Is Your Minister a Mentor? (Part 2)

Photo by Carf.

Ministry training must offer healthy mentoring and leadership models. It should provide a mentoring experience that will be so valued by the laity that they will seek other mentors in the future to help them pursue lifelong discipleship. Learning opportunities must be provided throughout a minister's years of mentoring to address Christian responses to new situations, current events and the popular culture of Canada. A recent series in the National Post called the "Virtues of Austerity" have highlighted the trend towards spiritual revival during this current economic whirlwind.

The very practice of modeling and mentoring or apprenticing others is a critical leadership characteristic in The United Church. However, it is not accidental; it is a intentional practice of your minister, or instigated by the one doing the mentoring, that takes time and commitment. Is your minister a mentor or is he or she trapped spending the bulk of their time in managing the minutiae of daily church life? Is your minister a mentor or does the lay leadership try to abdicate their responsibilties, taking the attitude that they pay the minister to run the church? Is your minister swamped by details, lost an awareness of a unified vision or withdrawn into survival mode?

Ministers who are mentors tend to be initiative takers who are prepared to accept the risks involved in innovative ministries. They are internally motivated, creative and sometimes gregarious, and they surround themselves with people who share many of these same characteristics.

We were designed by God to need other people in our path: someone to mentor us (Paul), someone to encourage us (Barnabas), and someone for us to mentor (Timothy).

Is your minister the prime influence for recruiting and mentoring more leaders to maintain further momentum toward the kingdom of God? In a postmodern Canadian culture your minister is likely to receive far fewer "strokes" than in bygone generations. Ask whether your minister has mutual mentoring with a theologian, with other successful peers, with spiritual advisors, and with apprentices sharing life lessons and encouragement to the ministries of your church.

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The Fighting Nerds

A man in a small screen on the Web is talking about his brother, puppy-sized elephants, Queen Ranavalona I of Madagascar, and Shakespearean insults. It’s hard to grasp a lot of what he is saying but there is something about the way he speaks that is transfixing. His words are rushed as he often appears to be in a conversation with himself, with the help of fast screen cuts. His sense of humour is infectious. Soon enough you find yourself trying to anagram the names of politicians and adding the phrase “in my pants” after every book title.

Meet John Green. He is a Printz Award winning author whose hobbies include summarizing famous works of literature in lolcat form. His brother, Hank Green, the founder of the Clean Technology website EcoGeek, writes songs about Harry Potter and Helen Hunt in his free time. Together, they are self-proclaimed geeks, who oddly resemble the Scottish band, The Proclaimers.

On January 1, 2007, the two brothers started a video project called Brotherhood 2.0 in an attempt to cease all text-based communication (that means no emails, no instant messaging, and no texting), and instead make daily video blogs. They were inspired by another vlogger (video blogger), Ze Frank, and knew they really wanted to become a part of the YouTube community. The project has helped the brothers restructure their brotherhood but by putting it on YouTube it has also allowed them to affect the lives of many others.

The vlogbrothers’ videos have been watched more than 10 million times in total and they currently have a subscriber list of around 64000 viewers, many of who identify themselves as “nerdfighters” – a title based on John's misreading of the name on an arcade game machine he saw at an airport. But what is a nerdfighter exactly? According to John Green, a nerdfighter is a person who is “made out of awesome”. And these unique people are the reason why Brotherhood2.0 is such a huge success.

With a little bit of inspiration from the vlogbrothers, the nerdfighters were able to create a close-knit community, plan gatherings, participate in online and offline scavenger hunts, and help take over YouTube’s Most Discussed Page on December 19, 2007, and again on December 17, 2008, with videos from YouTubers that all displayed the same thumbnails image “Nerdfighter Power Project for Awesome”, each promoting a worthy charity from Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis to The Uncultured Project which brings attention to the issue of global poverty.

After an hour spent at the Ning, an online forum where nerdfighters like to hang out, it’s not hard to see the impact the vlogbrothers’ project has had on their viewers, especially their teen audience. I ask the nerdfighters at the Ning how they would describe being a nerdfighter and in a matter of minutes my question receives replies from nerdfighters of different ages, from all over the world. Francis, a seventeen year old sci-fi geek from Virginia, talks to me about being made fun in school for using “big words” like reference, and having uncontrollably puffy hair. “Nerdfighters has taught me that it's okay for me to be a nerd.” Another high school student from Manchester, UK, writes “To me being a nerdfighter is like being in a huge family of amazing, unique people, who are proud to be themselves.” Their answers are echoed in countless other replies from Harry Potter fans in Alaska to Doctor Who addicts in Australia.

Although the Brotherhood 2.0 project has ended almost a year ago, the brothers decided to continue posting their vlogs on YouTube. They have recently completed an All-American Tour de Nerdfighting with hundreds of people attending each event. John Green finishes the video by saying “Best Wishes”, another one of the nerdfighter inside jokes, and DFTBA – Don’t forget to be awesome.

A matter of taste

Flickr photo by Jordan Dickson

Packed into cold display cases like a box of Crayola, glacéau vitaminwater is liquid colour you can drink.

Priced at most convenience stores for $1.99 plus tax, it can sometimes cost over $3 at those less-than convenient locations.

Holding the “defense” flavour in hand, a sweet, yet light mix of raspberry and apple flavour and a (tasteless) vitamin combination of C plus zinc, the label (cheekily) describes its benefits as follows:

"if you’ve had to use sick days because you’re actually been sick then you’re seriously missing out my friends. see, the trick is to stay healthy and use sick days to just um, not go in. so drink up. the combination of zinc and fortifying vitamins keep you healthy as a horse.”

The medicinal ingredients are listed below: vitamin C (ascorbic acid) at 90 mg for the 591 ml bottle, and zinc at 3.75 mg. The bottle also contains vitamin B3 (niacinamide) at 5 mg, B6 (pyridoxine HCI) 0.5 mg, and 1.5 mcg of B12 (cyanocobalamin). The water itself has undergone a treatment of “reverse osmosis” – another way of saying “filtered.”

There's a saying: if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it. Does the average person really know what the health benefits of 5 mg of vitamin B3 is? Eating one orange should supply a person with more than their daily requirement of vitamin C.

In the winter issue of U of T Magazine, Andrew Miall, a U of T geology professor calculated the cost of basic bottled water was 300 to 3,000 times more than tap water – and bottled does not make better quality.

National Post columnist Diane Francis picked-up on Miall’s calculations at the Saskatchewan Festival of Words in Moose Jaw. “Bottled water is the biggest consumer/taxpayer rip-off ever,” she said, declaring it “consumer stupidity”, not to mention the environmental impact of packaging and transporting H20. Yet one excuse for buying bottled, is that convenience continues to play a large part in our grab-and-go lifestyle.

During his recent Toronto appearance at U of T Hart House, New York Times columnist and author Mark Bittman – whose latest book, Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating is a discourse on how our diets are destroying ourselves and the planet – said:

"Basic one-ingredient foods – the foods that don’t have any ingredients, because they are the ingredient – don’t make anybody any real money. No one wants to sell you oat bran. They want to sell you oat bran in a granola bar."

Bittman's statement is easily applied to water-marketing. Why have tap water when you can buy “cleaner” filtered tap-water. Why buy filtered tap water when you can buy “flavoured” and vitamin-enhanced water? Coca-Cola, who now owns glacéau, is counting on consumers drinking-up water containing another non-medicinal ingredient: cane sugar (should we be happy it’s not artificial?)

The brand has staying-power, having launched in the U.S. nearly 9 years ago (in Toronto, it seemed to arrive overnight in one colourful wave), even though the U.S. Centre for Science in the Public Interest has declared it to be nothing more than junk food disguised as a health product.

So choose to drink vitamin water for the ease, the taste, the popularity – not the “health” benefits. To drink to your health, pour yourself a glass of tap water. Read the Canadian Food Guide, and get your daily fix of vitamins from the likes of fruits and vegetables.

Would a celebrity be willing to market that?

Leaders from the Margin

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland, Government of Iceland

In “Shock Doctrine” Naomi Klein's thesis is that in times of either man-made or natural disasters governments will institute policies that favour capitalists. As the world is now undeniably experiencing a man-made global economic disaster, we might also be experiencing another interesting phenomenon. That is choosing leaders usually left on the sidelines. Barack Obama is one of these leaders. The first leader of African-descent elected in North America or in Europe.

On February 1, Iceland’s coalition government chose Johanna Sigurdardottir as prime minister. She will lead until Icelanders go to the polls on April 25. Ms. Sigurdartottir is the first openly gay prime minister.

In the 1930’s two world leaders also came to prominence from the margins. Franklin D. Roosevelt could be considered from the margins, as he was a liberal politician. Adolph Hitler was at the opposite end of the spectrum. Mahatma Gandhi, though not elected to the highest office in India, was a major political and spiritual leader. Nelson Mandela, considered a terrorist for most of his life, was elected as South Africa’s prime minister in 1994.

For many people just saying any one of these names – Roosevelt, Hitler, Gandhi, Mandela – automatically describes an era or a movement that was world changing. It’s early days for Obama, but even now for many his name is synonymous with hope and change for the better.

The election of a lesbian prime minister in one of the world’s smallest countries may not herald the beginning of a run for the highest office in other lands by gay politicians, but at least the door has been opened. If elected on April 25 she will be the first gay politician elected prime minister.

In tough times it seems as if the electorate is more open to choosing the unconventional candidate. Isn’t this counter intuitive? Why wouldn’t the safer candidate be selected? Is it “that it couldn’t get any worse?” Or is it that shaking things up might yield good results?

Is Your Minister a Mentor?

You could have been confirmed, gone to church for years and nobody would have noticed except that a leader got together with you and started mentoring. That kind of commitment developed a mooring for the kind of leadership I imagine for the church. See St. Stephen's United Church.

There are countless testimonials across The United Church of Canada of different variations of that same story. Whether in business, commerce, education, government, or the military, our church's history is full of people who now have a relationship with Christ because of the impact of others on their lives. In fact, not only has it happened in individual lives, we also need faithful modeling and effective mentoring to happen in our emerging church life.

This mark of leadership is also a hinge, the point of transition between the commitment already identified by showing up on Sunday morning and further marks of leadership yet to be explored by the laity. When it comes to leadership formation, people need more than a good sermon; people need to be apprenticed or mentored. The combination of mentoring and leadership development equals apprenticeship, which seems to be a lost art in my church today. Case in point: consider the characters in the Bible of Paul, Barnabas, and Timothy. One contributes to the building of our life, another who is a brother or sister to keep us accountable, and a younger person into whose life we can contribute. Each person in the pew needs a "Paul." Each of us needs a "Barnabas." Each of us needs a "Timothy."

The time has longed passed in The United Church when the laity needs power figures or authorized structures to access information. Leaders who are still operating within a hierarchical structure see their role as one of delegating and granting permission. Laypeople today have quick access to a staggering amount of information. Our young people who already function within a network empower and grant resources to those around them without trying to exert control. Controllers bring a mentality of suspicion and inhibit individuals from excercising initiative.

The task of the minister is to serve in a mentoring relationship of mutual accountability so that discernment may be exercised. A mentor identifies the true motivation of the person being mentored while providing wise counsel and spiritual support. The combination of unbridled access to information and diffuse boundaries of truth available from today's technology creates a tempting and potentially toxic environment in which our laity makes decisions about life. I have an eighteen and a twelve-year-old son at home who can find anything available in cyberspace. They can search MySpace, FaceBook, UTube, private chat rooms, weblogs - it's a big world getting closer and moving faster all the time. Just like a parent, the minister can help the laity make their decisions and to help carry the responsibility for the course of action to which they commit themselves.

Barack Obama: Setup For Failure?

Photo by Rusty Darbonne, Sept. 28 2008

The inauguration of Barack Obama has come and gone, and I’m still feeling the same level of skepticism I had during all the pre-inauguration hype.

Don’t get me wrong, I am happy that it seems good change has finally come, and I understand now why it was necessary for George Bush to flounder as he so often did, as I’m not convinced Americans would have been ready for an African-American (or other visible minority) President otherwise.

I just can’t help but feel that Barack Obama is being set up for failure.

This is certainly a less than ideal time to inherit the legacy of the previous administration – with two unpopular wars on the go and a worldwide economic recession that will likely get worse before it gets better. Obama seems to have taken on mythic proportions, which is certainly understandable considering his charisma and magnetism, his innate ability to inspire.

Yet he is still just a man, only now with huge responsibilities that most of us can’t even begin to comprehend. He has become a role model for visible minorities, and while there is nothing amiss about that, I can’t help but wonder what will happen if (and this is a very likely if) the time comes that Obama makes the decision to take military action in the home country of the same people who so idolize him now. It is ironic to me that the parts of the world where he is seen as being the Second Coming are the same places most likely to come under military operation by the U.S. - at the hands of the man who is a deity now.

What then? I fear a severe backlash against Obama, and I have to admit that I find it grossly unfair to the new President. The reality is that no U.S. Administration in the past 100 years has withheld from using military forces to some capacity, and given the current polarization of the world it is unlikely that Barack Obama will be the one to break that record.

Is Your Minister a Mentor?

You could have been confirmed, gone to church for years and nobody would have noticed except that a leader got together with you and started mentoring. That kind of commitment developed a mooring for the kind of leadership I imagine for the church.

Links From Today's Class (February 17)

Toronto Life's website (note the balance of text to ads).

SiteMeter
Google Analytics

Technorati Top 100 Blogs

Andrew Sullivan
Jason Kottke

AdSense
BlogAds
Amazon Associates

Reddit
Digg

The Waiting Game

This feeling of exhaustion begins as you step into the waiting room of a doctor’s office; most have the same look and feel - walls covered with outdated, textured wallpaper, small tears along the seams, the trim and chair rail are painted in pale sea-foam green; old magazines - Chatelaine, Reader’s Digest, Sports Illustrated, and National Geographic - seem to be favorite subscriptions for most doctor’s offices, stacked on the tables separating the rows of patients seated uncomfortably close together, covers are torn, and the pages are stuck together with a mysterious glue like substance. The easy listening music of 104.5 CHUM FM playing on the radio is drowned out by the persistent coughing, and sneezing of waiting patients. The receptionist quietly sits behind a thin layer of protective plastic, with a small opening at the base of the counter top, which is reserved for health cards, and new patient forms.

After you check in at reception, the waiting game begins. You anticipate the hours you will spend sitting, waiting for the opportunity to briefly speak with a doctor. No matter what time of day you arrive at the doctor’s office, the waiting room is always packed - full of people who one can only assume would rather be in bed, wishing the doctor made house calls. Every minute feels like ten minutes should have passed; other patients act as your measure of time and, ultimately, how much longer you will have to wait.

Slowly, the nurse picks up a file, and one-by-one calls patients by last name; everyone perks up, hoping to hear theirs called. Once called, they quickly gather their belongings, drop the half read magazine on the chair, and follow the nurse. This brief moment of satisfaction is lost when you realize you are being taken to another waiting area.

This new waiting area is secluded with no way to measure your place in line; there are no magazines, no other patients, just you and an examining table. You carefully listen for the thumping sounds of wooden soles walking down the hallway. As the thumping becomes louder, you know you’re next - your wait has come to an end.

The doctor spends a few minutes assessing what often feels like an endless list of symptoms, and scribbles down something on a prescription pad, which you hope the pharmacist will be able to decode, and sends you on your way.

Walking out of the office you feel puzzled, if every patient only sees the doctor a few minutes, why do you have to wait so long?

Catch him if you can

When it was announced earlier this month that President Obama had chosen Canada as his first visit abroad as President, hotel rooms in Ottawa were quickly booked as individuals and organizations like Canadians for Obama were planning pilgrimages to the capital for the February 19th arrival.

The man who inspired millions, within and outside the United States to cheer – “Yes we can!” – is not getting the full state-visit-treatment. A state dinner was held for George W. Bush. Mulroney sang with Reagan. And John F. Kennedy planted a tree. But when President Obama arrives on Thursday, you won’t see him – other than on the evening news.

The City of Ottawa has posted a Q&A for events, traffic and protests (none scheduled) on the day of the visit:

Q: Where can I see President Obama
A: President Obama is in Ottawa on a working visit and may not be speaking to the public or attending public events.

Although Ottawa is also celebrating its final weekend of Winterlude, with only lunch in the Senate dining hall and a press conference scheduled during the 7-hour agenda, there’s no chance we’ll see President Obama sampling a Beavertail on the canal.

So line-up in the projected rain and snow on Parliament Hill…and maybe, just maybe, you’ll see the President exit his Cadillac One.

MPs were also calling for the House to be called back into session in order for President Obama to make an address, such as his Excellency Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations did in 2004.

Why does Prime Minister Harper want to keep President Obama all to himself?

We should be applauding. Only bureaucrats know the true cost of a presidential visit and why spend Canadian tax dollars on dinners and photo-ops during this economic downturn. This will just be the first of many visits Obama may make during his term.

Only weeks ago, the US government’s economic stimulus bill was calling for a “Buy American” provision. The wording has now been modified (thank you, NAFTA).

Our economies are linked and let’s be thankful there’s a U.S. President who is popular enough people want to see him rather than protest him. Let’s also be thankful he’s a President who wants to work with other foreign leaders and Harper, though not a majority favourite, is a Prime Minister who would also rather get to the business at hand.

Safety for subway riders

Don't stand too close to the yellow line on the subway platform today. You won't know if the people around you have taken their prescribed medications.

Two teenagers had a close call last week when they were pushed onto the tracks at the Dufferin subway. A 47-year old man has been charged with attempted murder and assault. Psychiatric drugs were requested for the man during his court appearance.

Less than eight months ago, a man was pushed off the platform at College Station. In that case, no perpetrator was found.

Subway travelers are targets worldwide. In 2007, in London England, a man was killed when he was pushed onto the tracks by a 20-year old man, a voluntary patient at a mental health centre, who was upset over losing a bet on the World Cup. The deceased was not known to the man, who was later found guilty of murder.

Also in 2007, a woman was pushed onto the track in New York's Union Square stop. The woman was not physically harmed. In an earlier incident in 1999, the passenger was killed. The perpetrator, who also had mental health issues, was convicted of manslaughter.

In Vienna, several passengers were pushed onto the tracks by a 28-year old man. Vienna's public transport authorities said "It was almost impossible to prevent such attacks."

Only on some lines of the Tokyo Metro could these events have been avoided. They have platform barriers to prevent passengers from falling onto tracks. Tokyo's subway authority has a publicly available and robust safety program, due in large part to the extensive use of their system (6.22 million riders per day, just slightly ahead of London's ridership) and to the Sarin gas attacks in 1995.

A brief non-scientific survey of public subway systems, did not find any publicly disclosed information regarding how many passengers are injured or killed each year by being pushed onto tracks.

The larger issue of safety for all riders is being addressed by the TTC by installation of CCTV cameras throughout the system to monitor public areas, DWA - Designated Waiting Areas, TTC Special Constables, and now Toronto Police Services, patrolling the system.

Someone intent on pushing a fellow passenger onto tracks would probably not be stopped by any of these measures. Barriers, as in the Tokyo Metro, would be the best way to stop a fall or push onto tracks. But the cost of installing barriers, and changes to subway operations, may be cost prohibitive for most systems.

In some cases, perpetrators have been characterized as mentally unstable. In New York State, a controversial law was passed, Kendra's Law, to ensure patients released from mental health facilities continue to take their prescribed medications. This law was, in part, instituted following the death of the NYC subway passenger in 1999.

In Ontario, there are Community Treatment Orders to ensure those who were under psychiatric care at specific points in the past, can continue to receive psychiatric assistance in the community. There is no indication yet that the accused in the most recent incident was under this order.

It is not the case that all people who neglect their medications go on to commit violent acts in the subway, or elsewhere. It is the case that people with mental health issues, who may become violent, and have had medications prescribed should be more closely monitored. People being pushed out of the mental health system is as troublesome as people being pushed onto the tracks. Falling into the crack or onto a track can lead to a disastrous outcome.

What a Trend We Have in Jesus

Photo by Kevin Smith in Dogma

He's literally everywhere. He's in newspapers and on the covers of magazines. He's on TV and radio. He's on football fields and on the tailgates of SUV's. He's in the great debates of the day from Afganistan to polygamy, from Darwinism to the environment. He gets endlessly beaten and tortured in a movie. He gets flayed and people flock to see it. He's everywhere in the media, then. He's a celebrity. He's hot. Hollywood stars Brad Pitt, Ashton Kutcher, Ben Affleck and Pamela Anderson have all been seen in T-shirts or hats that read "Jesus is my homeboy."

The worldview of many "non-believers" is shaped by rock bands such as U2 or Radiohead, TV shows such as The Simpsons or Supernatural and films such as Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. People are searching for something. They mostly feel on the edge of society. As I explained to our church (using the music of U2 as a catalyst) about the rock concert experience: "It's all about power and community, and feeling the despair and anger that's going on in our world."

I am also arguing in my typical suburban United Church that we are worshipping in "postmodern captivity," holding onto and transmitting our faith in an increasingly hostile context.

Every Sunday in our worship bulletin for the first two years was printed: "From the Minister's Study: My vision for St. Stephen's United Church in Oshawa, Ont., is to know who our neighbours are (especially youth) and to reach them with the Good News and share in our spiritual journey." As most United Churches are scrambling to attract any young people, our congregation is struggling to understand those who do not share our deepest convictions.

Creating a tasteful place for worship, a well-organized greeting team, a competent preacher, or a meaningful order of worship is a waste of time without gaining some comprehension of what the "unchurched" believe, why they believe it, and how those beliefs work out in daily life. I have tried to provide discussion questions and advice about how to foster cultural literacy within an explicitly Christian context. My sermons are just as likely to contain references to Supernatural, Xbox, U2 or the Chronicles of Narnia.

I see in our United Churches people who have adjusted their emotional life on Sunday morning to willingly suffer something boring. They see that as, spiritually virtuous. Try explaining that to the teenager next door who is inspired by the vampire movie Twilight. The biggest cultural gap in our churches is between those who show up on Sunday, sing a few hymns, hear a sermon and go home, and those who are searching for an unfiltered religious experience - smaller than their daily, media-intensified lives.

Coming to a church near you: A skateboard park in the empty mid-week parking lot; The Simpsons in Sunday School; Fair-trade Coffee Bar instead of "fellowship time" after worship. Yes - understanding what matters to our neighbours is essential to today's Christian experience. If the church makes worship relevant and fun, teenagers will listen to what you have to say. The friendship and the community that first attacts new people to worship will be fostered by an approach to worship that respects diversity of opinion and civility of expression. If the churches continue to struggle to make decisions about what kind of popular culture they want to bring into worship, then we can start to understand what kind of Jesus we believe in and share.

Just an aside...

If anyone caught The Daily Show with John Stewart last night, President Obama accepted a question from The Huffington Post at a recent press conference.

Stewart exclaimed something like -- "The Huffington Post! Isn't he going to link his question to the New York Times?"

I thought it was especially funny, after last night's class.

How To Create A Link

1. Find the site, article, or other internet location that you want to link to. I went to the Star's homepage and found an article about the loonie falling two cents against the American Dollar.

2. When I click the Star's link to read the article by itself, this is what my browser's address bar looks like.


3. I copied the link from the address bar, and then, in the site's Blogspot (where we all post articles in), selected the text that I wanted to link.

4. With that text selected, I click the "link" button in Blogspot's toolbar. It's the one with a little globe that has a link chain on it:

5. Then I pasted the URL into the pop-up window that came up.

And if you click okay, you too can have lovely links like this one:

According to the Star, the loonie fell two cents against the American dollar today.

If you move your mouse over that link and look in your browser's status bar (the bar along the bottom), you'll see that it reads: http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/585291. And if you click it you'll see the exact article I wanted you to.

Bushfire!

Whatever. I found this link to the Big Picture's photos of bushfire.

Links from Class (February 10)

Here are some links that we talked about in class today!

Space
The Big Picture

Cannibalization
Fight the Power (Blackout Post)

Links
TIME

How Media/Blogs Interact
From YouTube to Gothamist to the New York Times
Ceci N'est Pas Un Bombe

Ethics
Perez Hilton's Fidel Castro coverage, in chronological order: Is Castro Dead?; An Official Announcement Is Coming; A Little While Longer; The Truth Will Come Out; Castro Steps Down!!!!!!

And the Post covers it, too.


Corrections
An instance of a correction in a Slate article.
How Torontoist does it.

Disclosure
Violet Blue v. Boing Boing


Workshopped Shepard Fairey/Obama/Hope Articles
The Associated Press/Boston Globe
Photo Attorney
The Year in Pictures
Boing Boing
Gawker
Wired's Underwire

They're not toys, they're collectables...

My boyfriend Peter is a complete sports fanatic. When he’s not watching sports, he’s playing sports. From September to April, his life is dictated by the NHL schedule. As a devoted fan of the Montreal Canadiens, the “Habs,” he never misses a game; a French theme package, courtesy of Rogers Cable ensures this.

About five months ago Peter and I purchased our first home together. We spent months sorting through granite and woods samples, paint chips and lighting options, to ensure that it would be the home of our dreams. We wanted our home to be sophisticated yet comfortable. Or at least that was the plan, but once we began to unpack the last of Peter’s boxes the aesthetic I had envisioned slowly began to change.

Peter saved his most important box for last: the box that contained his most cherished, and valued possessions, his sports memorabilia. Each item was carefully wrapped with four or five layers of bubble wrap to ensure that nothing could penetrate through its protective layers. One at a time, I watched him take out each item; slowly and carefully removing the bubble wrap, and gently placing the items on our coffee table. Without thinking I asked where we were going to put all of these toys. I was quickly corrected with the statement: they’re not toys, they’re collectables.

Photo by: Janine Hubbard

It’s true the majority of these collectables are plastic, and were purchased in the toy section of major department stores. Each box is complete with a warning to keep out of reach of children under the age of eight, for the fear of choking, but my mistake was obvious. They can’t be toys because toys are for children and Peter is thirty two years old.

After much discussion we decided to display selected items, the most important items of course. This includes a replica of the 1993 Stanley Cup, three types of beer glasses, miniatures of Alex Kovalev, Saku Koivu, and Cristobal Huet (the resemblance of the real players is nonexistent) and a Habs lunch box- I have my mother to thank for this one. These collectables now grace our bookshelves, tabletops, and desk.

I am frequently reminded to handle these items with care, and if one of them must be moved, Peter asks that I immediately put it back in its designated space because they’re not toys, they’re collectables.

We're all random now

Photo by leo.prie.to

Remember chain letters?

I was once invited to participate in a “panty exchange” (bonus of new underwear to accompany the chain letter) which promised if everyone participated and we “didn’t break the chain” then we’d all receive dozens of panties, from around the world.

I think I received one pair.

Now with social-networking site Facebook, no stamps are required. In a different sort of chain-letter-effect, 25 people are tagged in a note requesting they too repeat a list of 25 random things about themselves. No threat of seven-years bad luck should you fail to participate. Just confess 25 random things about yourself, your goals, your habits.

Like watching a virus spread, I’ve seen at least 25 of these “25 random things” (or as someone re-titled "25 things or die trying") within the last week.

I felt partly responsible for the friends whose notes appeared after “tagging” them in my note. Then I quickly realized they were tagged by 3 other people for the same request.

Similar to a high-school diary confession there is something…random?...about admitting certain truths, giving pause to yourself and to others, even your closest friends, to consider whether they did in fact know you so well.

And it made me feel good that at least two people I tagged commented on it (so I know at least two people read it)...and that I didn’t break the chain.

25 Random Things

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose at least 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.

1. I don't play any musical instruments. I actually don't want to.
2. I use a lot of double-negatives in my writing or speech, without meaning to.
3. I have plenty of new, unread books, and though I often pick-up one to read, I rarely finish. It's probably been more than 6 months since I last completed an entire book, due to a work book-club. I haven't gone back to the book-club since. Unless I'm taking a course and am required to read, I don't seem to read at all.
4. My student account says I have a minor in Political Science. I know for a fact I never completed the requirements of a Poli Sci minor. I don't have a third-year credit in the subject.
5. My University alumni record says I only have a Political Science minor. This annoys me to no end, since I graduated with an English Specialist (see point 3).
6. I worked for a federal Member of Parliament.
7. I don't chew gum. I had braces and stopped chewing. While I've taken one for lack of mints, I think gum is gross and I spit it out after a couple of chews.
8. I completed a sleep study. I thought before the test, I have sleep apnea. Now I know I don’t.
9. I sleep with a wrist-brace because I was tested for carpal tunnel.
10. I have a dental guard for grinding my teeth when I sleep, but I never wear it.
11. I'm scared one morning I'll wake-up with 'Saturday night palsy'.
12. I'm a hypochondriac. It doesn't help that my nearly 60-year-old parents think that I, nearly 30-years younger, suffer all the same symptoms as them.
13. I've started tracking every dollar I spend, because I spend too much.
14. I lied to my doctor when she asked me how many alcoholic drinks I consume in an average week. I started off by saying 7, and then I corrected myself, and said 12 when I accounted for the weekend (and she said it was rather high). It's often more than 12 per week.
15. I spent a lot of money on drinks in December and January. So much so, it's too embarrassing to publish.
16. My doctor made me feel guilty about not taking daily vitamins (that my future unborn baby may have a hole in its spine if I don't take enough folic acid) so I immediately bought daily vitamins, though I forget to take them.
17. I'm undecided about any future (unborn) babies.
18. I'm currently in the process of giving-up Starbucks. I had some Starbucks karma for a while, got some freebies (offers in the mail, used Airmiles for a Starbucks card, chatted-up the barista and they gave me a coupon for a free drink etc.), but I've failed this month, already giving-in to two $3.99 tea/latte purchases. I'm craving Starbucks right now.
19. My apartment sways between two extremes: immaculate or disastrous. I prefer the former, but it's more often the latter. I was cleaner when I lived with roommates. I do not judge myself enough.
20. I take-up interests, but usually don't continue after it's run its course (see point 3). In the last year, I took introduction to improv, belly dancing, and knitting. I only took one improv course. I bought a hip scarf, but after a dozen or so classes, stopped going to dance. And I have lots of knitting supplies and yarn, but I have only completed one scarf. I feel better for having learned all three, even if I never use the skill again. (Well, maybe knitting. I do want to make a hat...)
21. There are lots of places in the world I'd like to visit, but I'd rather go back time and time again to Finland.
22. I think my 27th birthday in London, UK, will go-down as one of the most memorable.
23. I'm currently completing a freelance writing certificate, including a course on blogging.
24. I had a first-date who told me he thought cocaine was 'that good of high'. That's why he doesn’t to it anymore, or he'd be addicted. I've never done cocaine. Though they asked me out again, I declined.
25. This year will be the first year I look-forward to Valentine's Day.

Why Do We Want Our Kitchens Back?

Why Do We Want Our Kitchens Back?
By William MacDonald

Design and Styling, William MacDonald
Photo, Nicola Betts

For so long many of us have lived in the purgatory that is the open concept kitchen. It’s endless views of the rest of the house, it’s awkward openness, it useless spaces with hideous windows impossible to cover with any drapery treatment known to man. And the worst of all, still never enough cupboard space!

I once attended a formal dinner party in an open concept kitchen/ family room/ dinning room/ entrance hall/craft room. Now formal and craft room may sound like an oxymoron, that’s because it is one. I was seated next to a young lady in her early twenties who held her knife like a pen and her fork like a hatchet. I couldn’t help but notice that she seemed a little overwhelmed so being the accomplished dinner companion that I am I had tried to initiate light banter, asking her the basics, do you live in town? Do you like to cook? etc….She answered my questions with minimal displacement of her jaw and lobbed no inquiries in my direction (I found out later that she works in public relations). With table chat at a minimum I surveyed, the dining room, the dining room? I wasn’t actually sure where I was. Am I in the kitchen or the entrance hall? No… I think that glitter on my shoe means I am definitely in the craft room. Perhaps my dinner companion’s unease stemmed from a similar confusion? I doubt it.

From where I sat I began to notice to the recent scars suffered by the kitchen due to dinners preparation. The finite splatters of béarnaise up the cupboard fronts and the burnt saucepan propped up against the flat screen t.v. Then after dinner, the recently cleared plates piling up on the counter. Yum! I thought to myself what has happened to all of the walls? Where have they gone? Why do we live like this? All these questions began pulsing through my mind like a taser on a beach at spring break. I began asking friends, colleagues and clients how they felt about this open concept kitchen world we had created. Those who had not lived it…loved it. Those who had torn down walls were planning to put them up again. And those who claimed to love it did so I think because they had no choice.

I have never been a big fan of open concept kitchens having grown up in a house and time, not too long ago, when the home and family had more structure, co-incidence? The kitchen, with all its walls, was the heart of the house where meals were cooked and eaten at a table with a multitude of family and friends void of all external distractions, only each others company and food to amuse us. The living room, as my father would roar when he found an empty plate, was for “living” not for eating.

This rather traditional concept may seem a little old-fashioned or as a recent correspondent indicated to me “Completely idiotic, out-of-step with how we live today you moron”. If this notion is out of step then why are so many walls going back up between kitchens and the rest of the house? I am seeing this in my work more and more. Why do new builds offer, “separate kitchens”? Why do we want our kitchens back?

So far I have come up with the following,

• We want them back because we lost them a little while ago. Lost them to media, to mudrooms, to tub chairs and big screens, to vertical blinds and horizontal minds that cook with a telephone and eat without taste.

• We want them back because we’ve created a generation who don’t know how to hold a knife or fork properly and who are ill at ease when at a dinner table. And who sadly know nothing about cooking and the joy it can bring to one’s life.

• We want our kitchens back because recent events may have encouraged us to look inside our homes and ourselves in the hopes that we may find that cozy room from our past where families and friends came together to cook, talk, eat, plan, laugh and enjoy life without the bells and whistles and pod’s of now.

I’m not naïve. I know that open concept kitchens will be around for a long time, perhaps forever. But within this purgatorial vastness I would like to see more cooking, than ordering more talking than gaming, more table than counter, more cozy than cathedral and definitely the most important thing of all more cupboard space.

IAMSMART

Photo by Helen

I was smart for a year and half. My footprint was friendly to the environment. People used to smile at me, giggle, and coo.

I owned a smart car. At the risk of being politically incorrect, I admit to liking cars. From the first time I saw a smart in Lisbon in 2004 I wanted one. I put my name on the waiting list for a Canadian smart, and received it in December 2005. It was a joy to drive. It handled better in the Canadian winter than my four-wheel drive SUV. In the summer with the big windows and the sunroof open, it was like driving in a convertible.

It got great gas mileage; I could fill up on pocket change and drive for the entire week in the city. I think I ended up with more gas in the tank after a highway drive than when I started. We took it to Sault Ste Marie at Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun, especially drafting behind the big rigs.

I bought a lot of aftermarket accessories. A vanity plate, an armrest, fancy pedals, cruise control, an onboard trip odometer/computer that kept better track of mileage, even a way to boost the engine to make go a little bit faster. And my most favourite accessory – a vehicle wrap.

I joined a couple of websites run by smart aficioniados. I attended smart car rallies. I took pictures of my car. Strangers took pictures of my car. The side windows were continually smudged with handprints from people trying to get a look inside.

I loved my little car.

Then I stopped loving it with all my heart. I still loved driving it. I still loved being able to find parking easily. I still loved pulling up at the pumps.

But it wasn't practical. If I had a travelling companion I had to be aware of how much space our shopping would need as there was only so much room in the trunk. If I had more than one person, I had to use the other car. Servicing cost more than I thought it would – it was a Mercedes brand after all.

And the gas mileage was good, but it wasn't that great. Studies showed that a Honda Fit or a Toyota Tercel would get about the same mileage in a much more practical form.

I also had another car, and I had to make the hard decision. My garage had enough space for two cars, but in order to get the smart out, I had to move the other car first. I was moving small furniture pieces, artwork and other household items around for my job, and used the big car more often.

My smart now lives in Ottawa with a new family - Ottawa needs more smarts. I loved my time with my smart. I think about it when I look for parking downtown, and I coo at other smarts.

I'm glad I was smart. I kept the plate.

Church Leadership

Re: Last Gasp of a Church Bent on Suicide,

letter to the editor, Feb. 3. National Post



Finally, I've found a kindred spirit in the United Church of Canada! My only consolation from B.K. Anderson's angry letter is that I've seen the effect of church leadership from the inside. Clergy do not dominate the leadership of the church but that is a common perception of the average pew-sitter. The real issue is not over the death of congregations but whether the church is training prospective ministers for churches that have not yet emerged.

Leaders in our congregations today are facing an unpredictable future. John 13 tells us that the hour has come. The key to leadership as Doug Goodwin has suggested in the Post's Letters on Feb. 6 is the acute sensitivity to events of our neighbours as they are unfolding. Leaders of the churches in the future will have to move from "controlling" to "coping", otherwise it will continue to be all just crisis management.

The old institutional securities are not emerging in our world of changing global contexts and politics. Leaders of local congregations cannot form long range plans for an unpredictable future. Accountable, servant-hearted leaders will have to be absolutely clear in what we are called to do in the present.

Congregations don't care where you graduated from. Young people especially want to know that you've experienced lately, what music you like, or irrational stories of the supernatural. They need to learn how to cope with the changing scenarios around them without having the ground cut from under their feet.

Effective, visionary leadership is not what you know. It's the ability to carry the churc beyond the diverse talent that a team of people has brought to the congregation. It's the prayer that we may continue to be learners together and that much of what we have learned is still negotiable.

The biggest challenge for theological colleges may not be learning new things but unlearning old things. A new generation of leaders will have a low profile, will not expect security from the institution, and lead by linking together different cultures. The real leadership skill will be more concerned with ministry by the church than ministry in the church.

Rev. Dr. Scott Boughner
Minister,
St. Stephen's United Church
Oshawa.

Ten Things I Learned From My Puppy

Four months ago I decided to add to my burgeoning family and brought home a tiny bundle of joy: a four-month-old Boston Terrier girl named Gizmo (named affectionately after the Gremlin-like sounds she makes while doing just about everything).

What a surprise I was in for. Her first full day with me she was the perfect puppy. She didn’t make a sound, stayed by my side wherever I went, and when it came time to eat dinner she slept peacefully on the couch without so much as a twitch.

That, I found out quickly, was just a façade.

Photo by Ashley

Now I am lucky if she sits still for longer than thirty consecutive seconds. Try getting anything even remotely productive done while running after a puppy chasing a cat, only to turn around and have to run after a cat chasing a puppy. A full night’s sleep is unheard of at my place, and I realize now that I should have bought stock in paper towels and laundry detergent way back when.

But it has certainly been a learning experience, mostly in patience (how does Cesar Milan make it look so easy?) and restraint (there are moments when I could wring her tiny little neck – with love, of course).

She has taught me a lot for a creature unable to speak, and I am only too happy to pass along the top ten things I have learned from my puppy:

1. Clean laundry tastes better when it is neatly folded
2. Walks are most enjoyable at 3am on weekdays
3. If you’re caught in the act freeze and hope nobody can see you. If that doesn’t work employ the power of puppy dog eyes
4. People food tastes better stolen
5. “NO!” really means “yes, please keep chewing on the wall”
6. When you don’t feel like going for a walk, fall over and play dead
7. If it looks like a dirty sock and smells like a dirty sock it probably is a dirty sock, but eat it anyway
8. What goes in must come out three times larger
9. Everything has a taste so put every single thing you can in your mouth – especially laptops, furniture, thumbtacks, and the cat’s tail
10. Running around with cat poop in your mouth is the fastest way to incite a fun game of chase

Oh to be a puppy!

Demo Post

Photo by Miles Storey.

Each year, a greater and great proportion of the public read, and create, blogs.

Blogging and Freedom, Blogging and Trash

For centuries a small number of writers were confronted by many thousands of readers. This changed toward the end of the last century. With the increasing extension of the press, which kept placing new political, religious, scientific, professional, and local organs before the readers, an increasing number of readers became writers—at first, occasional ones. It began with the daily press opening to its readers space for ‘letters to the editor.’ And today there is hardly a gainfully employed European who could not, in principle, find an opportunity to publish somewhere or other comments on his work, grievances, documentary reports, or that sort of thing. Thus, the distinction between author and public is about to lose its basic character….at any moment the reader is ready to turn into a writer.

—Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechnical Reproduction” (1936)

Process reproduction and the rotary press have made possible the indefinite multiplication of writing and pictures. Universal education and relatively high wages have created an enormous public who know how to read and can afford to buy reading and pictorial matter. A great industry has been called into existence in order to supply these commodities. Now, artistic talent is a very rare phenomenon….the proportion of trash in the total artistic output is greater now that at any other period.

—Aldous Huxley, Beyond the Mexique Bay: A Traveller’s Journey (1934)

Blogs Worth Reading (Or At Least Knowing About)

BoingBoing

Gawker Media blogs include (but aren't limited to) Gawker, Lifehacker, Jezebel, Gizmodo

Huffington Post
Drudge Report
Five Thirty Eight

Stuff White People Like

Perez Hilton
Best Week Ever

PostSecret

Tricks of the Trade

Torontoist

Say It With Pie

Music
Stereogum
The Catbirdseat

Mainstream Media
New York Times
The Times' Freakonomics Blog
NY Mag
NOW Daily

Blogs About Blogs
Bloggasm
Ryerson Review of Journalism

Microblogging
Garfield Minus Garfield Tumblr
Genny Spencer's Twitter

Photoblogs
*MUTE
Dinosaur Comics
The Sartorialist
I Can Has Cheezeburger
Wooster Collective

Best of YouTube

How To Find And Post Images

Once your post is done, you should find a great image to accompany it—one that is relevant to what you wrote about and that'll catch someone's eye.

When you’re looking for an image to accompany your article, you should only use images you’re legally permitted to. Flickr, the internet’s largest photo sharing site, has a large set of photos that are licensed by their photographers for everyone to use—but they’re not easily searchable on that site. For that, there’s Compfight.com, a Flickr search engine. When you search, just make sure the search bar looks like this one—you want to look for "Commercial" images, and you want to search "text," not just "tags."



From there, you can find the photo you want...


And then go to the photograph’s Flickr page, save the image to your hard drive, and then insert it into your post. Don’t forget to credit the image: put, directly below where you use it in your post, “Photo by [photographer’s name],” link to the photo you used, and italicize the text, like this:

Photo by KM Miller.