So, seeing as it’s Canada Day tomorrow, I thought it would bring us all a warm and fuzzy feeling to post a blog about all the good things about our country.However, I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to write one.So, I whipped out trusty Google, thinking it would be pretty easy to find an appropriate website to link to.Not so much.Ten minutes later, after Googling every pro-Canada phrase I could think of, all I had found that was remotely a positive review of our country was from (wait for it) an American blogger (I kid you not – try it yourself!).Granted, based on watching our government in action for the past year, there have been prouder times to be a Canadian, but I think we all too often forget what a great deal we have living here and how much God has blessed us to have plunked us all down in this corner of his creation.So, I decided to shake off the lethargy and write down a list of Things I Love About Canada (some serious, some less so but still relevant I think) – please feel free to add to it in the comments.
1. I love that I can walk into a grocery store 24 hours a day and buy however much of whatever I want to eat.
2. I love that I can walk down the street without wondering if there’s a sniper in the window above me or a land mine further ahead on the sidewalk.
3. I love that, when push comes to shove, we would rather pay a little more out of our pocket to make sure that the most disadvantaged people living among us have enough to get by.And I love that when disaster strikes anywhere, we want to be first in line to help.
4. I love that I can drive right through Hamilton on Main St. without having to stop at a single stoplight (come on, I know you’ve also taken perverse pleasure out of blowing by that punk who floored the accelerator off the previous stoplight only to have to stop at the next one while you drive the speed limit and never have to touch the brake)
5. I love that I can sew a Canadian flag on my backpack, go virtually anywhere in the world, and be treated with respect and often a little admiration.And I love that I’m proud to let people know where I’m from.
6. I love that I can worship God however and wherever I want and that the government protects my right to do so.I love that I can meet freely to discuss any issue with any group of people no matter how ridiculous it may be (welcome to my small group).
7. I love that we can grow cherries and I can pick cherries and eat them (my annual pilgrimage to E.D. Smith goes next weekend, feel free to join in)
8. I love that our lives are so easy and there is so little to really, truly complain about that it’s possible for three different groups of people on the same day to whine to an innocent produce worker in the grocery store that we had ruined their vacation because we had run out of Mott’s Clamato (true story, happened to me on Canada Day Weekend 2000
9. I love that I can walk into the Parliament building, sit in the public gallery within spitting distance of the guy in charge of our country, and listen to the representatives I have elected (for better or for worse) debate what’s best to do.And I love that every 4-5 years I can fire them if I don’t like what they decide and if enough people agree with me.
10. I love that we are the only country in the world to realize how much curling rocks (pun intended)
11. I love that our country spans three oceans and contains so many different cultures and geographies to experience - if you’ve never been to the Maritimes, it’s worthwhile going just to experience how different it is but how familiar it still all seems.
12. I love the weather – seriously, I didn’t suffer from a recent blow to the head – there’s nothing quite like watching a blizzard and the winds howling outside while you sit inside in a perfectly climate-controlled environment sipping a hot apple cider with friends or the elation of actually living to tell the story of a terrifying run down a toboggan hill.
13. I love that most people in our generation at least don’t really notice whether you’re black, white, brown, or whatever – you’re just another person to get to know.
14. I love that I can hop in my car, on a train, or on a plane and go virtually anywhere at anytime.
15. I love that we as a country value education, knowledge, research, and learning and aren’t afraid to invest in people (a selfish one for me maybe since I get paid by the friendly folks at a government agency, but still…
16. I love that whenever I leave Canada, I am always excited to come back.
You can complain again starting tomorrow – for July 1 though, let’s be thankful for what we have.Happy Canada Day.
This will make sense to a few of you at Beth’s farewell tonight… for everybody else, please just treat this as a Trivial Pursuit training session:
Gneissic - “Function: adjective Etymology: German Gneis, alteration of Middle High German gneiste spark, from Old High German gneisto; akin to Old English fyrgnAst spark : a foliated metamorphic rock corresponding in composition to a feldspathic plutonic rock (as granite)” (From Merriam-Webster)
Her mea culpa: “I admit it now. I spent my whole life misprounouncing poor Snuffy’s name.” (some of us, Meghan, only some of us ) “There are a lot of things I didn’t know about Snuffy….I bet you’ll all be amazed too!!”
While searching for an ever-so-fascinating article about protein adsorption into gels in the journal “Nature” (that’s THE leading science journal going, we grad students drool over getting an article in it), I came across this (admittedly more interesting) article:
This is part of a series of essays the journal ran in 2000 highlighting issues that the editors believed were going to be major challenges facing society in the new millennium. It’s a great analysis of why religion and science are by no means mutually exclusive and why society needs religion, given it can provide so much that even the most advanced science couldn’t hope to provide. A good read.
- Todd
P.S. - a rhetorical question for you - if a blog is posted on a server but generates no comments, does it get read? Hmm, I would definitely like to know (hint hint nudge nudge)
Here’s an interesting quiz that’s been all the buzz on the Philpott blog circuit the last several days… what’s your theological worldview? It’s an interesting read and I think the results I got make perfect sense to me anyway… besides, as an “Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyian”, I am apparently in good company. Take the quiz and post your results as comments if you want.
You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God’s grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.
OK, looking back at my last few posts, I realize it’s time for something non-intellectual and somewhat lighter (what could be lighter than “Moral Issues and Scripture” really? So, here is an important public service annoucement about a pressing health issue in our society - spread the word! (please no comments about the “bread of life” off this post, I beg of you!)
- Todd
Bread: The Half-Baked Truth Revealed
More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users.
Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years
; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations.
Every piece of bread you eat brings you nearer to death.
Bread is associated with all the major diseases of the body. For example, nearly all sick people have eaten bread. The effects are obviously cumulative:
99.9 percent of all people who die from cancer have eaten bread
99.7 percent of the people involved in air and auto accidents ate bread within 6 months preceding the accident
93.1 percent of juvenile delinquents came from homes where bread is served frequently
Evidence points to the long-term effects of bread eating: Of all the people born since 1839 who later dined on bread, there has been a 100% mortality rate.
Bread is made from a substance called “dough.” It has been proven that as little as a teaspoon of dough can be used to suffocate a lab rat. The average American eats more bread than that in one day!
Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low incidence of cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, and osteoporosis.
Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after as little as two days.
Bread is often a “gateway” food item, leading the user to “harder” items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.
Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 80 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
Newborn babies can choke on bread.
Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.
Most bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling.<
In light of these frightening statistics, we propose the following bread restrictions:
No sale of bread to minors.
A nationwide “Just Say No To Toast” campaign complete celebrity TV spots and bumper stickers.
A 300 percent federal tax on all bread to pay for all the societal ills we might associate with bread.
No animal or human images, nor any primary colors (which may appeal to children) may be used to promote bread usage.
The establishment of “Bread-free” zones around schools.
Have you ever been in the midst of a conversation regarding a tricky moral issue and wished that God would have simply said something (anything!) directly about that issue through the Scriptures that would erase any doubt regarding what He thought about it? Instead, on many of these topics, we are left with our personal convictions about the issue and a verse here and there throughout the Bible which, depending on the context and the slant of the reader, may potentially be interpreted to support your opinion. Stem cell research is certainly one of those issues — it’s hard to fault the prophets for not talking about this one specifically, but this and other questions surrounding the sanctity of life and when life begins are certainly very real and very relevant issues on which the Bible has just enough to say in a just relevant enough of a context that Christians on both sides of the debate can grasp at Scriptural support for their positions. Check out this highly interesting article from today’s Toronto Star written by a Harvard medical professor:
The article is obviously written with a pro-stem cell slant; that said, it’s an interesting study of how Scripture with some questionable relevancy to the topic at hand has been used to justify many political or church decisions regarding moral issues. Agree or disagree with his premise, it’s a good reminder that we should not just be picking out random verses from the Bible that we can contort to agree with our existing opinion but rather actively seek the heart of God and lovingly speak out when we sense His will.
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