May 31, 2012: One Interesting Thing - 2 Asteroids!

It's the stuff nightmares are made of. It's also the stuff that has resulted in a few really good movie and even a few really bad movies. It makes us think about things like the end of the dinosaurs, or even the end of the world. Earth had a close encounter with an asteroid - and actually not one, but two - the first on Monday, and the second on Tuesday. When you're dealing with space the distances can be somewhat mind boggling, so perhaps the best basis point to keep in mind is that the moon is usually about 386,000 kilometres from the earth. That will offer a bit of perspective. By comparison, the asteroid on Tuesday, which is called 2012 KT42, whizzed past the earth at a distance of 14,403 kilometres at its closest. The one on Monday sped past as close as 51,497 kilometres. When you think about it - that's pretty close! The one on Tuesday was the sixth closest approach ever recorded. Apparently the closest was in 2004, when an asteroid came within 6,500 kilometres of the earth. Wow. In truth, though, this was apparently not the stuff nightmares are made of. Both asteroids (and the one in 2004) were apparently too small to do any real damage even if they had hit the earth. Monday's meteor was about 21 metres across, and Tuesday's only a miniscule 5 metres across. From what I understand an asteroid has to be at least 140 metres across to be expected to do major damage. Still, the close fly-bys of the last few days are a reminder that a lot of things are possible. Apparently the next close encounter that we know about is due on February 15, 2013, when Asteroid 2012 DA14 will come within about 27,000 kilometres. Let's just hope one of the big ones doesn't come this way soon!

May 30, 2012: One Interesting Thing - Playoff Beards

The Stanley Cup Final opened tonight. One of the most improbable matchups ever - Los Angeles vs New Jersey. A 6th seed vs an 8th seed. That's all well and good but what I'm really thinking about is one of the sillier traditions in pro sports - the playoff beard. There's a tradition in the NHL that if your team makes the playoffs you can't shave until your team is out of the playoffs. Why? I guess it boils down to either (a) superstition or (b) just a bit of fun. When did it start? I'm not really sure, but apparently most date it back to the New York Islanders of the early 1980's. There are all sorts of variations. Some believe you can shave after a loss to change your team's luck, for example, but I think the real playoff beard is the one that never gets shaved as long as you're in the playoffs. There are some movements to encourage the playoff beard among fans, too - and this has apparently turned into a pretty good charity fundraiser. All well and good. As I was watching the game tonight, though, it seemed to me that what it all boils down to  is a bunch of very hairy guys chasing a puck around at high speed on the ice and probably sweating and itching all the way through. I once had a beard. I don't know why, either! I just decided to grow one. Some thought it looked distinguished. My wife liked it for a while, then decided it made me look old because it grew in grey. I used to wear it in the winter, shave it off for the summer. I gave up on it a few years ago because - to be perfectly honest - I just really didn't like having a beard. My guess is that - while they're happy to be in the playoffs - most of the players on both the Devils and the Kings won't miss the beards when they're gone.

May 29, 2012: One Interesting Thing - Glucosamine

I've been through enough health issues lately. The cardiac problem, having to wear this monitor (which I thankfully give up tomorrow), having a sore throat now for 5 days that is only showing the barest signs of starting to ease up a bit, and who knows that it won't be back in force tomorrow morning. Enough. At least of the bad stuff. I really don't like to be a complainer, and for many reasons I refuse to fall into or wallow in self pity ("poor me" when I know that I am incredibly blessed compared to so many people all around me.) So, none of that. But I did think today that a good news health story would be in order - to remind me if no one else that there's always a balance. About a year ago (and for some months before that) I had found myself with severe pain in my left knee. It was especially bad first thing in the morning. I'd wake up and almost have tears in my eyes just trying to straighten it for the first time. Then climbing down the stairs to the kitchen was a chore that I never looked forward to. It eased up over the course of the day, but there was often some pain. When I went for my annual physical last year I explained this to my doctor. Basically, he said it was probably the early stages of arthritis and that at least for now there really wasn't very much I could do about it. That wasn't very satisfying, if I may say so, so I began to do some research and I came upon glucosamine. Apparently there were conflicting studies done on how effective it was in treating arthritis, but the Mayo Clinic (pretty reputable) says "Available evidence from randomized controlled trials supports the use of glucosamine sulfate in the treatment of osteoarthritis, particularly of the knee." That seemed promising, so I committed myself to using it. About a year later? I have almost no pain whatsoever in my left knee. I'm not shilling for glucosamine. That's not my purpose in this blog. And I know people who've tried it and it's done nothing for them at all. So I'm not promising anything, not recommending anything. Nothing like that. Just wanted to offer a good news story, because quite frankly a 5 day sore throat (far more than the cardiac issue) is starting to get me a little down and I needed to focus on something good. Glucosamine works for me. That's all that matters.

May 28, 2012: One Interesting Thing - The Holter Monitor

Ingenious little contraption this is. Continuing with the followups to my little cardiac incident now 12 days ago, I was today given a Holter Monitor to carry around for 48 hours - my family doctor wants to know if I'm having any "silent episodes" of atrial fibrillation. There's really not much to the device. My wife actually carried one around for 24 hours once. Mine is 48, as I said. Three electrodes attached to my body, and the monitor device that clips on to my belt like a cell phone and then records my heart beat, and that's all there is to it. It's not especially uncomfortable. Every now and then I can feel the wires pull at one of the electrodes highest up on my chest and I worry that it's going to rip it off, but so far that hasn't happened. The wires aren't too noticeable, although if I actually do look at them I realize that I look as if I'm in the beginning stages of being assimilated by the Borg - and, as we all know, resistance is futile! It would have been in this case, anyway. My doctor wants me to wear this - so I will. No restrictions of any sort. In fact I'm to go about all of my normal activities - except that I can't shower until it comes off on Wednesday morning. And, of course, the temperature hit 30 degrees Celsius today! So, you might want to keep your distance until I get cleaned up! I don't know what it's going to be like to sleep with this on. That I will find out in a few minutes, although it seems that it might not be too bad. I did notice tonight as I was watching television that all of a sudden there are ads on TV talking about going over treament options with your doctor if you've suffered from atrial fibrillation - and my wife noticed that all of the sufferers in the ad are, in her words, "so old." Not me! But I did go over options with my doctor, and this was his wish. I'm just hoping this monitor shows no problems and I can go back to my youthful and energetic ways!

May 27, 2012: One Interesting Thing - A Slap In The Face

There are many ways of expressing Christian love. Words, acts, service, mercy, compassion, presence. All are wonderful expressions of Christian love, but I was privileged to have learned a new way to express Christian love today - a slap in the face! True. Even that can be an expression of Christian love. You see, since I had last weekend off, today was my first day back in the pulpit after my thankfully relatively easy to deal with cardiac issue of 12 days ago that kept me in hospital overnight and led to electric shock therapy to get my heart beating properly again. Since this was my first time back, I was prepared for questions and comments. I had already resolved to open the service with the immortal words of Mark Twain: "the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." But before I could do that I had to entertain the questions and responses of those who were concerned. A few minutes before the service started, I approached a woman in the congregation. She saw me and began walking toward me. I thought it would be a heart-warming "I'm so glad you're OK" and maybe a hug. What I got instead was a not entirely gentle slap on the face and the words "don't you ever worry me like that again!" I felt like a little boy being scolded by his mother for being a couple of hours late getting home! (Yes - I remember that feeling too.) And I have to say that after the slap, I did get a hug! I laugh about it. There are many ways to express Christian love. There are the obvious ways I listed above, and there are less obvious ways - like a slap in the face. But all of it is an expression of concern. As someone else said to me, "I always knew I liked you, but I never realized how much I cared about you until I heard what had happened." Nice words. Nice to be back.

May 26, 2012: One Interesting Thing - Do It Yourself

I am not a handyman type. I readily admit that. I'm not down on myself because of it, and I don't suffer from a lack of self esteem. There are lots of things I am very good at. But the typical handyman stuff is not one of them. One of the great events of my life was the day I actually managed to install a bathroom light fixture without electrocuting myself! And it never started a fire either. And then my wife decided she wanted the bathroom remodelled, and my one piece of handyman work (because I believe in the "quit while you're ahead" school of thought) was history. Sad but true. There's been little else because I just don't have those gifts. I'm a preacher. Now, the handyman-preacher thing isn't mutually exclusive. I know a few preachers who are quite handy. But generally, you should be nervous whenever you see me pick up a screwdriver. Every now and then, though - and even though I know and readily admit to my lack of handyman skills - I feel the need to do something handyman-like. Today, for example. I had a flat tire on my bike. I could hear the hissing of the air, so I knew there was a leak in the inner tube. I could have taken it to a bicycle repairman. I even know one. But, somehow, this seemed like a "do it yourself" moment. I went on the internet. I googled "changing a bicycle tire" and came up with all sorts of videos, mostly from You Tube. It looked easy. I made a mental list of the things I needed and headed off to Canadian Tire to buy them. Came home. Got started. Got the wheel off the bike surprisingly easily. Had a little bit of trouble getting the knack of tire levers, but got the tire off. Pulled off the inner tube. First - where was the leak? The tube was indeed flat - but could I find a leak? No. I pumped air into it. Was there a hissing? No. I was ready with my patch, but could find no leak to patch - neither could I find a hole in the tire. Hmmm. Curious. Here's where it becomes fun. I decided to put the tire back on and pump it up to find the leak. That sounds pretty simple. Put the valve through the hole in the wheel, fit the inner tube around the wheel, tuck the tire in and inflate. Right. The inner tube inflated perfectly while off the wheel. The inner tube will not inflate when it's on the wheel. Huh? And at that I'm stuck. I cannot get the thing to inflate. I do not know why. It just won't. This is not rocket science. This is: inner tube, valve, bicycle pump. But I can't get it to inflate. So I'm probably going to have to swallow my pride and get the bike to someone else to repair. Meanwhile, I learned something - never believe the You Tube do it yourself video where the guy changes a bicycle tire perfectly and without any trouble in less than 5 minutes.

May 25, 2012: One Interesting Thing - The Rudeness Epidemic

It just seems to be getting out of hand sometimes. I mean the lack of basic courtesy being shown to people. I don't know why it is. I wish I did. (I mean, I can speculate - and I will - but who really knows.)  But I see it all over. On the schoolyard, on the roads, on television and in the movies, unfortunately sometimes even at church. A society in which the feelings of "the other" don't count. It's all about us, and we can say or do whatever we want without worrying about how we impact other people. That's how it seems sometimes anyway. It was brought home to me today in a couple of online conversations I was involved in. I won't go into details. I don't have to. It was just astonishing the amount of inappropriate things that were being said in the course of those discussions. And now - here comes my speculation. I wonder if it isn't the ubiquitousness of online relationships that's leading to this onslaught of rudeness and lack of respect. I confess myself that sometimes engaging with people online it's easy to forget that you're talking to a real person, and so you sometimes go farther than you might normally do if you were face to face. And eventually, perhaps that becomes such a pattern that it slips into real life, and we stop treating the people around us like real people, because we're so accustomed to the anonymous kinds of relationships we develop online - relationships where literally anything goes and anything can be said because you don't have the accountability that comes from standing face to face with someone. Perhaps the technology all around us has us increasingly blinded to the humanity all around us.  Not that I'm going to stop online interactions. I just do wonder if it hasn't led to a society where we can too easily forget that the people around us all have feelings.

May 24, 2012: One Interesting Thing - Hissing Squirrels

Just when was it that squirrels started to hiss? Maybe I was just oblivious to nature for 47 years of my life, but I honestly don't ever remember a squirrel hissing (or, for that matter, making any kind of sounds) until last year. Generally speaking, they're just quick and rather nervous creatures who run away if you get too close to them. Inoffensive, unthreatening and actually rather cute - especially when they play "chase" and you watch them frantically scramble after each other up trees. And yet - cute as they may be - a quick internet search suggests that squirrels are in fact meat eaters, preying sometimes on small birds and other small rodents and even sometimes on small snakes. Squirrels? Meat eaters? OK. That changes my image of them just a little bit! Maybe they're not as cute and cuddly as I've always thought. And then there was today. As I was walking my daughter to school we heard a noise. A VERY loud noise. A loud, angry hissing sound. And we looked and looked and couldn't see where the noise was coming from until my daughter pointed up. And I looked. At the top of a very tall hydro pole was a very unhappy looking squirrel - hissing madly at us as we walked by underneath. "Do you think he can get down?" my daughter asked. "I'm sure he can," I replied, hoping that he'd wait until we were far away to make the journey down the pole, because I didn't really want to stand face to face with this possessed looking animal. He got down at some point. As I walked home from the school, I cast a wary eye toward the top of the hydro pole we had seen him on. His perch was empty. The world was quiet. And I still wonder - when DID squirrels start to hiss?

May 23, 2012: One Interesting Thing - The Poutine Petition

A couple of weeks ago I tried poutine for the first time. I was - to say the least - underwhelmed. It's french fries covered in gravy and cheese curds. Right. OK. Really - it did nothing for me. Absolutely nothing. Strange. I like french fries, I like gravy and I like cheese. Mix them together and you'd think it would be a winner for me. Nope. Underwhelming. That's why I find the latest series of Wendy's TV commercials so bizarre. For reasons known only to themselves (except, I guess, that they figure they'll get some mileage out of it) Wendy's has launched an online petition (combined with a massive TV ad blitz promoting the online petition) to get poutine named as Canada's national food. Now, first, I don't know who it is who would actually designate poutine as Canada's national food. You see, I can't sign the petition - or even see it, even if I were so inclined. The whole thing is linked to Wendy's Facebook page, so you have to "like" Wendy's before you can get to the petition apparently. OK. Curiosity got the better of me even as I wrote. So I just "liked" Wendy's Canada just to see the petition, er, the poutition. They say once they get 100,000 signatures they'll hand it to Parliament. Yes. Parliament has nothing better to do. Well, actually, considering that Parliament isn't allowed to do much by our government anyway, they probably don't have anything better to do. But that's beside the point. That's delving into politics. This is about poutine. French fries covered in gravy and cheese curds. Canada's national dish. French fries aren't Canadian. Not even French Canadian. Not even French. They're Belgian. Gravy? Who knows, but I don't think Canadian. Cheese curds? Probably around long before Canada was even a twinkle in Sir John A.'s bloodshot eyes. I guess it's us who thought up the combination, though. So we want to be known to the world as the people who covered french fries with gravy. And cheese curds. Don't forget the cheese curds. I don't think so. There's got to be something more Canadian than that. Something to be truly proud of. Something - perhaps - maple? And I know that Newfoundlanders have been known to do some fancy cookin' with moose meat and seal meat and codfish. I've even heard speculation that ketchup chips are Canadian. They're more popular here than anywhere else anyway. But poutine? Canada's national food?  Not poutine. Please. Not poutine.

May 22, 2012: One Interesting Thing - Faith & Order

Be warned: this is strictly an "in-house" interesting thing, and if you have no involvement with Niagara Presbytery of Hamilton Conference of the United Church of Canada, you'll likely have neither interest in nor knowledge of any of this. However, it affects me, so ... At a meeting of Niagara Presbytery tonight I discovered that I've been appointed to the Faith & Order Committee. I've been relieved of Committee responsibility for the last year; a break, I guess, after having completed a three year term as Chair of one of the more intense Committees of the Presbytery, so this is, in a way, a re-introduction to the work of Presbytery. I believe ministers should be involved in the work of Presbytery. It's nice to have a break, but I also believe we have responsibilities to the wider church that we have to live up to. So, I'm back. The Faith & Order Committee deals with matters of doctrine and polity - or, more bluntly, it deals with what we believe and how we're governed. Those are both matters that interest me. Theology and ecclesiology basically. It's very much a change of pace from the Presbytery work I've been doing for many years, and in that regard I'm quite happy. It's also - strangely - a bit of a homecoming for me. Before being ordained,  I did my internship in Niagara Presbytery in 1992-1993. That's almost 20 years ago now! (Am I getting old?) Anyway back then my internship supervisor was the Chair of (wait for it!) the Faith & Order Committee and he used to drag me out to - um, I mean, invite me to attend - meetings of that Committee. Having noted that, I can't say that there's a whole lot of nostalgia involved with any of this. I mean, it's a Committee assignment. But it's also a bit of a link to the past as well, and - although few of the people who were in Niagara Presbytery back then are still in Niagara Presbytery now - it brings back a few memories that are almost 20 years behind me. It reminds me of the words of a hymn - "from the past will come the future."

May 21, 2012: One Interesting Thing - Victoria Day

It's one of those holidays that we're not really too sure about to be honest. Victoria Day. Specifically, it honours the birthday of Queen Victoria. Sure. I know. She hasn't been the Queen since she died over 111 years ago. So we've kind of done to Her Majesty Queen Victoria what North Korea has done to the Great Leader Kim Il-Sung (invested her in office for eternity!) Not really. I jest. Now Victoria Day is sort of the birthday celebration of the current Queen  - Elizabeth II - except that she was actually born on April 21. So it's really kind of just a day to honour the monarchy, except that, aside from a few monarchist or republican fanatics, most Canadians are really rather ambivalent about the monarchy (my basic opinion - it does us no real harm, so, uh, well  ... let's keep it.) When I was a kid, we used to call this Firecracker Day, because this was the day of the biggest fireworks displays of the year, but now that's probably Canada Day. So today is really reduced to - the unofficial start of summer in Canada. A long weekend to open cottages, or otherwise get away or, if you can't get away, to at least have a day off work. Oh all right. Let's cut the nonsense. It's an excuse to party. Still, there are regal trappings. Prince Charles and his wife Camilla are in Canada right now - part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. There's been a recent poll that suggests most Canadians want Charles to step aside and allow his son William to become the next King, but monarchy is not a popularity contest. All things being equal, it's going to be Charles, so all those looking gooey-eyed at William will have to wait a few more years. I had an interesting little debate on Facebook tonight with a republican (!) in which I questioned the wisdom of putting Canada through a divisive constitutional debate  just for the very unlikely possibility of abolishing the monarchy. I tend to work on the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" principle. And as far as I can see that principle applies perfectly to the monarchy. So - God save the Queen! How can you really dislike an institution that has given us another holiday?

May 20, 2012: One Interesting Thing - The Bonfire

I guess the title refers to both "the bonfire" in general and THE bonfire that I happened to spend a good part of the evening sitting around. The concept of the bonfire is interesting. Some people speak of the "sacred" fire. I don't spiritualize the bonfire (although I have no particular objection to someone who does) but still, there's something very primal about fire in general, and I suppose I have to confess that if spirituality is about relationships and interconnectedness then bonfires promote that. Sitting around one with a group of people, sharing stories, getting to know one another better. I can remember bonfires that were real bonfires when I lived in Newfoundland - towering infernos at times that virtually forced you to stare transfixed as all sorts of flammable material was piled on and it burned well into the wee hours of the morning because there was really no simple way to put it out! Tonight's was not a towering inferno in any way, shape or form. It began as a simple campfire for roasting marshmallows and hot dogs, and then - once the children were done with that piece of business - it began to be built up somewhat larger. Never really large, but still impressive. Or - as I said above - primal. It's the contradictory nature of fire, I guess, that makes it such a fascination for so many people. It's potentially useful and also potentially destructive. We can control fire, but only to a certain point. As sparks fly through the night air, there's even a sense of potential danger involved with the whole thing - or at least they serve as a reminder that this isn't something neat and tidy and bottled up, perfectly under our control. There's an element of raw unpredictability involved that makes the whole experience more meaningful. And by the time it's over, you walk away, smelling of smoke, with skin warmed by the experience, somehow feeling that you've made some sort of connection with nature itself. Perhaps I shouldn't be quite so fast to write off the concept of the sacred fire.

Buckhorn, Ontario - May 20, 2012

May 19, 2012: One Interesting Thing - The Buckhorn Reunion Weekend

It all started 7 years ago. That's hard to believe now, but that's when it all started. The trip to China. Stepping on the plane, taking off and realizing that the next time we saw Canada, it would be as parents to a one year old girl. That much we knew. I'm not sure that I realized that there'd be a whole new kind of family come from that experience. Let me tell you, though, when you spend two weeks on the other side of the world with a group of people with whom you share such a life-changing experience, you grow quite close. At least our group did. I've heard from others who've had the international adoption experience who didn't grow close to their group and hardly ever see them. I'm glad that was not our experience. Every year since the adoption trip we gather to reconnect and to see how the girls have grown. And there's a kind of extended family feel to the gathering. We've shared an experience that no one can relate to who hasn't been through it. The reunions were a bit unsettled for the first few years. Richmond Hill, Picton, Niagara Falls. And then we stumbled upon the Beachwood Resort in Buckhorn, just outside Peterborough - and it was perfect. On a lake, a lot of beautiful nature around us, comfortable accommodations, good food - and lots of extended family. Now we come here every year on the long weekend in May. When I had my experience in the hospital a few days ago, that was one of my first concerns - will I be able to drive 4 hours to Buckhorn? Thankfully, the answer was yes. Experiences and people like this really force you to redefine what you mean by "family." We're at the point now where I truly miss those who for one reason or another can't attend, and I would miss the weekend if for some reason it should stop. There are certain points on the calendar that you look forward to, and that you govern the passage of time by. Christmas, birthdays - and the Buckhorn Reunion. Should be a great weekend. I'm glad I'm here! And the resort is always very good to us, so they deserve a plug:

http://www.ontario-resorts.ca/

May 18, 2012: One Interesting Thing - The Earth's Water

Having received a bit of a lesson this week in how fragile a thing life can be, I thought it appropriate that I came across this website this morning that shows how much water there actually is on earth - and how much of that water is actually drinkable:

How Much Water Is On Earth?

Since water is, as far as we know, one of the essentials necessary for life at all, the picture is rather sobering. In comparison to the rest of the planet, there really isn't that much drinkable water available. We tend to spend a lot of our time worrying about how much oil there is and when it might run out. The water picture doesn't look that good either. For example, we usually think of getting our drinking water from either lakes or rivers. (Our drinking water where I live comes from Lake Erie.) But according to the chart they've included on the website, only 0.0072% of the water on earth is found in lakes and rivers. The rest is either difficult to get at fresh water (either groundwater or in the icecaps) and over 97% of the water on earth is undrinkable salt water. The way this website illustrates this is, to me, quite a startling revelation, and demonstrates just how truly fragile life on this planet is. We should indeed enjoy every day we have - and give God thanks for what we've been given! We might want to try taking better care of what we've been given, too!

May 17, 2012: One Interesting Thing - Rumours (and Gossip)!

Not surprisingly, the rumour mill was off and running today. Well, if not running, at least moving along at a slow jog. I'm referring, of course, to the responses I've heard from the community about my experiences of the last couple of days - to which I, with credit given to Mark Twain, must reply "rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated!" Of course, I have to admit that, as far as I know, no one thought I had actually died. I did hear that I was seriously ill in the ICU, though. Not true. I've actually just been hanging out at home for most of the day, making enough appearances to let enough people see me to be able to refute whatever stories were being passed around. So I walked my daughter to school and picked her up from school so that teachers and other parents could see me at my peak of health, and I took her to the children's choir practice at church. All to make sure that there would be people who could say to the people who think I'm at death's door that they saw me walking around and I looked fine. Which I am. But rumours (and their close relative, gossip) need to be nipped in the bud. They serve no purpose except to spread misinformation, and the best way to deal with them is by making sure the truth gets out. So - I'm OK. I'm back to normal; all is good. I expect it to remain that way. And hopefully that rumour mill - which is at a slow jog today, will be at a bare crawl tomorrow and shut down for good by the weekend. That would be a good thing!

May 15-16, 2012: One Interesting Thing - Sudden Onset Atrial Fibrillation

This is really about 2 days, of course. At about 8:30 last night I was sitting at my desk after a meeting getting ready to go home, when I suddenly had a horrible dizzy spell that nearly made me fall out of my chair. I managed to brace my head and upper body against my desk and waited for my head to clear, which it did after a couple of minutes. My first thought was that I had had a stroke. But when my head cleared I made sure I could move everything, and that I could speak. Everything seemed fine. I got myself home and then started having heart palpitations and some chest tightness and I was sweating profusely. Being stubborn I told my wife not to call an ambulance, but we got a friend to drive me to the local hospital, where I received a deserved lecture about not calling an ambulance to take me to the nearest emergency room, because our local hospital isn't set up to take cardiac cases. I'm told men are especially bad at refusing to call ambulances. Lesson learned. My heart rate was in the 140-160 range, and they explained to me that I was suffering from "Sudden Onset Atrial Fibrillation," which makes the upper part of the heart beat faster than the lower part of the heart. They gave me some medication that got the rate down a bit and then transferred me to the emergency room, about a 15 minute ambulance ride away in the local hospital of a neighbouring town. The initial doctors told me that I'd be going to ICU and probably wouldn't be released until the weekend. I spent last night, overnight and most of today in emergency. They tried a different medication in the ER. My heart started to beat normally but in an irregular rhythym. They weren't able to get the rhythym under control with meds, and so late this afternoon they put me under and shocked my heart, which did put it back into rhythym. The cardiologist said once my heart was in rhythym I'd be fine. Lots of tests throughout the night and day and in the end they determined that I hadn't had a heart attack and that my heart hadn't been damaged - which can sometimes happen with this condition because of the stress it places on your heart. But I was lucky. Atrial Fibrillation isn't uncommon. Mine was called "Sudden Onset" because I have no medical history at all that would have made me seem at risk. I'm told that for some people it's a once in a lifetime event that never repeats, some people have episodes every few years and some more frequently. Sometimes the symptoms seem so minor that people don't seek treatment. I'm glad it worked out for me and I have an idea of what to look for now. Seems like an important thing to get to know about. Here's some info from the Mayo Clinic:

Atrial Fibrillation

May 14, 2012: One Interesting Thing - What A Loser!

Well, I don't think of myself as a loser. I mean, you know, victory in Jesus and all. I like to think I'm on the winning team! I'd like to think that to God, actually, there are no losers. Apparently, though, not everyone agrees with me. Today at lunch I decided to walk downtown and treat myself to a sandwich at Subway. Because I happened to have a nursing home service this afternoon I was wearing a clergy shirt and clerical collar. I don't wear them all the time but today they were relevant. A car with two young men laughing uproariously in it passed by and as they did they shouted out at me "what a loser!" Since I am definitely the rugged and masculine leading-man type (as you can surely tell by my picture on the right) I have to assume that they were commenting on my attire. Interesting. A recent article in the United Church Observer offered reflections from a colleague who usually doesn't wear a clerical collar but decided to wear one for a month to see, basically, what would happen. He notes in his article that the purpose of the clerical collar "is to make clergy identifiable - and therefore approachable - outside the church ..." He wondered: How would people treat him? Would people look at him any differently? After a month, he reported nothing shocking or surprising. Just that people noticed him a little more, and that he felt on display. I guess I was on display today as I walked to Subway. At least I know a couple of people noticed me! Although not approached, I was certainly identifiable!

May 13, 2012: One Interesting Thing - Desperate Housewives

"Some people never get to know their neighbours. They share a fence and nothing else. We shared everything." That was a line from near the end of tonight's very last episode of "Desperate Housewives." I was never into the show as much as my wife was. She loved it; for most of its run my attitude was kind of "meh." But I will admit that it was a fun show and it made an impact. As I recall it gained a lot of attention when it went on the air in 2004 because the Christian right was up in arms about it before anyone had even seen it. (I wonder if the so-called Christian right realizes how ridiculous it makes itself look sometimes?) No, the show wasn't exactly family viewing, but it also wasn't obscene. And there were times when it was very funny. It was one of those shows that tried a gimmick to give itself a fresh look. "I Love Lucy" let Lucy be pregnant on the air. "Dallas" wrote off an entire season as a dream. "Desperate Housewives" just skipped five years in one summer just to let everyone get a little older and a little wiser and have a few different challenges to face. Am I going to miss it? Not really. Not much, anyway. As I said, it was more my wife who watched it than I did. But it had some appeal even to me as a non fanatic. I think that appeal can be explained by that line I quoted at the beginning. It's true. We live very isolated lives sometimes, and life can be very lonely. The picture of a group of people who share everything about their lives with each other is definitely appealing. Even if, more often than not, the result was complicated at best and disaster at worst. So I may not miss it personally, but I have to say that the show will be missed. Farewell, Housewives.


The Housewives 2004                    The Housewives 2012

May 12, 2012: One Interesting Thing - A Funeral For Someone You Don't Know

One of my colleague at a neighbouring church is extremely ill, and so I was asked if I would take on a funeral service for someone connected with that church. Of course, I said "yes." The truth is that I enjoy doing funerals. It's an opportunity to offer some hope to people who really want to hear about hope. It's not a game when it's a funeral. It's real. I went into the service a wee bit apprehensively, basically because  I really liked the sermon I had written for the service. If that sounds strange, it's just that I know from experience that sometimes when the sermon seems great on paper, it turns out to be not so great when it's preached. Not so today. In fact, I really liked the message, and it led to the inevitable comment after the service: "It must be so hard to do a funeral for someone you didn't know." Truthfully, no. It isn't. In many ways it's easier, because you're not dealing with your own grief, you're just trying to help others get through theirs. I guess this is mainly of interest to pastors and others who may from time to time conduct funeral services, but here's the key - listen! If you do that you'll have no trouble conducting a funeral for someone you don't know. I had never met this family before, and I spent about 40 minutes with the family yesterday. That's all. 40 minutes. And yet many commented on how "personal" the service was. Because for that 40 minutes I basically just listened. I just asked them to tell me about their wife/mom. And it came out. People have stories. They just need to be encouraged to tell them. And you have to LISTEN while they do. That's the key to conducting a good, personal-feeling funeral that offers both gospel and comfort. Just listen. If you do that, you won't find it hard to conduct a funeral for someone you don't know, and people will walk away wondering how you knew the person so well.

May 11, 2012: One Interesting Thing - Swiss Chalet

We had a wonderful visit today with my brother in law, his wife and our nephew who came up from Georgia. They moved there about 12 years ago and it's far enough away that we don't see them very often. Our nephew (who's now 22 and has picked up a noticeable Georgia accent) wanted to go someplace quintessentially Canadian for dinner. So we decided on - Swiss Chalet. (I know it says "Swiss," but it's Canadian. Trust me!) So we headed to Welland to our nearest sit-down, stand-alone Swiss Chalet. As we settled in and placed our orders, the waitress (who was a very nice young woman from here in Port Colborne) then told us "we have no sauce right now." ??? No sauce??? You cannot go to Swiss Chalet and not have the sauce. For those who've never tried it - it's not gravy and it's not barbeque sauce. It's - unique, and it's very good! It's a dipping sauce. Most people dip their chicken; I like dipping my french fries. Anyway, whatever you choose to dip, it's good.  It will be 20 minutes, she says. Well, we wanted Swiss Chalet and Swiss Chalet isn't Swiss Chalet without the sauce, so we'll wait. Ordered an appetizer of poutine (another quintessentially Canadian food!) Interestingly enough, none of us had ever tried poutine. I tried it tonight. No big deal in my opinion. I don't get the fuss. Anyway, the sauce was delayed some more, so we were offered a free appetizer to tide us over. (The problem with all the appetizers, of course, is that we won't be hungry by the time dinner comes.) But we agree and tell the waitress to surprise us. She came back with a sort of cheese filled garlic bread bruschetta loaf. Interesting. Better than the poutine, I thought. Then, finally the sauce was ready and dinner came. A typical Swiss Chalet rotisseried chicken dinner, with the sauce. Well worth the wait. I felt sorry for the next group of people coming into the restaurant though. The last I heard from our waitress, Swiss Chalet had now run out of chicken!

May 10, 2012: One Interesting Thing - Track & Field Day

It was Track & Field day at my daughter's school today. When I was her age, my memory is that we just called it "Field Day" - but the same basic things are involved. Running, jumping. Fun. And time out of the classroom. It actually wasn't at my daughter's school. They have to march up the street to the high school to use their facilities. Last year I volunteered to help out at Track & Field Day after a request was sent home for parent volunteers - and I really wasn't given anything to do. I was told to help the Grade 1 teacher with her group and I had so little to do I felt as if I was stalking her. This year I didn't see a request for volunteers, so I - naturally enough - didn't volunteer. My wife and I did go over to the high school this morning, though, to see our daughter run. She was in the 100 metres. She wanted to run the 400 metres, but she's in Grade 2 and her teacher said she couldn't run the 400 metres. So it was the 100 metres. I was pleased. I did a little bit of sprinting in high school. I was never any threat to make the Canadian Olympic Team, but I was pretty fast. So I know a little bit about the 100 metres. I wanted to play coach for some of the kids to be honest. They were doing standing starts, so having to expend a lot of energy to build momentum. At least bend over a little bit so you go right into your running pace. One girl had her arms flailing like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz and was totally unbalanced. Yes. I wanted to offer advice; the benefits of the experience of my glory days of long ago on the track. But I bit my tongue. This was about fun, after all. My daughter finished third in her heat, which I guess meant she didn't advance. But she had fun! That's the point, isn't it! And - although I may have tempted to offer advice, in the end I didn't - which meant that I had fun too!

May 9, 2012: One Interesting Thing - Power Failure!

They're always interesting. Not rare or uncommon, but interesting. They remind us of how much we take electricity and all its wonders for granted. Today there was a power outage that hit early this afternoon. I was in my office writing when all of a sudden, a flicker and then - darkness. Well, not darkness. It was mid-day after all. No electricity though. No A/C. No D/C. Neither Tesla nor Edison had a solution for this. My first response was a barely muttered curse - had I lost the sermon I was writing? But then a glimmer of hope. I now use a laptop in my office, hooked up to the big monitor. When the power went off, the laptop would surely have switched right over to battery power. I looked. The laptop was still on. Just no screen, because the display on it was turned off, and the big monitor wasn't working. So my work was there, but I couldn't work on it anymore. I was fine as long as this didn't turn into the blackout of 2003 that lasted for 3 days! Alarm bells were going off in the church. It happens when the power goes off. Irritating, but not that important. The phones don't work if there's no power. Everything has a good side! At least there would be no interruptions of the work that I couldn't do. There were the inevitable moments of walking into a room and turning on the light switch and being startled when the lights didn't come on! The funniest thing, though, was the high school group. We make a room in the church available to a high school class for - well - troubled kids, basically. They don't cause much trouble - at least they haven't in our building - they're just "troubled." Of course, when the alarm went off, they had to leave. They left, pretty quickly. And they didn't wait around to see if the power would come back on. They scattered - and fast. So when the power did come back on a few minutes later, there was a high school teacher in the building, but no high school students! And the laptop battery worked fine. I continued my writing without missing a beat.

May 8, 2012: One Interesting Thing - A Zombie Fungus-Killing Fungus

One of the creepier things I've learned recently is about so-called "zombie ants." Apparently these are found mostly in the tropical regions. They're perfectly normal ants who get infected by a fungus. The fungus takes over their brain and essentially takes control of their bodies. So the ants remain alive, but they basically exist to serve the fungus. They're controlled by the fungus and do things only for the advantage of the fungus. Not surprisingly, the ants eventually die because of this. It sounds like a gruesome fate. Today I came across a related story. Scientists in tropical regions have come across what they're calling "ant graveyards." Because of what the ants do and where they go when under the control of the fungus, they generally die in the same places, and places have been found that are littered with the bodies of the poor, fungus-infected ants, out of whose bodies the fungus has sprouted. The fungus then spreads by letting off spores. What puzzled the scientists was that a lot of healthy ants pass through these "graveyards" and inevitably pick up the spores, but never get infected. Why not? The scientists made a startling discovery - there's yet another fungus that's around that gets into the "healthy" ants and acts as a zombie fungus-killing fungus. It "eats" the spores of the zombie fungus for lack of a better way of putting it so that the host ant doesn't turn into a zombie ant. That way the whole ant colony doesn't become infected by the zombie fungus. Fascinating. Some would simply call it the balance of nature, I suppose. I'd like to think it has something to do with God, who keeps nature in balance. No deadly fungus = too many ants. Nothing to kill the deadly fungus = no ants. For whatever reason, God wants ants. Ergo, the zombie fungus-killing fungus. Others will disagree, but I see such intricate and precise checks and balances in nature and it convinces me more than ever that there's a God who's somehow in control of it all.

May 7, 2012: One Interesting Thing - A Letter From A Book Seller

I bought a book.  No big deal. I buy a lot of books. This was one of a group of about ten books I had to buy to prepare for my doctoral residency in Chicago this summer. It came today. The title of the book is "The End Of Words" - an interesting book for someone doing a doctorate in preaching to buy. In this case, I'm more interested in the book seller though. I bought all the books through Amazon, but some of them had to come through other sources. Seven came direct from Amazon, and three came in one book doses from 3 others. The one that came today was the last one. What I found humourous was the letter that the seller included in the order. I can't offer the whole thing, but I can do a pretty good job of summarizing. Basically, the seller said, "Please go to Amazon to rate me if you're going to give me 5 stars. If you're not going to give me 5 stars, please don't go to Amazon to rate me because that will make me look bad." I looked at the letter a little bit incredulously. If you're going to sell through Amazon, then you're participating in a website that allows its customers to rate their level of satisfaction. I find it rather ridiculous for a seller in that environment to say "Only rate me if you're really happy." I understand that a low rating will - well - lower your rating. But isn't that the point? To let people know that there was something about the experience that was unsatisfying? I mean, if I'm not going to give you 5 stars doesn't that mean that it's my intent to lower your rating just a wee bit? In this particular case, I have no complaint - although this seller was the slowest of the four who were shipping to me to actually get me the book that I ordered. But that's OK. I have lots of other books to read. I just couldn't read that letter without shaking my head. "Rate me if I'm really good; otherwise please don't rate me." If only life were like that!

May 6, 2012: One Interesting Thing - Spring Cleaning

Today turned out to be "spring cleaning" day around our house. Yes, I know, Sunday and all. But when my wife decides, that's it. Actually, she doesn't call it spring cleaning. She calls it "huck and chuck." It's kind of the same thing except it's not governed by the calendar. Spring cleaning, by definition, takes place once a year in the spring. Huck and chuck, on the other hand, can take place at any time - it can be multiple times a year, or we might even miss a year. You see, it doesn't have to be every spring. It's whenever my wife decides that there's sufficient clutter to justify a huck and chuck. Today was the day. And I - thanks be to a merciful God - got largely off the hook. You see, I was wise. With no inkling that this was a day for huck and chuck, I nevertheless said to my wife before leaving for church, "You don't mind if I watch the hockey game at 3:00 do you?" And she said - "no. I don't mind." I heard her say it. She knew she had said it. I could sit blissfully in front of the television watching the Kings and the Blues, isolated from the madness of hucking and chucking going on. It gets better! I wasn't even the target! Today's target was our daughter's old toys and stuffies and books. So they worked away, while I sat on the couch watching the playoffs. It was serene - even spiritual for me! Now, I wasn't completely off the hook. My daughter is a generous girl. We discovered that at age 8 she no longer needs all her formerly beloved My Little Ponies, the Zoobles are no longer the in thing, baby books are unnecessary, and a number of stuffies have run their course. So she decided to donate them to the church for our upcoming yard sale in the hope that some other child will get some joy out of them. That's great, but it did mean that I had to make some trips to the church carrying heavy bags so that I could store them away. (We're not really supposed to bring things to the church yet, but as the minister's wife's husband I know people!) I did that after the hockey game, of course. My wife then asked if I had any books to donate. Uh - any one of those books could have an important sermon illustration just waiting to be found. Not just yet!

May 5, 2012: One Interesting Thing - A Super-Moon!

So tonight was the night. It's not exactly a once in a lifetime event. Apparently it happens about once a year - which makes me wonder why I've never, ever heard the term before (because I think I'd remember it if I had.) Tonight was the "super-moon" - and here it is, from my camera to your eyes:

Oh, I hear what you're saying: "it doesn't look like anything special." But according to what I've heard, it's actually 16% bigger and 30% brighter than your average full moon. A "super-moon" happens whenever we get a full moon that coincides with the Moon's perigee - it's closest approach to Earth during its orbit. And tonight is one of those nights. The Moon will be only 356,956 km from the Earth. There are a lot of myths about "super-moons" causing natural disasters, but apparently they don't really do much more than cause the tides to be maybe a few inches higher than normal. By the way, if you're interested, apparently the scientific community largely rejects the name "super-moon." They prefer to call it a "perigee-syzygy." I think I'll stick with "super-moon" - partly because it sounds really cool, but mostly because I don't have a clue how you'd actually pronounce "syzygy!"

May 4, 2012: One Interesting Thing - The Last Penny

Today, the Royal Canadian Mint made its last penny. As of tonight Canada will never again produce a one cent coin. I understand the decision. Apparently from what I've read it costs 1.6 cents to make every one cent coin. When you think about it that really doesn't make a lot of sense. And apparently - perhaps surprisingly - it doesn't circulate that much. People get them and stuff them away, or they refuse them as change. So the penny becomes expendable. It will still be accepted as legal currency, of course, for as long as pennies exist - which, since they're made of metal, will be a long, long time. But there will be no new ones. I understand why the decision was made - but I still raise a lament for the penny. You see, I was never one of the penny haters. I used my pennies. I didn't toss them away, I didn't stick them in a jar and forget about them. I never refused them as change. I'd even pick one up if I saw it lying on the ground.  The Canadian penny actually predates Confederation. They were minted starting in 1858, and the government of the Dominion of Canada inherited them in 1867. They've gone through some design changes over the last 154 years, and for the last 12 years they've been 94% steel, 1.5% nickel and 4.5% copper plating. Personally, I'll miss that brown coin. Having it around never bothered me a bit.

May 3, 2012: One Interesting Thing - Remembering My Own 8th Birthday

So, as I've mentioned a couple of times recently, today was my daughter's 8th birthday. For whatever reason the occasion had me thinking back to my own 8th birthday. It was pretty special. It actually included the earliest birthday present I can remember being given: I was taken to my first ever Toronto Maple Leafs game at Maple Leaf Gardens. It's strange the things you remember. I remember taking the subway downtown, getting off at College Station and walking along Carlton Street to the Gardens. I remember feeling overwhelmed by sitting in the midst of more than 16,000 people. I have a strong memory of this being an unusual Sunday afternoon game, and I know without a doubt that the Leafs were playing the California Golden Seals - with their white skates and everything! It was a little confusing for me. I wondered why I couldn't hear Bill Hewitt (the Leafs play by play man at the time) announcing the game. It was a little hard to really understand what was happening on the ice without him explaining it all. About the game itself? All I really remember is that the Leafs goalie that day was Jacques Plante, and I remember him making a brilliant save while sprawling on his stomach. I'm pretty sure the Leafs won that day. 5-1 or 5-2 is in my mind as the score but I'm not really sure about that. That was a special birthday; an early part of my now lifelong passion for the Toronto Maple Leafs. I hope we gave our daughter some good memories of her own for her 8th birthday!

May 2, 2012: One Interesting Thing - The Battle Of Cooks Mills

During a conversation I was having today the War of 1812  came up. (What can I say? I studied Canadian history; I read about Canadian history; at one time I wanted to teach Canadian history. I love Canadian history. Sometimes when you talk about Canadian history the War of 1812 comes up!) But in the course of the conversation I learned something I hadn't known about -  the Battle of Cooks Mills. That would have been fought fairly close to where I now live. I suppose it's hard to make a concrete definition of what constitutes a significant battle, but the Battle of Cooks Mills is apparently arguably the last land battle of any significance in that war. Unless, of course, you count the Battle of New Orleans, which you really shouldn't count, since it was fought after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent that ended the War. And there was the Battle of Malcolms Mills, fought in southwestern Ontario a couple of weeks later, but it was much smaller - not much more than a glorified skirmish apparently. At Cooks Mills, the British commander was Lt. Col. Christopher Myers and the American commander was General George Izard. The actual battle was fairly brief, and it was somewhat inconclusive - much like the War of 1812 as a whole! All the Americans really accomplished was taking possession of about 200 bushels of grain. They couldn't press their advantage, withdrew to Fort Erie and then finally across the Niagara River to US soil in Buffalo. In 1921, the battlefield was declared a National Historic Site of Canada.  Since it's not far away, I really must pay a visit soon!

May 1, 2012: One Interesting Thing - My Daughter's First Cheque

I mentioned a couple of days ago that my daughter's 8th birthday is on Thursday. Today, she got another present. It was a $25 US cheque from her uncle and aunt who live near Atlanta, Georgia. She was very excited, of course, and wanted to get the money today so that she could go shopping at the Seaway Mall in Welland. Well, it's her cheque and her money and her present - so why not. So I took the cheque to the bank this afternoon to convert it to Canadian funds and cash it. But there was one glitch. The cheque was made payable to her and not me. The teller informed me that I can't cash it unless it has her signature on the back to endorse it. "But wait," said I. "She's not even 8 yet. I don't think she even has a signature." "Well, then have her print her name on it, because we have to know you have her permission to cash the cheque." Her signature? Her permission? I'm her father. I mean - I'm a nice guy, but if I was really nasty and just wanted the $25 to myself, does the bank really think I couldn't just tell her to sign it? In the circumstances it struck me as a bit ludicrous. But I took the cheque home and had her "sign" the back of it. Actually - as I thought - she doesn't have a "signature." So she printed her name very neatly on the back of the cheque and added a very well drawn happy face after it. We went to the mall anyway. She had another $30 in birthday money to spend over and above what uncle and auntie in Georgia had sent. I just hope that the happy face on the cheque doesn't raise suspicions when I go into the bank tomorrow!