Friday Dec. 14, 2012

I learned too listen by talking too much.

Normal/Perfect

Trying to be normal is akin to trying to be perfect.  Neither actually exist in reality, and both are impossible to achieve.  There is no such thing as a family with 1.35 kids and .45 pets.  I think as many people struggle with trying to be normal as people struggle with trying to be perfect. 

Just tucked my kids into bed.  I Can't help but think that these are sacred moments.  Life slips on, and moments pass one into the other.  I am lucky that I have experienced love. 

Just finished watching 'Gandhi' in class yesterday.  Love this movie.  In one scene Gandhi says, "I don't believe that we can find happiness in things, even 20th century things.  But, I think we can find happiness through hard work and pride in what we do."  I thank God that, for the most part, I find happiness in what I do at work.  Still, too many 'things'. 

Found myself at Lydia's open mic last night.  An interesting song was sung by the artist known as Fern, just a woman and a piano.  "Winter's changing water, and it's changing you".  The only lyrics in the whole song.  Started out a bit strange, but by the end I was intrigued.   

Relationships

I think that relationships go through weird periods.  Sometimes both people are completely missing each other. 

I went into American Apparel this weekend with my kids to do some shopping.  Haven't really shopped there much, but after researching fair trade clothing for ALSO tshirts I learned that American Apparel commits itself to fair trade principles and actually makes all of their clothing in, shock of all shocks, America.  In one factory in LA to be exact.  In an age of offshore manufacturing this is truly rare, and worth supporting.  It's nice to know that the people who made your clothes are getting a fair wage.

The odd thing, however, is even though they are committed to this social justice they seem quite clearly willing to exploit sex to sell.  This is not odd, I know, for a clothing company.  But they take it to the next level.  I have kids, and there aren't that many stores that have a kids section that also give out free calendars at the door that have naked women (AA models who are also store workers) in them.  We took some of these calendars home without knowing the contents.  Don't get me wrong, I get it, it's a clothing store and they are trying to sell clothes, and I'm not against nudity per se or true beauty or jazzy calendars, but it just seemed like there were a few mixed messages: fair trade, family brand (they sell and tailor clothes for all ages), social justice, simple clothes (no logos), semi-pornographic calendars featuring their hottest workers free at the door.  The calendar was fine by itself, but the whole combination of experiences struck me as odd.

When it's all said and done, we are still animals. 

Just heard Tom Muclair on the CBC tonight.  He had a great interview.  I liked a lot of what he had to say.  It will be interesting to see how he handles going head to head with Harper.

I am concerned with his economic plan to purposely lower the CND dollar to bring back our manufacturing sector.  he will have to watch that he doesn't get branded as a 'communist' in terms of interferring with the 'free market' too much.  I also don't like him pandering to votes in the east (manufacturing) at the expense of the West (resources).  I am going to follow this one.

New Democratic Party Federal Leadership Race

It's exciting to watch the NDP elect a new leader.  This is a rare opportunity for a North American country to elect a truly social democratic party to power.  Polls show the Conservatives neck and neck with the NDP, which means that the new leader has a realistic shot at the PMO.

Fears:
1) Infighting in the NDP
2) Broadbent, and others, undermining Mulcair if he wins
3) People not getting behind Topp if he wins
4) A strong NDP and a historically weak Liberals splitting the vote in the nest election
5) The new leader not being ready for the attack ads that will come from the Conservative party.

Hopes:
1) The NDP getting a real shot at winning the next election, a truly social democratic government in Canada.
2) A resurgence of discussion and concern around issues of peace, equality, sharing, and fairness.   I hope this spills over into the provinces as well.
3) A new party machine to challenge the Media savvy of the Conservatives.

Regardless of the outcome I am looking forward to see the NDP move forward into this next era of the party. 

Had some great maple syrup this morning.  Dana 'can't believe it worked!'  Thanks for believing, honey!  I am actually shocked as well.  So many things are just as simple as doing them.  Bore a hole in a tree, collect the sap, boil it, enjoy the syrup.  Locavores unite!

I'm starting to blog about movies I've watched in the theatre with my kids.  I am going to rate them on a daddymeter.  Here is the criteria, which will be a work in progress.  All rating are for kids aged 4-12.

1) Enjoyable Adult content: Every daddy wants to enjoy the movie with his kids.  No daddy wants to feel that he is subjecting his children to inappropriate material, but he also doesn't want to be bored.  How did this movie balance this?
2) Did the Kids like it?  No daddy can enjoy a movie afternoon if the kids aren't engaged in the movie.
3) Message: Was there a message from the movie that will make my children wiser in the long haul?

Any movie that can hit all three of these is a good movie in my daddy books.

Had a great time last night boiling my Maple Sap.  Looking forward to finishing it off tonight.  Hopefully tomorrow morning the kids and I will be enjoying our very one home made maple syrup!

Just heard the story about KONY 2012 video producer getting arrested.  Can't believe this.  Could the story get any more weird?  I think this is so sad.  I want to wait for some more information before I make any major judgments, but this is not good.  So many people, and most of them young people, really got excited about this.  Seeing it end in such a vulgar way just makes people more cynical, I don't know if we need that.  On the other side, it might make people more hungry for true integrity.  Hopefully we can do that for each other. 

As a teacher, and a teacher of Christian Ethics, History, and Native Studies, I have been fascinated by the buzz around the "KONY 2012" Video that went viral last week.  From my perspective the video's impact has been both positive and negative.  Here are my insights.

Pros
1) The video created alot of buzz and attention for something that is important, as opposed to the viral videos that often circulate the classroom
2) The people most likely to view and spread the video were young people, and the majority of them were female (this info is on the youtube video under the stats).  This gave them a voice that is not often heard.  Obama is talking about this video, and 13-17 girls got the buzz going.  This gives them a new type of influence on decision making.
3) The video got young people excited to do something that they believe would make the world better.

Cons
1) The solution offered in the video is simplistic to a fault.  It is misleading.
2) The moral framework that leads one to want to send in troops is faulty.

more later...

RJC Peace & Justice Studies Forum

RJC Peace & Justice Studies Forum

Well, here I go.  My first blog.