kar0ling

Christmas Day has passed, but we are still in the season of Christmas, made famous, though rarely acknowledged or understood, by the "12 days of Christmas" song, so I post my seasonal editorial here, slightly revised from its first, published version. In the scope of history, there was nothing new about the shift in government this past October. Routinely, Canadians tire of Conservative austerity, welcoming Liberal prodigality with a wave of votes. A few terms later, the tide reverses; Canadians clamour for Conservative restraint after Liberal excess. The cycle repeats. Yet, this election upset felt different to many. People spoke of the landside change less in terms of policy and more in terms of emotion: hope. In some ways, the rhetoric of fear that permeated the pre-election landscape is found in our conference and churches as well. How did this happen to followers of the author of hope? The things we fear As millions of displaced people seek shelter, ...

The fatgirl has been ready to go for a month already and I've taken her out a few times when I lacked the effort to deal with a puncture in the rear of my skyline. It has been unseasonably, blissfully warm. However, I'm surprised to discover, looking back, that I'm only bringing out the winter bike slightly later than last year (Nov. 12). I was on the skyline tonight, hoping the snow wouldn't fall till I got home. Alas, icy shards pelted my eyes (okay, the fatgirl couldn't have helped with that), and slippery, snowy roads bore me home. Time for cold and ice. So, tomorrow the fatgirl will be on the road for good, just a few days before her birthday, November 22. *****Update: mild weather returned so we didn't have snow and nasty roads in earnest until a major dump Dec. 16 that strewed mashed potatoes and brown sugar all over the roads.

I should be happy every time I open another church bulletin or see another facebook post that says a church is considering sponsoring a refugee family. Instead, I’m disgusted. Really, you're merely considering it? Only now ? Your congregation is so busy running your little affinity groups and holy huddles and going on your personal enrichment “mission” trips that it took the secular newsmedia’s outraged publication of a heart-rending photo of a dead child washed up on a beach to get you to even realize there's a refugee crisis out there?! And, so moved, you still wonder not when and how to respond but whether ? When did the church stop believing itself in some way responsible to care for people outside our own doors? Why is the church not ashamed that it took wider culture to wake us up to a tremendous need? (It’s not that the news hasn’t been out there. For example, my church magazine has been running articles from MCC on the dire situation in Syria since 2012....

For all the criticisms I could make of politicians and their policies and how they often comport themselves, I’ll grant them this much: they generally try to answer the questions lobbed at them. Even though one might suggest that in itself is part of the problem. Because a lot of the accusations thinly veiled – or not disguised at all –  as questions at public fora are far more about the “questioner” wanting to air his or her grievance than hearing the politician’s response. He or she usually isn’t interested in the answer; it wouldn’t be believed anyway. People often hurl their comment at the candidates, then stride away, only pausing to turn back when their intention is to rail further against their pet injustice. Not that there aren’t plenty of injustices to rail at. I’m just not sure it’s constructive. On the other hand, do the “answers” get us anywhere either? When you’re so determined to have your say, you just want to be heard – i.e. acknowledged – not n...

It's a complex issue. Right from the top, it must be acknowledged that the current hype on the Syrian refugee crisis may very well fade shortly and it doesn't necessarily dig deeply into the many facets to this particular situation which has been developing for years, much less into other areas or peoples who are displaced. For one, African migrants have been perishing in the Mediterranean in growing numbers for years without tugging at our heart strings. Is it fair to hijack the photo of one family's tragedy to galvanize a response? Perhaps the media's integrity around the photo (which many outlets will say they carefully considered before using) will be tested by the child's aunt in Canada who has reportedly asked, now that the point has been made, that those who wish to show photos of Aylan use one of him happy and alive. That said, it's good to see the energy the general populace is expending on the Syrian refugee crisis. Harper points out that som...

Yes, that's me. As long as you're in the majority, you can feel quite noble about teaching English to an Iraqi family. You can even feel quite clever that from one week to the next, you remember (mostly) how to count to 10, say "thank you," "good bye," and "same thing" in Arabic. But it's humbling when you barely scrape through a brief conversation in French, always desperately grasping for words and having to stop yourself from tutoyer-ing. And it's even more humbling when you join a group several of whom could speak English to you but among themselves can also converse in Spanish, Portuguese and German. That humility, however, is the key to getting beyond my sad communication situation. The embarrassment of never quite keeping up with what's going on. The ignominy of trying to speak -- and being wrong. The mortification of having worse grammar than a three-year old. The frustration that nearly all significant conversation is ...

For an event centred around redress for horrific, sustained, systemic abuse of vulnerable people within a country, the tone was remarkably hopeful. The officers of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission were serious, unafraid of speaking hard words, firmly denouncing the cultural genocide and calmly but insistently calling Canadians to a better future. This is a Canadian story, not an indigenous one. That was repeated over again. Regardless of whether an individual is complicit in any way with the residential schools (e.g., affiliation with decision-making governments of the past or involved churches), all Canadians bear a responsibility to acknowledge our shameful history and seek a better way forward. Mayor Brian Bowman, unsurprisingly, spoke of the importance of moving forward, for the health of our communities, city and country, calling Canadians to take action to support positive change. We heard this from him after the Macleans article, and I have no doubt his...