The end of summer and other stuff

Summer is almost over and it seems that, weather-wise anyway, it has only just begun. The nights are getting longer and the kids go back to school in a week’s time, so I guess that fall is just around the corner.

I realise I haven’t blogged that much this past while, but there just doesn’t seem to be much that I’ve had to write about. I’ve got my passion for reading back again and that’s probably what I’ve done most of this past while. The new building, watching lots of movies, and holiday time have accounted for a lot of my other time.

The best movies (not all new ones) I’ve seen lately have included: ‘Inkheart’, ‘Stone of Destiny’, ‘The Mission’ (lost count of how many times I’ve seen this one), ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ and ‘Bottle Shock’.

Some of the books I’ve read recently, or am still reading, are: ‘Mudhouse Sabbath’ (Lauren Winner), ‘Pagan Christianity?’ and ‘Re-Imagining Church’ (both Frank Viola), ‘Five By Endo (short stories)’ (Shusaku Endo), ‘Bioethics – A Primer for Christians’ (Gilbert Meilaender), and ‘Wishful Thinking – a Seeker’s ABC’ (Frederick Buechner). I’m also hoping to re-read ‘The Hobbit’ (Tolkien) and ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’ (Solzhenitsyn) before the year is out. If you are content with the way of the Christian Church in the west then don’t read the Viola books. If you yearn for something else or are upset with the status quo in the church then drop everything else and start reading them, but beware – they will mess with your mind and bring discomfort. I’m still working my way through what they have done to me as I have read them and they have really got me thinking about what the future holds as far as what I’m involved in presently in my day to day living and working.

I realised today that it is exactly 6 months since I ate meat of any kind. I can honestly say that I now have no yearning to return to eating meat. I am comfortable with the choice I made to become a vegetarian. Oh, and before anyone tries to convince me that I am dishonouring God, don’t bother – I’ve been through it with others on a number of occasions and it gets tedious.

Only three weeks on Wednesday and I’ll be making a pilgrimage to the Rogers Centre in Toronto for the U2 360 Tour. Counting the days!

Anyway, I hope that wherever you are and whatever you are doing that your summer is going well. If you’re on Twitter follow me and I’ll reciprocate. I’m wcs53. Enjoy the rest of your summer and I’ll try to update more often if I find anything worth sharing.

A few (dis)connected thoughts

“What is the difference between Tradition and Traditionalism? Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” (Jaroslav Pelikan from The Vindication of Tradition)

“…the truth will set you free.”  (Jesus in John 8:32)

I just spent over an hour composing and sending an e-mail of ‘truth’ to someone higher up ‘the system’ than me. I felt relief as I openly shared in this way. There was freedom in sharing like this. I never quoted Pelikan in the e-mail, but I did touch upon what he says in this quote. I’m not sure where the e-mail will go, but I just wrote what I felt needed to be written and left it at that. Maybe it’s something I should do more often, who knows.

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A month of not eating meat and it’s almost like it’s all I ever did. I’ve lost weight, I feel fitter, and talk of juicy steaks no longer induces mouth-watering.

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If you haven’t listened to No Line on the Horizon yet, then why not? I can’t stop listening to Unknown Caller. It’s definitely the best track on the album, maybe even one of their best songs ever. Listen to the last couple of minutes – just awesome!

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This Sunday will not, after all, be our last gathering in our present location. By mutual consent, Easter Sunday (12 April) will be instead. Not sure when our first gathering will be in the new place. The work is a little behind, but it will be ready well ahead of the grand opening on 23 May.

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Looking forward to seeing Monsters vs Aliens with the family on the weekend. Looks like it’ll be lots of fun.

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(P.S. Don’t look for any hidden meaning in the inclusion of the demotivational poster at the top. It’s just the one that made me laugh the most today)

Life isn’t like in the movies

I don’t watch much TV. Who can stomach another forensic detective show or unreal reality show? Pretty much all I watch is The Hour, Dragon’s Den, Dr. Who and Seinfeld reruns (although I have all the DVDs now anyway). Instead I watch lots of movies, perhaps at least 120 a year. I also try and read at least 2-3 books a month.

Last night, for the umpteenth time, I watched (here comes a confession) one of at least two movies that always make me cry – Giuseppe Tornatore’s classic Cinema Paradiso (the other is The Mission). If you haven’t seen this classic I won’t spoil it for you, but it is a hauntingly, beautiful story of life and growing up, with the backdrop of the local cinema in a backwater Sicilian village, accompanied by the music of movie composer maestro Ennio Morricone. If you do watch it, do yourself a favour – don’t watch the English dubbed version. Instead watch the original Italian soundtrack with English subtitles (if you don’t know Italian too well). Crank it up and enjoy the music as well.

One of my favourite moments is after Toto comes back from his military service and the following conversation takes place:

Alfredo: Living here day by day, you think it’s the center of the world. You believe nothing will ever change. Then you leave: a year, two years. When you come back, everything’s changed. The thread’s broken. What you came to find isn’t there. What was yours is gone. You have to go away for a long time… many years… before you can come back and find your people. The land where you were born. But now, no. It’s not possible. Right now you’re blinder than I am.
Salvatore: Who said that? Gary Cooper? James Stewart? Henry Fonda? Eh?
Alfredo: No, Toto. Nobody said it. This time it’s all me. Life isn’t like in the movies. Life… is much harder.

Many people who have moved away from home, myself included, have probably experienced what Alfredo talks about.  One of the few constants in life is that things change. Too many people try to live in the past or worry about the future, but spend very little time in the present. That’s sad, because they miss out on so much when they live like that.

I’m glad that life isn’t like the movies, some of them are just awful, but I do enjoy losing myself for a couple of hours or so in something with a good story that can challenge my thinking, make me laugh, make me cry and give me hope for the future. Not all movies can do that, but there are some real gems out there if you take the time to look for them.

Thinking out loud…

Just a random collection of thoughts and events of late…

Always around this time of year I feel ready for a rest. This year is no exception. It’s been a busy time lately, what with a trip to Winnipeg for some study time, the purchase of a new building for our church, building committee meetings, the sale of our present church building, birthdays, changes in the life of our church, transitioning our son to a new school, a trip south for a funeral, and so on. We’ll get some vacation time in August and it will be great when that time of rest arrives.

We celebrated/remembered our tenth anniversary of our ordination this past week. It was kind of bitter sweet as we also received the news of another couple in our session tendering their resignation. In one sense it was quite surprising, but in another it wasn’t. I know that sounds contradictory, but it’s hard to explain. We live in the 21st century, yet we find ourselves serving in a movement/organisation/church that wants to continue harking back to the past. The hierarchy is still a convenience to hide behind when it suits. There are many who talk a good game of change, but when things don’t go the way they want them to, the trump card of hierarchy comes into place. It’s kind of sad. Will it take the last one left turning out the light, locking the door and throwing away the key to realise that there is really little relevance in holding on for dear life to things that really don’t matter in the larger picture of life. It’s a big worry, that’s for sure.

Reading has been hard of late, maybe because of assignments being due and other pressing matters. As usual I have a number of books on the go. I just finished Solzhenitsyn’s ‘For the Good of the Cause’, which was good, but not as good ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’. Included in ‘For the good..’ was some background into the whole censorship and exile that Solzhenitsyn underwent, which was very interesting. I am now trying to get through Pete Greig’s ‘The Vision and the Vow’, which is a very challenging book. It’s a must read, that’s for sure. Other books I’m picking up and including in my reading are: ‘Christ, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper’ (Leonard J. Vander Zee), ‘Everything Must Change’ (Brian McLaren), and ‘Wishful Thinking’ (Frederick Buechner). Hopefully I’ll get through a few of these this summer!

Some of the movies I’ve enjoyed lately include: ‘The Savages’, ‘The History Boys’, ‘Kung Fu Panda’, ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’, ‘Cloverfield’, and ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’. We’re looking forward to ‘Wall.E’, which opens next weekend.

We gave Emily an i-Pod shuffle for her birthday, so I finally gave in and got an i-tunes acoount. I haven’t bought much yet, but I’m tempted by much, especially older stuff I don’t have on CD (all my old vinyl is still in the UK) – such as early Iron Maiden, some Blue Oyster Cult, Fish-era Marillion, amongst many others. I still have an e-music account (40 tracks a month for $9.99) and they just added some early Rush stuff to their catalogue, which I downloaded. Some of the stuff that I’m listening to the most lately includes: ‘An Ocean Between Us’ (As I Lay Dying), ‘The Ringing Bell’ (Derek Webb), ‘Messengers’ (August Burns Red), ‘Facedown’ (Matt Redman), ‘U2 Go home’ (U2), ‘Symphony no.6 – Pathetique’ (Tchaikovsky). I eagerly await the soon to be released new U2 album.

I’ve been spending some time at Plurk.com  If you join add me as a friend (my user name is wcs53). I’ve also been designing rooms at Webkinz (the kids bought me a couple of Webkinz).

Anyways, that’s enough thoughts for now.

Lots of fun!

We all went to see Kung Fu Panda at the movies tonight. It was lots of fun and we all enjoyed it. It has some memorable moments and lines. My favourite (and quite apt): “One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.”

Catching up

It’s been a while since I really took any time to blog, so here’s a little catch up.

My 42nd birthday was a couple of weeks ago. I got some cool U2 stuff from my parents and my family here treated me to this:

 

Tomorrow our program proposal/building project comes before the board in Toronto. This is the last hurdle now. It seems like it has been a long process. Pray that it will go through. We need big changes here. Our church people are quite excited and optimistic.

Spring has finally arrived (we’ve been enjoying temperatures in the low 20s these past few days). It seemed like winter was never going to end this year. So, I watched a lot of  movies these past few months. Some of the best I saw included: ‘Death at a Funeral’, ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’, ‘Catch 22′ (classic!), ‘In the Valley of Elah’, ‘The Girl in the Cafe’, ‘Something the Lord Made’, ‘Juno’ and ‘Michael Clayton’.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the absurdity of uniforms. They make less and less sense to me these days. Last month I had to attend officer’s councils. A senior officer couple were doing their best to try and convince us all that uniforms are a great witnessing tool. The best example they could come up with was a story about them wearing their uniform on a long distance flight. The result of this great witness was a $10,000.00 donation. Every time I put my uniform on my first thought is how much money is this going to score for the Army today (just in case you don’t know me, I do have the gift of sarcasm!). Two of the more memorable times I was wearing uniform are of the time I was representing a guy from Iran in court who equated the uniform with being beaten up well and the little Chinese kid on the subway in Toronto who ran under the seats of the subway car to get away from me as the last time he saw someone in uniform was in China taking his father away (the last time he saw his father as well). I really liked a comment from Thomas lately, where he said: ‘In a church where men wear suits + ties. I’m not! Jeans, polo, cardigan + cons. Jesus loves me all the same. Haha.’ Our worship band all wear jeans to church (well, apart from the bass player and guitarist/vocalist, because we’re not allowed to!).

Maybe you read about these t-shirts already. When I first read about them I thought it was some kind of early April fool’s prank. Alas,they are for real. The phrase ‘covenantally accurate informal uniform t-shirt’ makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time.

I’m off to Winnipeg in a couple of weeks time to do a couple of course. I’m looking forward to the challenge and change. I was hoping that ‘U23D’ would still be playing in the IMAX when I got there, but I found out today that it finishes this Sunday. That sucks, because it definitely isn’t coming to Elliot Lake.

Well, I’m off to watch the Flames hopefully take care of the Sharks. It was good to see the Senators get demiolished. Hopefully the Canadiens will not go much further than the second round. Hey, who knows, maybe the Toronto Make Me Laughs might even get to the play-offs one of these years!

Oscars tonight

Tonight sees one of the few things I bother to watch on TV these days – the Oscars. I usually try and see as many of the nominated movies as I can before the event, but this year the only one of the nominated ones for best picture I have seen is ‘Juno’, which we just saw last night. It is funny and different and would be a worthy winner, but I can’t compare it with the rest, any of which may also be worthy winners. Our movie house was closed for two months last year as it changed ownership, so we probably missed out on a few good ones then.

I did see ‘Ratatouille’ and ‘Surf’s Up’, which are both nominated for best animated movie. I liked them both and it’s hard to pick between them.

Happy New Year!

So, 2008 is here. Happy New Year! The last month or so has been a blur and I guess I haven’t taken the time to write much here at all.

2007 wasn’t that bad a year. It’s hard to believe that we have been in Elliot Lake for almost 7 years now and it doesn’t look likely that we will be leaving soon, either.

According to my journal I read 28 books last year and watched 106 movies. My top 5 books for the year are as follows:

1. ‘The Sacred Way’ – Tony Jones
2. ‘Serve God, Save The Planet’ – J. Matthew Sleeth, MD
3. ‘Fatal Passage’ – Ken McGoogan
4. ‘Starving Jesus’ – Craig Gross and J.R. Mahon
5. ‘Pilgrim at Tinker Creek’ – Annie Dillard 

 The best 5 movies I saw for the first time were:

1. Freedom Writers
2. Letters From Iwo Jima
3. Amazing Grace
4. Snowcake
5. Syriana

Some old favourites I watched included:

1. Cinema Paradiso (I watch this at least once a year)
2. The Deer Hunter
3. Friday Night Lights
4. Hoosiers
5. Master and Commander

The good news at the start of this year is that the conditional offer our church placed on a new property downtown has been accepted. There is still a lot of work to be done before everything is finalised, but it’s a positive step in the right direction. We are hoping that everything is completed by February 29.

More news to follow…

Evan (not so) Almighty

Went to see Evan Almighty tonight. I didn’t enjoy it that much. There were a few funny moments, but on the whole it was a major disappointment. It came off as being very corny and was not as good as ‘Bruce Almighty’. Best moment for me was when the storm clouds were gathering. There was an almighty crash of thunder (outside) and the power went off. (Un)fortunately it came back on and we got to see the rest of the movie. If you really have to see it, rent it when it comes out on DVD.

 However, they did show the trailer for the new Harry Potter. That one does look good.

Spiderman 3

I finally got to see Spiderman 3 last night and it really was a mega-disappointment. I had read mixed reviews beforehand and had hoped that some of the criticism had been unfounded. Unfortunately most of the criticism was spot on.

First of all, either the movie could’ve been shorter or there could have been more/better action. There seemed to be so many unneccesary and pointless scenes. There wer a couple of moments where the movie just seemed to come to a halt or it lost its flow.

Secondly, there were parts of the plot that just didn’t need to be there. Some of the side stories and characters didn’t add to the movie, but either disrupted the flow or detracted from the story.

Hopefully that’ll be it for a while now. If you’re looking for a more indepth review check out Lurch’s here, or Richard Roeper’s here.

On the good side, I rented A Night At The Museum tonight and watched it with Pamela and the kids. We really enjoyed this one