Paradox Porch

dream

2010-04-29T19:14:00.000-07:00

I had a dream once that I ate a whole pound of butter. When I woke up, I was sick to my stomach. What does that mean? Any dream interpreters out there?

Help me out!

lovey

2010-04-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

thots

2010-04-24T17:22:00.000-07:00

extreme sports

2010-04-17T15:49:00.001-07:00

Words for Thought

2010-04-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

“At the moment that I feel the inner readiness to live my life only for the glory of God, I am ready to live creatively in the world and be open to my neighbours, since then I no longer depend on their affection.”

- Henri Nouwen, The Genesee Diary

10 Reasons to Keep Watching the Oilers

2010-04-04T19:55:00.000-07:00

from coppernblue.com

It's brutal to watch this. The references to "playing out the string" have been numerous, but "watching out the string" is more painful. The Phoenix game may have set hockey back to Gary Bettman's ideal of the clogged early naughts. There's not much fun in being an Oiler fan and even less fun knowing that we still watch with no chance of a management change. There are a few small milestones left, however. After the jump - the top ten things left to look forward to in the last four games

Dustin Penner could tally 60 points. He would be the first non-Ales Hemsky Oiler to do so since 2005-2006.
Fernando Pisani needs two more games played to reach game 400 for his career. Fernando's path to the NHL is well-known. Combine that with the IBS and it's remarkable that Pisani has a chance at 400 games. If he doesn't win the Masterton Trophy this year, the league should stop handing out the award.
Zack Stortini needs to go -2 or better to remain a plus player for the year. Though he's only played fourth-level minutes for the year, on this squad, it's an accomplishment nonetheless.
Marc Pouliot needs to go +1 to get back to even for his half-season, or +2 to finish in the black. On this team, that's an accomplishment worth recognizing, especially since his games have come during the worst stretch in franchise history.
Robert Nilsson needs to go +2 in scoring chance differential over the last four to finish in the black for the season. He would be only one of two Oilers to have finished the season with the club and finished in the black in scoring chances.
Dustin Penner could score 30 goals. He would be the first Oiler to do so since Ryan Smyth in 2006-2007.
The Oilers need five points in the next four games to avoid the worst finish in team history.
Jeff Deslauriers needs to win two games to avoid a thirty loss season. Perhaps making a short-side save for once this season might help him avoid this accomplishment.
A win over the Avalanche on April seventh would go a long way towards getting the Flames into the playoffs. A loss to the Avs would help to keep the Flames out of the playoffs.

Dustin Penner needs to go +1 or better over the last four games to become only the second player in Oilers' history to lead the team in Goals, Assists, Points, and +/-.

tea time

2010-03-25T18:43:00.000-07:00

good people

2010-03-11T21:21:00.001-08:00

The Visit

2010-03-07T09:48:00.000-08:00

It was a busy morning, approximately 8.30 am, when an elderly gentleman in his 80s arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He stated he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9.00 am.

I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would be able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, and got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.

While taking care of his wound, we began to engage in conversation. I asked him if he had a doctor's appointment this morning as he was in such a hurry.

The gentleman told me no, he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I then inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while, and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.

As we talked, and I finished dressing his wound, I asked if she would be worried if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him, "And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are ?"

He smiled as he patted my hand and said,

"She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is."

Tokyo glow

2010-03-07T09:31:00.000-08:00

what is the spiritual analogy in this creative short:

remix

2010-03-06T16:58:00.000-08:00

#1 Rap Chop

#2 They’re Taking the Hobbits to Isengard!

#3 Dentist trip

#4 Why is the rum gone?

wanna go for a ride?

2010-03-06T16:41:00.001-08:00

This too shall pass

2010-03-03T19:26:00.001-08:00

Do you know what you want?

2010-03-03T19:13:00.000-08:00

Techno Jeep

2010-03-01T20:07:00.000-08:00

Best buds

2010-03-01T19:56:00.000-08:00

Tea Submarine

2010-02-28T13:04:00.000-08:00

Seattle's own Cinnamon-Orange Market Spice. Isn't this little tea sub the best? It submerges tea leaves to the bottom of your cup, creating the perfect infusion of your favorite brew.

Tom Brokaw explains Canada to Americans

2010-02-27T20:45:00.000-08:00

This is a decent piece, making our country look great, beautiful and even a little cool. Who knew?

Index thoughts

2010-02-27T14:59:00.000-08:00

Let's spice things up a bit!!

2010-02-27T14:50:00.000-08:00

2010-02-17T21:06:00.000-08:00

In terms of pop culture, the opening ceremonies for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics was a showcase of Canada's most mainstream entertainment — Nelly Furtado, Sarah McLachlan and Bryan Adams — but it was the performance of We Are More by slam poet Shane Koyczan that captured the energy in the room.
An excerpt:

we do more than sit around and say "eh?"
and yes
we are the home of the Rocket and the Great One
who inspired little number nines
and little number ninety-nines
but we're more than just hockey and fishing lines
off of the rocky coast of the Maritimes
and some say what defines us
is something as simple as please and thank you
and as for you're welcome
well we say that too
but we are more
than genteel or civilized
we are an idea in the process
of being realized
we are young
we are cultures strung together
then woven into a tapestry
and the design
is what makes us more
than the sum total of our history

seth godin's ted talk on TRIBES

2010-02-14T20:52:00.000-08:00

kick it

2010-02-07T20:02:00.000-08:00

Postmodern Architecture

2010-01-30T12:53:00.000-08:00

From an address by Ravi Zacharias:

I remember lecturing at Ohio State University, one of the largest universities in this country. I was minutes away from beginning my lecture, and my host was driving me past a new building called the Wexner Center for the Performing Arts.

He said, “This is America’s first postmodern building.”

I was startled for a moment and I said, “What is a postmodern building?”
He said, “Well, the architect said that he designed this building with no design in mind. When the architect was asked, ‘Why?’ he said, ‘If life itself is capricious, why should our buildings have any design and any meaning?’ So he has pillars that have no purpose. He has stairways that go nowhere. He has a senseless building built and somebody has paid for it.”

I said, “So his argument was that if life has no purpose and design, why should the building have any design?”

He said, “That is correct.”

I said, “Did he do the same with the foundation?”

All of a sudden there was silence.

You see, you and I can fool with the infrastructure as much as we would like, but we dare not fool with the foundation because it will call our bluff in a hurry.

Sermon on Haiti and the Wedding at Cana

2010-01-23T21:54:00.000-08:00

Nadia Bolz-Weber

I will not keep silent. Says the prophet Isaiah. I will not rest, he says, until the promises of God are fulfilled.

My family and I returned from vacation Tuesday to news reports of the devastation in Haiti. I, like all of you, listened in shock to the reports of 10s of thousands dead and hundreds of thousands left without shelter, without food, without family. And within hours everyone realized…and on top of it all, there’s no running water. Knowing this was going to be on everyone’s hearts and minds I thought to myself “I have to preach Sunday I wonder what the Gospel text is …” when I realized it was the wedding at Cana I thought Great. Jesus at a big party making sure the wine flows freely. No one wants to hear that today. Not today. Nobody wants to hear a quaint little miracle story about how generous God is when poorest country in this hemisphere lays in even greater waste than it already did on Monday. Nobody wants to hear of an abundance of wine when people on the streets of Haiti are thirsty. Who dares speak of a party when our cantor Drew is mourning his friend Ben who died in a collapsed building in Port au Prince? When thousands of mothers are mourning their children?

This week’s events bring with them a lot of questions about God, and none of them have to do with parties. One atheist blog I read this week sneeringly used the earthquake to make a case against believing in God at all. The writer implying that he could not believe in a God who would inflict such suffering on so many people, which made me admit that according to that definition I must be an atheist too because I don’t believe in that God either.
But after reading the wedding in Cana story over and over again this week I realized that I think Mary, the distraught mother of our Lord , might just be the key to seeing how this text speaks to our mourning and confusion and the death and suffering this week has brought to so many.
Our Gospel text for today has what sounds to us to be a rather abrupt and somewhat awkward interaction between Jesus and his mother. They’re at a wedding when Mary looks to her son and says the wine has run out. “Woman” Jesus says to his mother seemingly dismissive and perhaps even disrespectful, “my hour has not yet come” To which Mary is like oh yeah? too bad. Ok she didn’t really say that, but she did simply turn to the servant and said “do whatever he tells you”

Mary tugs at the shirt of God and says I will not keep silent. I will obey you and I will tell others to obey you but I will not keep silent. People are thirsty. See, In John’s gospel Mary is not the young virgin pondering sweet things in her heart. In John’s Gospel Mary is not surrounded by singing angels. She is never even mentioned by name. She is simply “the mother of Jesus” And she shows up exactly twice in the entire book.
So Mary stands here in a long line of prophets who have not stayed silent. The prophet Mary stands and says Lord, we’ve run out of wine and people are thirsty.
And Jesus hears her. So Jesus does this crazy thing: He could have filled the actual wine jugs up with water to be turned to wine. That would have been the logical miracle (if there is such a thing). Instead, Jesus takes 6 ceremonial purification jars and has THOSE filled with water to turn into wine. Purification Jars used in his own religion, the religion he grew up in the religion of his own family.
Jesus transforms this purification water into the wine of a new creation, the wine of a radical new family.

They are thirsty says his mother. And Jesus responds. But he responds in an almost embarrassingly excessive way. 180 gallons. Surely that’s too much. But that’s how Jesus is. 180 gallons of fine wine which…go back and check…is not called a miracle in John but a sign. It’s a sign of what God is doing in Jesus, namely that the very abundance of this gift means that maybe it’s not meant only for you and me. I mean we can try and keep 180 gallons of wine for ourselves but it will just become something we like to call “vinegar” unless it’s shared. In Jesus God is reconciling all creation to God’s self, not just his own religion and his own people, something today we might call “having really bad boundaries”

I think this is why Mary is called “woman”. He refused to abide by society or religion’s definitions of good and bad and pure and impure and family and stranger and who is in and who is out. His own mother is another woman, Like every other woman, every suffering mother.
So, Mary only shows up twice in John’s Gospel and both times her son calls her “woman. “ Once is here at the wedding when she refuses to be silent because people are thirsty. The other is when she stands at the foot of the cross. She watches as her son and her Lord hangs innocent from a cross with the weight of the world’s suffering tearing his very flesh.

This is our God. Not a distant judge cruelly indifferent to our pain and not some monster causing calamity, but a God who weep. A God who suffers not only for us but with us. Nowhere is the presence of God amidst suffering more salient than on the cross. Therefore what can we do but confess that this is not a God who causes suffering. This is a God who bears suffering. God does not initiate suffering…God transforms it.

It is suffering transformed which we see on the cross when again Christ calls his mother “woman” and initiates an adoption between her and the beloved disciple. This is the new kinship we all share. A kinship in which our identity is not based on country, blood, or religion but on our belovedness as God’s children.

That passage in John reads like this:

standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said, “I am thirsty.”

I am thirsty he says. I am not watching this from a distant heaven. Jesus says I too am thirsty.

As we hear the cry of our Hatian brothers and sisters let us discern the other voice we hear with them…that of Christ saying I am thirsty.

The reports that came in that first 24 hours following the quake said that When night fell on the streets of Port AU Prince people were singing hymns and psalms. Blessed be God, they sang. People were singing praises to God amidst their entire world destroyed.
Pat Robertson is wrong by the way. There is no reason for this destruction – but there IS meaning. And this meaning is to be found as we again become the human family of God’s new creation without country, religion, boundary or race to divide us. In this moment to the extent that we take up the responsibility of a mother caring for her son, a son for his mother,….In this moment to the extent that we act like Jesus and love and care for those suffering from the earthquake as if they are our own beloved family, we are all Haiti.

So we, with Mary, tug on the shirt of God and say we have run out Lord. We need wine. Good wine. Enough for all, flowing over. We too will not keep silent. We will join with the family of God in the singing of hymns and psalms. And then we will listen to Jesus’ command and fill some jars with water for the thirsty.
Blessed be God.
Amen