Category: Musings
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The Political Matters (or does it?)
One of the ways that I annoy my wife, is that when people call the house to ask if I want to take part in a survey, I almost always say yes. I agree, not because I’m a pushover (that’s debatable) or because it allows me to shirk other responsibilities at home, but because I…
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UP in spiritual terms
Have you heard the conspiracy theory about Disney’s UP? If you haven’t seen it, you should. It’s a beautiful story of an old man who, as a child, dreamt of being an explorer like his hero Charles Muntz and is now living that out by floating his home down to South America with the help…
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‘Cause they’re not hip with it
From time to time I’m in a position where I’m asked to defend the church. Sometimes that means that I have to try to give an intellectual defence for the content of the Bible or my interpretation of the content. Depending on who is asking the question, it’s not always easy, but those kinds of…
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My yesterday
Like many Canadians, I spent much of yesterday morning reading updates and following developments from our nation’s capital. The photos brought me back to the four months I spent living in the city doing a co-op job with Revenue Canada. Ottawa, despite sitting on political, cultural and linguistic fault lines, is a beautiful city, filled…
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Idly by
Maybe you’ve heard the news, our government refuses to stand idly by. Our Prime Minister has said it, other ministers have said it, and so, we will join another military exercise, because our government refuses to stand idly by. But even though it might not often look like it, and they usually don’t want it…
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I refuse to complain about the weather
As I write this, the forecast low for tonight is -8C. So much snow has fallen here over the past few days that tree branches aren’t able to bear the load of the uncharacteristcally sticky white stuff, and so they are falling. Branches are falling onto sidewalks, onto power lines and onto cars. City crews…
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Canadian Camping
One of the family traditions that we are trying to start is regular camping trips to familiar campsites. This year we visited three different campgrounds; two of them were national parks and one was more locally administered. We hiked, we ate smores, we splashed in the water and we took pictures. Except for when we…
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The threat becomes a challenge
You might have seen this quote before. It sums up how a lot of us feel when we’ve had to go through various kinds of adversity before finally achieving success, and suddenly when we are successful, the people who once ignored us now pretend to be our friends. If I ever get to the success…
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Our daughters’ daughters
There are a few movies in our collection that we bought, partly so that our kids would inherit a broader musical legacy than their peers, Mary Poppins being one of them. We love how it celebrates imagination in children and highlights the need for parents, even wealthy parents with servants, to develop good relationships with…
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The Bear you know
We hadn’t been at our campsite for very long when a truck pulled up and the driver asked if I had a minute. When I approached his vehicle, he explained that he hadn’t wanted to startle the children, but I should be aware that a bear had been spotted nearby. He was on his way…