kar0ling

With apologies to CBC, I'm going to pull a John Longhurst here and link to my blog which links to the news article. If you didn't catch the leader's debate, please watch it here. Facebook's media ban is putting a serious crimp on our election, meaning that the vast majority of political messages you get are paid for campaign ads rather than journalistic reports on announcements, interviews with both leaders and laypeople, etc. Don't go into this election uninformed. And then take in the post-election debate analysis.

Apologies to CBC Ideas and Astra Taylor for my half-baked musings on and possibly poor recounting of her stimulating and inspiring presentation, in service of my need to exercise my writing and reflection muscles. Unlike the Greek myth of Prometheus which suggests human exceptionalism, the Roman story of Curia’s gift in equipping humans is that makes insecurity an inescapable part of the human condition. “We are fated to worry,” says Astra Taylor, at this year’s Massey lectures (2023). Security, by etymology, is the absence of care: sine curitas. Without worries. But we carry our creator Curia always with us, and so we live in a state of existential insecurity. It cuts both ways, says Astra Taylor. We are by nature dependent on others, for good and ill. We are by nature vulnerable to psychological wounding – again, for good or ill. Insecurity can inspire in us compassion, stemming from our own vulnerabilities, or contempt of them that leads to all sorts of compulsions to obviate o...

Climate anxiety has entered the lexicon. For the last few years, it’s been talked about more and more in news articles, science discussions and even in spiritual care contexts. I shrugged it off as overly sensitive people, but the shoe has dropped for me now too. Extreme weather or one sort another everywhere all at once for the past few years has brought home what I always acknowledged intellectually but didn’t really synthesized emotionally: climate change is actually coming and it will be bad. I feel so angry and impotent in the face of these massive systems working against my small efforts to reduce waste and burn less carbon. So I went to the climate forum for this provincial election. It felt really important just to be in the room to declare “this subject matters!” The room had a remarkable number of grey hairs in it. This brought up terribly mixed feelings for me. On the one hand, good of them to continue to care about these issues, even as they can anticipate it w...

With Facebook, blithely blocking all news for Canadians rather than sharing a tiny slice of its profits which it surely making at least some off the back of the interest said news generates, maybe I should do my public opining on the news here on a blog where the news isn't blocked.  Re "The parental rights Trojan Horse" By: Shannon D.M. Moore, Kevin Lopuck, Colleen Dawson, Katie Hurst, Ellen Bees, Emily Livingston, Scott Durling and Melanie Janzen It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic and dangerous.  The PCs are promising to expand parental rights -- in ways that exist already. "Much of what was proposed is redundant and unfounded. The curriculum documents are all readily available online. In addition, media release forms are widely used in schools across the province and schools typically inform parents about guest speakers. Similarly, the idea that schools need to better inform parents is peculiar, as parents can email or phone teachers, read school news...

*off the cuff, despairing rant* Gillingham campaigned on creating neighourhood action teams that will look for issues in communities, including icy sidewalks, he said. "I've been working to, and will continue to work to improve snow clearing in this city, our winter city. I think the neighborhood action teams are really going to help," he said. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/sidewalk-snow-clearing-motion-1.6807358 Mayor Gillingham, can you seriously claim to be "working on it" when you have zero ideas and you outright reject the councillor who comes at you with a suggestion? "People have the right to participate equally in society," Allard told the committee. It's painfully apparent city councillors -- and our former-pastor mayor -- don't really believe that.  Only people who get around in cars matter in this city.  One councillor patronizingly explained that he wears grippy footwear in winter as though that would solve everyone...

“Hats, were made for your head, For when it’s cold outside to keep you warm instead....” It was just a silly ditty – and it’s probably telling it’s the only part of the song I can remember. I was resolutely anti-hat at the time, with my main experience being forced by my mother to wear ugly toques when the other kids just used their hood or had no headwear at all.  Eventually, I embraced toques because they do keep you warm after all.  In my university years, I uncharacteristically bought a black wool beret at The Bay one winter and thus began my journey of becoming a girl in a hat. At first, I wore it practically. The little point at the top betrayed it as a beret but I pulled it down over my ears because hats are supposed to keep you warm, right? But I grew to love the thing, and replaced it with an identical cap after leaving the original behind somewhere by accident. I’m not sure what prompted the shift, but at some point I began wearing it French style (cocked to the...

  It’s not fair Another body of an indigenous woman has turned up in the landfill....and it’s not the one they expected to find.  It’s an unspeakable horror.  I’m ashamed that it was not the headline about this this tragedy that caught my attention and pierced my heart but rather the connection to someone I know.  A Facebook friend who used to volunteer with LBE recognized the name in the news as a beautiful, plucky, caring, servant-hearted girl who had been part of the kids clubs when he was younger. His lament for her brought this woman’s life out of the news and into reality.  Yet how can this be reality? What trauma it must inflict upon a community never knowing who may disppear next! And to be treated in such a careless, dignity-less way after violence.  I walk the same streets as these women. In the downtown, I get around by foot and by bike at all hours of the day or night. There *are* times I decide it’s more prudent not to be out alone “this late” ...

*Raw, quick thoughts, just thrown up here, at my peril, with very little pondering. Wayback machine or other internet tools used to dig up dirt on people, I'll probably edit this as I have better formed thoughts on the matter. Please don't hold this rant against me. It needed to get out there in order to spur further thought* Division. No, not lists of the dreaded mathematical function represented by ÷ I'm talking polarization.  No, that buzzword has become too familiar.  I'm talking cleavage.  Not breaking up (that can be a thoughtful act) but breaking off . Casting out.  The world is facing polycrises: climate change, species loss and natural disasters are bad enough without us adding wars and racism and systemic injustice to it all.  Christians, if we are to have any hope of faithfully representing the God we claim to obey, it is high time we put our differences aside.  Those of you who are purity minded, okay, you probably have a point. God's holines...

The Winnipeg Free Press announces a new infill project “check off all the boxes.” The new 50-plus apartment community is at least well within city limits.  But there are a lot of things missing from that checklist. New builds of today must feature more than nice looks.  Any multi-unit residential building whose list of features does not include the following most certainly cannot be said to “check off all the boxes.” secure, indoor bike parking with fixit stand and wash station proximity to public transit stops compost disposal (whether take-away service on onsite facilities) heating/cooling via heat pump, geothermal, solar, wind, or some kind of renewal energy high insulation value Human beings tend to chose the path of least resistance. It’s high time developers build housing that makes environmentally friendly living the natural choice, not an uphill struggle.