NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

  I find myself on a Saturday morning counting out my pills for the next week prior to restocking the weekly supply. Do I count the pills out one by one? No! Do I put them immediately from the pill vial into their section of the box? No! I arrange them in two groups: one of 3 pills and one of four... just as I was taught over 70 years ago in Grade One by Mrs Dawson. How many other things, I wonder, do I do a certain way because that’s the way I was taught as a child? 1 Corinthians 13:11 ran through my mind. “When I was a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.“  So for the next few days my mind was busy considering just how many of those ‘ childish things’ still were part of my life. We might have grown up in a house where alcohol was used to excess, where violence was a way of life, or where those who looked or sounded different were denigrated. That is no reason for us to repeat those things as adults....

Will we have a one dose or a two dose summer? No one knows and what’s more there is nothing that we can do about it. It depends on two things completely out of our control: how much vaccine will be available and how many people will take advantage of that vaccine.  Last fall we organized getting a new deck built this spring. The builder has the required lumber and is ready to go but we are waiting on the local township to get our building permit to us. Nothing we can do to hurry that process along. All the ‘i’s have been dotted and the “t’s crossed. The Bible came into being over a period of hundreds of years. It involved many people copying and editing texts, deciding what should stay in and what could be discarded.  So considering just why a certain story was included is sometimes an interesting way to approach scripture.  Some of the post-Easter stories can be helpful to us as we struggle to relate to this current pandemic. One of my favourite of these stories is ‘...

Mother’s Day came and went last weekend lost within this pandemic.   Like all families ours tended to celebrate Mother’s Day in a similar way each year with a family day culminating in a dinner that was often ordered in Chinese food. It was a low-key but pleasant day. I can’t really remember Mother’s Day 2020 during the first lockdown of the pandemic. I think we were all still in shock trying to just cope with everyday life.  This year though part of normalcy returned.  Flowers and a card found their way to our apartment along with a short and well distanced visit where we talked about what the younger generation was up to. Then at dinner time a bag containing our share of the Chinese food was delivered down here for us to enjoy. And so we shared the meal together while apart. The bonus from our point of view was that we got to keep our leftovers for the next day! We are finding new ways to do old things. It made me think of the Israelites spending the 40 years in th...

  Bloomberg CityLab reports on the world's cities, communities, and neighborhoods: How they work, the challenges they face, and the solutions they need.  Here is what they had to say this past week. ‘The widened boulevards and reimagined streets of Paris following a deadly cholera outbreak in the 19th century offer a unique lesson in how cities can thrive after a public health crisis.’ Bloomberg CityLab The same day I read this there was an item on the CTV evening news from Barrie in which it talked about Dunlop Street in Barrie being shut to cars on selected Saturdays  during the warmer weather.  Apparently the shop keepers are calling for this shutdown  to be more regular as the increased pedestrian traffic is good for the businesses. It was instigated in part as a reaction to a decrease in in-person shopping due to the current pandemic as well as street closures due to construction. Change follows disruption in the New Testament stories of the cruxifixc...

  “We can’t have thoughts and prayers being public policy,” While speaking about the death of a 13 year-old Brampton girl yesterday, a government spokesperson said ‘Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of this young girl.‘ Later that same day however an infectious diseases doctor responded on TV to that comment by saying “We can’t have thoughts and prayers being public policy, Action is what is needed!”  Emily’s father was an essential worker in  Brampton and brought the virus home, Emily became infected and died. These same doctors had been calling for weeks for paid sick leave so that workers can afford to stay home when not feeling well and still be able to put food on the  table... calling for weeks without any action being taken by the government. That lack of action had led to Emily’s death as well as the deaths of countless others here in Ontario. Hence this doctor’s statement. Jesus, who John Dominic Crossan called a radical Jewish peasant, co...

As the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine continues across Ontario, the rhetoric between politians and health care experts continues as does the theatrics between Ford and the opposition parties. Whose rights take precedence this debate? Is it the individual or society? Are we kowtowing to big business letting the little guy make all sacrifices? The growth of infection is scary as it threatens to completely overwhelm the health care system. To who should we listen? Does that even make a difference?  At these thoughts go through my mind, I am reminded of the various stories in the Old Testament about kings and prophets. The prophets would speak out against the actions of the kings that were causing hardship for the people. Eventually the people would get the message and would stage an uprising against the king. For awhile there would be peace and then the people would want a king again to look after them. And the whole scenario would start over again.  What is inter...

Following Easter this year, churches, mosques, and synagogues, as well as other meeting places for faith communities took their rightful place in our society.  Following the announcement of the  latest COVOD-related lockdown a week ago, there was immediate talk about pop-up clinics to be held for people over 18 years of age living in hot spots in parts of Toronto. These being mainly the marginalized, the immigrants, the poor, and the helpless. But what really caught my attention was when they said these pop-up clinics would be, among others sites, in places of worship. The Easter story went through my head, followed by the long history of various branches of the Christian church right up to today claiming that Jesus died to save us from out sins, that we are guaranteed eternal life.  Some sects even go so far as to say those still living when the end of the world comes, will be whisked away during The Rapture to heaven, leaving those unfortunate enough not to be ...