80's Canadiana flash back.

- Peace

Lost Dogs, Mutt - Missing Gene

I've been listening to the Lost Dogs for over 20 years now, and that's odd given that they formed 1991, 16 years ago. The dogs were four members in four of my favorite bands: The 77's, The Choir, Adam Again and Daniel Amos. In 1999 Gene Eugene of Adam Again died in his sleep. And then there were three Lost Dogs.

I just got my hands on the Lost Dog's 2004 Mutt where the Lost Dogs cover music from the 77's, The Choir and Daniel Amos. It's put me in a melancholy mood. They've done a masterful job of reinterpreting some classics from three of my favorite bands ... but I can't help notice that they didn't cover an Adam Again song. I feel Gene's absence on every track. Strange that I would miss the one Lost Dog I've never met, but there you have it.

- Peace

Angry Young Men

A lot of crap I'm sure is going around on the television trying to understand this school shooter. It's really actually simple. He was an angry young man. It's really just that senseless. The same day that this angry young man murdered 30 people at Virginia Tech, angry young men murdered 130 people in Baghdad. And Lord knows where else. It's nothing new.

But look away from the senseless violence of angry young men, which is meaningless, and read about Prof. Liviu Librescu, the holocaust survivor who held the door shut while his students escaped:

The Holocaust survivor who saved a classroom

Now, that's really something to think about.

First Born Cousins

We were in Edmonton this weekend for Debbie's Dedication. She's my sisters first child. The picture is of Debbie and our daughter Sarah.

- Peace

Mere Joy

I kept hearing NT Wright's name in different places and added him to my mental author's to read list. Reading his quotes in Colossians Remixed pushed him up the list. I picked Simply Christian as the my first NT Wright book, getting his over view of the faith seemed like a good place to start.

Many of the articles I found on the book make the comparison to CS Lewis's classic Mere Christianity. The comparison makes sense, in that it is an over view of what it means to be Christian, without getting into denominational/paradigm divides. His approach though is much closer to CS Lewis's retelling of his conversion Surprised by Joy, where Lewis talks about the sign posts that lead him to faith. Where Lewis has sign posts Wright hears echoes: desire for justice, quest for spirituality, hunger for relationships, and love of beauty. He then surveys the stories of Israel and the Gospels showing how they clarify the echoes allowing us to hear the original voice of the speaker calling us to join in a great narrative. It took a while for me to warm up to the book, the first four chapters on the echoes are hardly original. But after that Wright does a wonderful job of looking at God's on going redemptive narrative.

Not sure what my net NT Wright book will be, offer recomendations in the comments, but He's definitely on my 'to read more of' list.

- Peace

Easter Weather

We had strange weather last week. Calgary Strange, it was the same for week. Cloudy with some snow every day. In Calgary we're used to rain/snow/sunny in one day, so a whole week of nothing but the same thing is strange. It started to clear Saturday afternoon, but it was still cold Sunday morning for the Xalt Easter Sunrise Gathering. But Sunday was bright, warm with birds singing out doors. What perfect weather the mark Resurrection and new Life!

I know there are some who will say this is what makes Easter truly a Pagan celebration of spring, in fact there was a Pagan on CBC saying exactly that. His argument, Easter was clearly Pagan as it uses the lunar calendar to set it's date. Leaving aside the issue of the Lunar Calendar being Pagan, I see easter as far more than the celebration of a new Spring Season. Yes we celebrate rebirth as do our Pagan brothers, but Easter takes it to a new Context.

The Easter story is more than the general idea of new life after winter, it's celebrating Resurrection after the Political and Religious powers of the day had conspired to protect their own interests and the interests of national security by executing Jesus. They used the power they had to put an end to this Gospel of loving your enemies, embracing tax collectors and prostitutes and up setting religious commerce. They did their worst, and Jesus submitted to their worst. It wasn't enough. God raised Jesus from the dead giving his Gospel a whole new power. His followers no longer feared the authorities, the Gospel could not be stopped.

Spring weather is wonderful and we should celebrate it. New life in the face of the worst evil of religion and politics takes hope to whole other level, and we need to not only to celebrate it, but to join in with it.

Updated: Mike Todd posted this NT Wright Quote:

What neither modernity nor cynical postmodernity can cope with - and hence what they, like the cultural thought police of the first century, stamp on whenever they see it - is the suggestion that the gloom of Good Friday and the lull of Holy Saturday are the prelude to a new kind of life. This sort of life bursts out and challenges all our power systems (in an electronically manipulated democracy, power follows money and the media), and declares once more the shockingly unfashionable truth that Jesus is Lord.

Easter is about the beginning of God’s new world. John’s Gospel stresses that Easter Day is the first day of the new week: not so much the end of the old story as the launch of the new one. The gospel resurrection stories end, not with “well, that’s all right then”, nor with “Jesus is risen, therefore we will rise too”, but with “God’s new world has begun, therefore we’ve got a job to do, and God’s Spirit to help us do it”. That job is to plant the flags of resurrection - new life, new communities, new churches, new faith, new hope, new practical love - in amongst the tired slogans of idolatrous modernity and destructive postmodernity.

- Peace

Record Number of Birthday Cards

Got this via email

Shane is a 7 year old little boy with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. He is an awesome guy who has been in hospital for over 2 years straight receiving Chemotherapy protocol (currently in week 108/130). He has one birthday wish this year: To Break the world Record for the Number of birthday cards received in one calendar year (record currently 35,000,000). His birthday isn't until May 30 but you can start mailing the cards now - so tell everyone you know to take a couple dollars, buy a card and a stamp and mail the card to :

Shane Bernier
Box 484
Lancaster, ON
K0C 1N0

Sounds like a classic hoax, but snopes says it's true. I'm in just cause it's nice to have an email that tripped my hoax radar turn out to be true.

- Peace

Fruits Basket

Mike has mentioned Fruits Basket here before, and he was kind enough to give me a copy. I finally got to see it, Sarah loaned it to a friend who loves anime before I got to watch it. Mike's talked about it in terms of kindness and grace,and I don't have much to add to that other than he's right. It represents our deep desire for Grace. I will add that I loved the animation it's self. It's very self aware of the anime tradition, and switches styles on the fly. It even pokes fun at it's own animation. At one point a character takes the symbol used to show anger off of one of the other characters, places it on himself and says 'there now I'm angry'. The great thing is how smoothly it's worked into the the script, by the time you catch the joke they've moved on. If you enjoy anime and I'd give Fruits Basket a watch.

- Peace

Simple Bistro

After hearing John Gilchrist's review of Simple Bistro and realizing that it was in our part of Calgary (2335 - 162 Avenue S.W., just east of Sobeys in Bridlewood) we wanted to give it a try. Simple Bistro lived up to the promise of good French cuisine in a relaxed setting. I had the lamb, Kim had the salmon and we both thought it was excellent. I discovered that I like escargot, it's like muscles with out the sea food taste. We enjoyed the house wine more than some wine's that have come recommended with the meal at other restaurants. Bill for the two of us was under $100 including tip.

Luckily we didn't need a reservation as Simple Bistro's phone number isn't published in the phone book, a glitch that they are working on. FYI: Simple Bistro's phone number is 403.313.4426.

- Peace