Fullness

Love joy peace and hope
We’ve tied them in chains
And ran far from them

But how can we cope
When that in our brains
Tells us to protect

Protect our pride
Our dignity
Protect our wants
Our desires

But we can’t do this
We need to embrace.
Embrace our full and
Broken hidden selves

For it is only in our pain
Our poverty and addiction
It’s in our suffering that we
Understand love joy peace and hope

Sacramental Living

Arguably one of the most misused and misinterpreted sacred text in existence today is the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Scriptures. The book and particularly the two creation stories contained within it have been central to the creation vs. evolution debate. Since Darwin published ‘On the Origin of Species’, Genesis seems to have become viewed simply as a scientific account of how things came to be, given to humanity by God thousands of years ago for the purpose of condemning those evil Liberals. The small but vocal Christian right has had a near monopoly on the interpretation of its meaning. To make things worse the Christian right has excluded itself from any meaningful debate on environmentalism, using theological ideas such as the imminent second coming of Jesus to dismiss any notion of environmental responsibility.

But there actually is much more in Genesis than has been brought to the surface by many Christians. If one reads and studies Genesis as a meaning story in line with other creation myths, then a whole new perspective comes from it. Central to this idea is that the earth we live in is God’s creation and it is good. In Genesis, again and again God sees what he has created and declares it to be good. The trees and plants and animals were created by God and reverence and respect should be given to them. Originally it appears as though in the Garden of Eden, man lives in harmony with his surroundings. There is no mention of death or exploitation, man lives with dependence on God, and God provides.

Everything is wonderful, until the whole story with the serpent, and Adam and Eve make the choice to eat the fruit and gain knowledge independently of God. Included in this decision to eat are a series of significant misperceptions about God. Expulsion from the harmony with creation in Eden and a curse for both Adam and Eve is the result of their choice to be independent.

Death enters the picture in Genesis 3:21 where God kills animals (those whom he declared to be good) for their skin to make clothes, in order to accommodate Adam and Eve in their new sense of shame. Creation was paying the cost for humanity’s independent moral choices. It is creation which kept us and is keeping us from feeling the full effects of the curse.

Creation has paid for other things that have kept us from experiencing the full effects of the curse: medicine, fabric, housing, heat, canning and preservation of food, transportation and mechanization, and water systems. All these things are quite costly to creation, yet they ensure our survival and quality of life. These are merciful, protective, and costly ways God helps us live outside of Eden. Yet humanity and Christians in particular have forgotten this, in our selfishness we have come to see God as a withholder and respond by forcefully squeezing creation for every blessing.

We need to be careful to respond to a need, instead of our ability to get, and to make ourselves aware of the consequences of our consumption. This entails Sacramental Living. Everything we take and use from creation we receive as a gift: one that we are not entitled to, but that has been given generously to us How would it look to live as though everything from creation were a gift? How would our diet change if we truly understood the sacrifice of an animal in order to provide us meat for food? How would our energy consumption habits change if we understood the cost to God’s creation that burning fossil fuels entailed? The Genesis creation story, understood in this way, offers a profound motivation for environmentalism.

Debbie does something more Meaningful

Whether we openly acknowledge it or not, we live in a sexually charged society. Sex and sex related ideas, images, and facts take up a large amount space in the information superhighway that has become our society. Musicians, advertisers and businessmen all realized long ago that sex sells. This can be seen in the sexually suggestive dances of singers like Christina Aguilera, the seductive look of the model on the bus stop, and high proportion of women in service jobs such as waitressing. More explicitly, the internet pornography business has grown to be a multi-billion dollar industry. Indeed, the sexual revolutions of the past few hundred years have allowed sex to transform itself from a taboo subject to one that pervades almost every area in our lives. Few would argue that this transformation hasn’t been a positive change, after all humans are sexual beings and to hide that fact is to partially dehumanize ourselves. But the unfortunate fact is that this transformation has occurred in a world where despite the invaluable accomplishments of feminism, men continue to hold the measure of power. The result has been disastrous. Much of the sexual expression in our society degrades woman and relegates them to objects of men’s sexual desires. This is seen in women’s “fashion” where every year the amount of clothing seems to get smaller and smaller exposing more and more skin. Beauty product advertisements and shows like “America’s Next Top Model” subtly purvey the nearly unattainable physical and sexual image that women need to achieve in order to have value in male dominated society. The consequence has not only been an epidemic of eating disorders and other manifestations of low self-esteem among young woman but also a reinforcement of women as merely sexual objects in the male psyche, continuing the cycle of male dominance. The viewing or pornography of all types which has increasingly become a normal and accepted activity amongst males reinforces this cycle exponentially. I believe this is simply unacceptable, not merely because of what it does to women, but also because our society is largely missing in out on a more meaningful way of relating to each other. If we allow value and respect and not sexual exploitation to become the common basis of male and female interaction many of the dominate problems in our society will become solvable. We need to allow a re-emergence of family values (which for some reason we’ve allowed the Republican Party to have a monopoly on) to enter into our discourse. The ideas of feminists such as Andrea Dworkin, and Catharine MacKinnon and the anti-pornography movement offer us much to learn on the way forward. This movement has shown us the violence, degradation and humiliation towards women that is apart of the pornography industry. I’d also apply a similar critique to the beauty industry and the methods they use to sell their products. We need to find to be creative in constructing images, messages and social arrangements that reflect and promote the dignity of everyone in our society, especially women. The government, business and ordinary people would gain a lot from encouraging and enabling women to enter into roles or true power and leadership in our society. The benefits are too many to explain here, but a quick overview of what feminism is about may help. The dangers of pornography are very real, and our society norms that keep it and its use taboo, need to be changed to allow it to become more open where it can effectively be dealt with. Consumers need to change their consumption patterns to send the message to advertisers that the current standards of beauty that they portray are harmful and need to stop. Not only do women need to be more involved in the upper echelons of business but men also need to be more involved in the lower echelons. There are thousands of small but effective changes that can be made to promote a society built on equality in all areas especially in our sexuality.

Preview

Here is a preview of what (if everything goes well) will be published in the up coming edition of "blueprint", Laurier's campus magazine.

Learning To See
The expression on Brad’s face quickly turned into one of sadness and pain. The wrinkles on face and the look in his eyes showed that Brad had been through more than his fair share of rejection and pain in his life, and the question I just asked was making him relive hard memories. Brad had just finished telling me about his childhood and his days in the Yugoslav army. Born and raised in Yugoslavia, Brad was proud to fight for Tito and communism. “In those days” he said, “we felt like we were actually living for something, together we were fighting for a better life” Then, I asked him why he came to Canada. And with the look of sadness and pain in his face, Brad vaguely replied that he came to escape the ethnic violence that was tearing apart his country. But what Brad found in Canada was not much better than the world he had just left. Shortly after Brad came to Canada he started suffering from what was later diagnosed as schizophrenia. His disease prevented Brad from being able to maintain employment, or establish a solid foothold for himself in Canadian society. His schizophrenia and lack of social supports left him to weather a spiritually and sexually abusive church leader, the chaos of our under-funded dysfunctional mental health care system, the nearly non-existent social support programs of Ontario and finally the streets of Kitchener. By the time I had started talking with Brad, he had been in Canada for more than 15 years. In the two years that have passed since I met Brad I’ve learned many things. I learned that the values of democracy, freedom and individual rights that our politicians proudly proclaim had done little for him. Brad has an experience of life that is very rarely engaged in academia, in politics, in business or in any consign of power in our country. As I’ve gotten to know Brad and his life, I’ve realized that he and his story is one that carries great lessons for us to learn. But unfortunately, Brad and his story are inevitably left out of the narrative most Canadians live their lives in. I think that this fact might be ok, if Brad’s story was completely unique; a rare exception. But I have discovered through my experiences of people whom I met at St. John’s Kitchen, in Vancouver’s downtown eastside and in poor areas of Scarborough that this is simply not the case. The stories of the forgotten, of the poor, oppressed, afflicted, lonely and the broken leave me with the burning question of, How do I honour these? Even worse, the friendships I’ve formed with Brad and a few others in Kitchener have forced me to examine what it means to love “the other”. You see, increasing the Ontario Works and ODSP rates may help, but what Brad needs is people who willing to take a risk in being in relationship with him. Not just psychiatrists, social workers or nurses, but rather people who just want to be friends and are willing to endure all the shit that friendship entails, its really just people who are simply willing to remember Brad and his story as they live their lives. That idea is new and revolutionary and the great thing about it is that its not a hopeless one. It’s simply a fuller expression of what it means to be human. There is no bureaucracy to navigate, no tuition dollars to pay, or quorum needed, all that’s needed is a willingness to meet someone and hear something new.

Drink Up, Dreamers, You're Running Out of Time

I have 4 days left of work, before another summer or work is over, and another few thousand dollars is made. In many ways this summer has been my hardest summer yet, but I've also seen fruitfulness and faithfulness in areas I would least expect. I come out of this summer understanding myself in a much more comprehensive way. I have learned that I am a pessimist and for some reason I like being one. I find it very very hard to have a bright outlook on the future, and will often downplay the importance of the good things in my life. However despite this, I have grown in self-esteem, I didn't suffer the huge lapse in it that I suffered last year. I do my job with the knowledge that I am as capable as anyone else in the factory. And I have come to see myself as a significant part of factory life for my co-workers. This summer has confirmed how fragile my mental stability is. If I was stuck in the situation I find myself in during the summer, I know I would not be able to survive. There is little to engage me and I end up just being tired all the time with no motivation. But, interspersed amongst this constant lies a few moments/days where I find relaxation, meaning and/or joy to an extent that I rarely experience during the rest of the year. 4 more days.

In This Life

The strong will survive, the weak shall perish
Y'all need more courage, I
keep y'all nourished
Get in line, I let you know right now
You need to slow right down or you get blown right now
From what I see it's systematic how we push to addicts
Demographics make the street life hell or drastic
In the hood we see oppressive genocide
Cause if it's on it's on, you know at least 10 men'll ride
But on the other side, corruption runs deep
I'm aware of the conspiricies, discussion is brief
They're building more prisons, spendin less on schools
On the block Smith & Wess-ons and Teflons rule
It's hard to escape it, certain laws are sacred
In this life my friend, it's mad hard to make it

Systems Breakdown

When pieces of machinery start falling out of your loading machine, you may be running into problems as I discovered yesterday. I was innocently loading Hela Phos into the loading machine when a bolt and the thread it was on decided to come rolling out where the belt is. I shut down the machine and called over Tim, and the usual volley of swear words followed. In the end the machine had to be shut down for repairs and I had to screen all the materials into the bin by hand. This may have been bad news, but I like overtime so it worked out well. The other thing I learned that day, is that when the floors get really wet from the night shift guys washing the machines, it may be fun to slide around and do cool donuts in your 2-ton forklift, but it can also be potentially dangerous to the people and objects around you.