Surviving Childhood

TO ALL THE KIDS
WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.


They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.


Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because,
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE P LAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computer! s, no Internet or chat rooms.......
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them...CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:
"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"

(Thanks Amy)

Mixed Bag

Another week has come and gone. I attended the funeral of my wife's uncle on Friday. Uncle Mac dropped dead of a heart attack at his cottage at Davidson Lake, a place he dearly loved. He was fondly remembered by his granddaughters and the many people who knew him. As a Christian he was very certain of his destination when he died and had no fear of it. He will be missed by those whose lives he touched over the past 84 years.

On Saturday I did some geocaching with a friend. If you've never tried this you might be missing a new passion. It's like a modern day treasure hunt where you use a GPS unit to find a container that someone has hidden. You can find out more about this at http://www.geocaching.com/. You don't always find what you're looking for but you always end up winning because you discover new trails or places you didn't know existed.

Today we attended a concert at the museum. It was kind of cool. The group is made up of local medical professionals, doctors, nurses and medical technicians. They are called "Cool Chicks & the Ugly Doclings". They are quite talented with both vocals and instruments delivering up an interesting mix of old and new folk music including some of their own material. Today's fund raiser had a Father's Day theme. One particularly touching number was written by Dr John Acker for his baby daughter. He came up with the words as he was delivering her 3am feeding as an infant. When the group had finished the number his little girl, now 30 years old, came up from the audience and gave her dad a big hug and kiss...not a dry eye in the house.

And that's the kind of week it's been.

Drink up men!

Good news men! If you're like me and really like your coffee, here's a piece of great news. According to Dr. Hyon Choi of the University of British Columbia and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston, men who drink four to five cups of coffee a day have a 40-percent lower risk pf getting gout which is a painful joint disorder.

In fact for men who drink six or more cups there is a 50- to 60-percent reduction in risk of getting gout.

So I say, drink up men, enjoy your Joe.

You can read more about it here.

Drake's Prayer

Sir Francis Drake was an English adventurer licensed and supported by Queen Elizabeth I. His exploits were legendary. He wrote this prayer as he departed Portsmouth on his ship, the Golden Hinde, to raid Spanish gold on the west coast of South America. Sir Francis was a Christian Puritan and his father was a preacher. This prayer captures the spirit of our dreams and possibilities for our lives.

Sir Francis Drake's Prayer (1577)

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.

Being Canadian

I haven't posted in awhile for whatever reason, nothing to say I guess. I came across a very well written article by Mike Thorburn who writes some stuff for TheSoko.com, a Canadian lifestyle website. Mike Thorburn is a graduate of Queen's University who know resides in Taipei, Taiwan, so he has done lots of traveling.

The article that caught my attention talks about Canadian misconceptions about ourselves. Briefly Mike makes the case that Canadian society and culture is really not that much different from that of the United States, our closest neighbour. He points out that if you've ever traveled around Canada or the US you will find there is tremendous variance between the people, traditions and views. Take someone from St. John's Newfoundland and put them beside someone from Vancouver B.C. and you'll see what he means. The same would appear to hold true in the U.S. Talk to someone Louisiana and then someone from Boston and you'll see. Mike argues that there is a "shared North American culture".

While some of this resonates with me, I believe there some essential differences that sets our two countries apart. I think one of the biggest differences in my mind is the social safety nets we have in place in Canada. The fact that a serious health problem or emergency could bankrupt a family and cause them to lose their home because they couldn't afford health insurance or the employer doesn't provide it is terrible and unjustifiable.

Generally speaking Canadians are quite willing to pay taxes to support those in our society that need help. In Canada we have Universal Health Care, Old Age Security, Canada Pension Plan, and numerous other social programs to help all ages and situations. We grumble sometimes but in the end we believe everyone deserves a decent life. If circumstances prevent a person from making this life for themselves, the general consensus is that we should help them. I don't see this attitude in the United States.

Canada spends about 10% of our GDP on health care and 41% for total government expenditures which include our safety nets. The U.S. on the other hand spends 15% of its GDP on health and 37% of its GDP on government. So why does the US spend more on health but have such huge gaps in covering its people? Because of system inefficiencies, complex matrix health organizations, duplication of services and numerous other reasons.

Most recent figures from the United States Census Bureau indicate that a record number of 45 million people are uninsured. The percentage of uninsured children in 2003 rose to 11.4 percent.The number of working uninsured stands about 20 precent of all workers. These nimbers are not encouraging. Things seem to be getting worse not better. I ask myself, how can the richest country in the world let this continue? Why don't the people demand something better. Go figure.

Let's think about some other differences. How about the disparity between the rich and the poor, the poorly educated and the well educated? Let's think about the "over the top" media who make everything larger and scarier than it really is all in the name of making news. Then there's the patriotism. That's good, right? Well unless you give self-serving politicians and their corporate "sponsors" unquestioning support to take the country in a direction that's not in the best interest of the country.

Canadians are not real patriotic, well in the sense of wearing it on our sleeve. Although we think Canada is probably the best place to live on the face of the planet, we are pretty blase about it. We are generally a polite and low key people and frown on people jumping up and down and making a big noise about things, including the country.

We are proud of Canada and our non-violent heritage. We don't believe we need to carry guns around to feel safe. Protection is the domain of our police forces. Even when the country was being settled, we had a police force, not the "wild west" as experienced by our American cousins. The North West Mounted Police, forerunners of today's Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), was created in 1873 by Canada's first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. This caused Canada to have a much different history with respect to law and order compared to the U.S.

So what am I saying, that the US sucks and that Canada is perfect? Nope far from it. We have our issues and challenges like everyone else. I admire the "can do" attitude and pioneering spirit of the United States. I admire the way American embrace new arrivals and welcome them into the great melting pot. We have many similarities sharing this North American land mass as neighbours.

But you know what? The US can learn a thing or two from Canada about treating their citizens right and adjusting their fiscal priorities to give every citizen a decent life. My 2 cents worth.

Forgiveness

I try to avoid situations where a discussion turns into a heated argument but it's not always possible. Certain people have a way of pushing my buttons. I have learned to cope with this but sometimes, sometimes I just can't let it go.

When someone say something nasty about you or perhaps even talks behind your back our natural reaction is to strike back, get revenge. If you're a Christian you know that we're called to forgive, not to seek revenge. In fact I don't think it's too much to say that forgiveness is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. However, forgiving someone who's wronged us is infinitely harder than receiving forgiveness.

I was doing a study recently on Matthew 18 where Jesus tells the story of a king who forgives his servant a huge debt, something in the order of $10 million. What an awesome gift! Now you would think this guy would be in a great mood, a generous and forgiving mood.

But no. Someone who owed him money, about $11, asked him to be patient and give him a little more time to pay it back. The forgiven servant's response - he had the man thrown in prison. Wow! What a response. When the king heard about this he immediately revoked his generous gift and threw the ungrateful servant in prison.

This guy had received forgiveness, but he hadn't really experienced forgiveness deep down. Because he hadn’t really experienced it, he couldn’t share it with others.

When I don't forgive someone I'm dragging this anger, resentment and pain around like a ball and chain fastened to my leg. Forgiving someone frees me as well as the offender. In fact it might be more for me than for them. But what about the injustice this person did to me? How do I/we get justice?

Romans 12:19 says "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord." So there it is. We leave the revenge, the payback, the judging to God. We forgive and move on with our life. God will worry about the other person. What a concept.

I don't know about you but it goes against my natural instincts. But, I'll take God at his word, forgive and move on. Alexander Pope once said, "To err is human; to forgive, Divine." It really is and sometime we need divine help to do it. That's what prayer is for.

Is there anyone in your life that you need to forgive, someone who has wronged you, either intentionally or unintentionally? Get rid of that ball and chain you're dragging around with you and be free.

Be True to Yourself

Seth Godin is an author of business books, a speaker and has founded several online marketing companies one of which, Yoyodyne, he successfully sold to Yahoo! In his blog he tells a story about Pablo Picasso declaring that he had occassionally painted fakes even though they were his work. You can read the brief article here.

There were a number of people who responded to this posting with their own interreptations as to what the great painter really meant. As I considered why someone would say they painted fakes of their own work the word "compromise" came to mind. The word means "to settle", "to expose or make vulnerable" or even "to make a dishonorable or shameful concession".

I'm not an artist but I suspect that unless an artist is a Picasso he or she must create some commercial work just to live and eat. Perhaps they don't feel it's their best effort or perhaps it's a work that doesn't represent who they are. Maybe they feel as if they've "sold out" just to get some fast cash.

How often do you or I compromise what we do for the sake of avoiding arguments or making less work for ourselves? On a daily basis I find I am not true to everything I really believe and say things or do things that make me feel like a "fake". Is it right or is it necessary?

There's no doubt it makes life easier for us if we don't dig in our heels and make a stand on every issue. In fact our life would be in conflict most of the time unless we do make compromises. But don't you feel sometimes that you're being asked to give up too much? Sometimes I get really tired of making concessions and get discouraged. In the end I guess we have to decide what are our "core" beliefs, those that really define who and what we are. These principles are the ones we must stand firm on. The trick is to really understand what they are. Think about it, write them down and live your life accordingly.