NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

‘There is no science in this world like physics. Nothing comes close to the precision with which physics enables you to understand the world around you. It's the laws of physics that allow us to say exactly what time the sun is going to rise. What time the eclipse is going to begin. What time the eclipse is going to end.’ Neil deGrasse Tyson - an American  astrophysicist , author, and  science communicator   I drove out of the parking lot in the mysteriously reduced sunlight during the recent solar eclipse. I knew why everything was looking different, why the light was muted, having that eerie glow. Yet still it  bothered me. When we reached home and turned on the television to watch what was happening elsewhere, the full majesty and mystery of this natural phenomenon became clear. I can well understand why there are people who travel great distances each time a total eclipse cones around, just to experience it again and again. The pictures of this ev...

I have always liked words from the time I saw Hermione Gingold in Gigi where she lovingly and slowly pronounced ‘win-dow-sill’’and ‘ap-ple-sauce’ lingering on each syllable. One of my favourite courses at university was an introductory course in Linguistics. And so I was delighted when I came across the recently-coined word ‘paraprosdokian’ [a word or phrase that brings about an unexpected twist to the interpretation of the previous part of the sentence].   One of the examples given that spoke to me was “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.” ~Billy Sunday [American Evangelist] How true. How very true! But at the same time, not the expected outcome.   Often we hear   someone say, “ My friend is a wonderful person, but they never go to church.” or conversely hear someone say “The church is full of hypocrites.” Both of those people have bought into the above paraprosdokian by expecting the first part...

The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.’ 1 John 4:20 [The Message Bible] A conversation happened between 2 sisters: Joelle, a cradle member of the United Church, says, “Our church is holding Vacation Bible School next week and the theme for this year is ‘Water’ Patsy, also a cradle member of the United Church, but a newly-minted member of the local Baptist congregation replies, ‘Oh, our Vacation Bible School was about ‘God!’ I have known both these sisters for many years, in particular, Joelle. Yet when this conversation was repeated to me by Joelle, it led to the first conversation I have ever had with her about anything to do even faintly with religion. [I must admit that during this conversation, I did get accused of ‘thinking’ too much, something I readily admit that as an introvert I do very easily!] Joelle was struggling with reconciling her understandings with the more rigid viewpoint now adopted by he...

We came to an intersection. The light was red. I looked both ways and the road was empty, so I began to pull slowly forward.   ‘Wait for it!!’ said a voice from the seat beside me.   ‘Don’t be so Canadian, eh!’ , I replied as I stopped moving.  And aren’t Canadians often cited as being more law abiding that might be the norm in other parts of the world!  But what really struck me about this conversation was that once the light had turned green, I found myself carefully checking to see that the cars, that had by this time appeared, were actually stopped at the traffic light!  As I drove away I was reflecting that I really trusted my own instincts over what   I was told to do by the ‘powers that be’ [in this case the stop light] And also that I gave that same right to others [or might it be that I didn’t really ‘trust’ them to stop???].  As I drove away down the road I found myself thinking that that incident in a way highlighted how I had come to see ...

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson Not long ago, after helping a friend, they made the comment that they didn’t know how to thank us for all we had done. My answer was not to worry, that it had made us feel useful, adding that was something that didn’t happen all that much in our lives any more. I had realized earlier this year, that we were, in our seventies, officially empty-nesters for the first time with both grandchildren away to university and only their parents and ourselves left to our own devices in the house we shared for 15+ years!  And it was a strange feeling, one of being suddenly less involved in life. However this latest experience with our friend led me into thinking more deeply about the need we have to be useful.  After all we have been useful all our lives. As children we probably had a pet o...