Category Archives: Life

But I’m Trying to Help!

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It’s Fair Trade Fortnight and in amongst it I’ve noticed how many of us think that it is OK to exploit one person as long as we are doing it to help another person.
A vague example: Church A is doing good for poor people M by supplying them with useful thing T. In order to do as much good for poor people M as possible, Church A is buying useful thing T as cheaply as possible. However, this means that Church A is participating in the unfair exploitation of poor people Y.
Hmmm. This is actually incredibly entrenched in our lifestyles and is not just true of the establishment called church, but is also true of the people called church.
I can’t give a pet solution to this, as the only thing we can do is to be 100% sure that we are doing God’s will. Hopefully an awareness of this issue will help us hear…

Why??

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Why are there many more adverts on TV for the Army, Airforce, and Navy than for Nurses, Health workers, Teachers etc. Watching TV this weekend I would estimate that the adverts for the forces have out numbered the caring services by about 3 to 1.

I like the ups and downs of life

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It has been one of those weeks and it’s only Thursday, I had a nightmare start, forgetting minutes, power cable for the laptop and all those sorts of things. Then some great stuff happened, some fantastic times in lectures, in the past four days it seems that so much has happened. As I reflect on the rapid ups and downs of the last few days I feel far closer to God and as if I’ve been washed around with him in the sea of life. It has been a great process as I think about the current pulls of the tide and even with the stress of having the house on the market and all that entails I’d still rather be in the sea of life than anywhere else at the moment.

Is America being selfish?

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I thought it was time for rant, but I was so down about Americas attitude towards climate change and the Kyoto agreement, and hearing the news today about their attitude to Browns proposal for debt relief and the G8 just made want to scream. Is it an attitude held just at the top of government or is it a widely held protectionist position arising from the masses. The few Americans I know are as concerned about debt in Africa as many of my UK friends but what is the groundswell opinion. Has consumerism pervaded so deeply that now it is translated into what I can only describe as an overt SELFISHNESS that seems to be the motivating factor and attitude the white house holds as a plumbline when deciding on most issues but particularly towards debt and climate control.

Pimp my ride

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I got my first dose of this MTV show today. Whilst i liked what they did with the cars, the positive use of the word pimp reminded me of a link to the F word site that had a great article questioning the corruption of the word pimp into something associated with style, fashion etc. It reminded me to post the link.

The Tappers

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Great night out on Wednesday. The blokes I go to the pub with decided for a Christmas meal. In the end five of gathered for a sharpener in the local, then we taxied to the Cat in the Head (is this the weirdest name for a pub) Great food and five bottles of wine later we returned to the local for a swifty before closing. After good food and conversation we decided to try a new exploit and that in the new year we would inaugurate a pipe smoking club. (not that kind of pipe for all you youth workers on the edge out there) There was lots of conversations about which pipe would suit which person, (suggestions please). In the end we decided that we all main thing that drew us to the concept of pipes besides it general kitschness was we all liked the thought of tapping the pipe. It was ascertained I should be the chairman and in the new year we will have the first meeting of “the tappers�. That’s if anyone else remembers the conversation. There is also a couple of group who didn’t like the idea of smoking and my idea that they could have a liquorice pipe didn’t go down to well, so I need creative input on a way of including those who don’t smoke, any ideas along the tapping line.

D3parture

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Check out a mate of mine’s site today with a great a post of some retro Christian merchandising http://www.d3parture.blogspot.com/
Ben is a great mate and having just discovered his blog and his comment on my last post about labels, it reminds me how much we need to stay in touch with the people who matter to us, but how easy it is to let things slip. Some years ago I was chatting with a female friend how different friendship is for men and women, and how men can not see each other for years but still pick up where they left off. Her experience was very different Venus and Mars I think!

Label shorthand

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Labels are just short hand to save time in description. The trouble is when we start living up to the stereotype of that label. I have also posted a link to Georginas blog take “a dip in the deepend” you might label her a feminist, but that would just be lazy shorthand.

Constructive Deconstruction

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Bill Vaunghan said “if there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it’s another nonconformist who doesn’t conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity”. I have been thinking about my journey and how much easier it is to deconstruct ideas, situations and concepts than offer alternatives. I can be hard on people who don’t offer suggestions or new approaches. Maybe critism is just that and constructive critism is when suggestions for change are offered. Disillusionment and dissatisfaction are powerful tools for change, but can easily promote inertia. Time for more constructive deconstruction, me thinks!