Generalizations
The day when everyone made generalizations is over right? Wrong, besides the intended comedic irony in that statement, people still make generalizations. It's what we do to adapt to our environments. While not generalizing is better in the sense that we treat everyone fairly and cast no immediate judgment, it puts us at a disadvantage. What if companies assumed that everyone who bought their products read the owner's manual? What if girls assumed that all guys read their "signs" correctly? Let's not consider these possibilities, as they are frightening. I told a friend of mine that I generally misread "signs" from girls, and without hesitation, she turned to me, and said, "All guys do!" I agreed without taking offense. My generalization, a new theory of mine, however was not agreed upon. Perhaps it is the topic of another post, but here it is: All girls have a list of their friends for whom it is an injustice to not have boyfriends. I'll tell you where that comes from. I am the kind of guy that is perpetually single (for reasons you may have read about in previous posts), and yet have certain characteristics that make me a desirable mate (for someone else), so I often get hooked into these situations, where my friends' girlfriends want me to hook up with one of their friends. I developed this theory in response to this continuing trend, refusing to believe that I really would be the "second choice" of all of these girls. Apparently that theory is wrong, but I still hold to the fact that people still make generalizations, and as long as they are not hateful and diminutive, they are loving and uplifting. (Wait that was a cyclic argument, ah well...)

   [ posted by William @ 11:20 PM ]

Best Movie Ever
After I eat the Classic Chicken Sandwich from KFC, I declare that it is the best commercially available chicken burger. Then after I eat the Chubby Chicken Sandwich from A&W, I declare that it is the best commercially available chicken burger. I admit that sometimes my present circumstance alters my long-term perception, but I hope that is not the case now. I just watched the movie, "Remember the Titans" (thank you CBC). I realize that it is likely a white-washed version of the true story (no pun intended, who am I kidding, my puns are always intended), but it tugs at your heart strings, and this time, I let it tug at me. Here are my favourite lines, "You're hall of fame in my books," "I guess now we've met," and "Can't you see the family resemblance, this is my brother Julius." Add that to the body contact of a sports movie, and the awesome sound-track of a sixties movie. Sure you can find bad reviews for it, and people that disagree with me. I can also find good reviews for the two worst movies I have ever seen The Stalker and Master of Disguise. We all have our own favourites and comparing films across genres and eras, but as of right now, this is my favourite movie of all time. Ask me after seeing "Hot Shots", "No Man's Land", "Braveheart", or "Das Boot" and I might have a different answer.

   [ posted by William @ 9:08 PM ]

Family Ties
I talked to two of my sisters yesterday, two of the seven, and it got me thinking later about families, and mine in particular. Both sisters called me. The discussion included the regular updating each other on our lives, the talk of upcoming holidays together, and encouraging each other to visit. The thing that got me wondering though, was that they both, at one point, asked me a series of questions that they saw as being within my field of expertise. I think I gave them satisfactory answers, but they were hard questions, and I didn't see them coming. So what I was wondering, was, "Are my sisters that confident in me because they're my family and they know me really well, or is this the result of me trying hard to convince my family that I am in fact the smart one?" I love my family, and there aren't any siblings that I can't get along with, but I realize that not everyone feels that way about their families. Is it because our families know us too well? Is it because they represent our old selves, parts of us that we would like to shed? I don't know, but I do know that if I expect recognition for my "expertise", I have to be able to answer questions about them when they are asked.

   [ posted by William @ 10:23 AM ]

Now Reading: The Politics of Jesus John Howard Yoder
One thing I've noticed on other blogs, is that most posts generally fit into either a "This is What I'm Doing" or This is What I'm Thinking" category. I like to think that mine fit into the latter. One thing that the "Doing" group does from time to time, is keep their readers up to date on what they are listening to or reading. Although I don't wish to regale my readers with every mundane detail of my life, they do help to explain what I'm thinking or why I'm thinking it. I am encouraged to read deeper theology by my friends who do the same, and by those who think it's a natural fit for me. The reason that I generally don't, is that I'm afraid that it's not a natural fit for me. Stumbling through the first chapter, I struggle between not remembering what I just read, and not understanding what's in front of me. It is comforting of course to find that my colleagues also engaged in deeper theology prefer to read it with a dictionary and/or a Bible to accompany it. The excuse that I normally give, because I don't like saying that I'm not smart enough, is that by making faith too intellectual, one loses touch with the populace. I feel strongly that one's faith should be both simple enough for a child to understand, and yet complex enough that it withstands the intellectual processes of our own minds and the questions of others. I sometimes wonder if, since I've started University, I've focused too much on retaining the former and not trusted my capacity to do both naturally. These are points to ponder, I wonder what other people think. Upon completing this post, I realized it was scattered, for that reason, went back and italicized key points.

   [ posted by William @ 6:24 PM ]

Cavalier
I found myself saying that word the other day. Not talking about the car, but the adjective. I really like that word. "Carefree and nonchalant" says the dictionary. So maybe I should use the word more since I like it so much. Then again, maybe I should be the word more. Of course that brings up the whole "be yourself" motto and the contentment of self mantra that I so often preach, but being cavalier need not mean wreckless abandon. But then again, one definition of the adjective that I didn't post at the beginning, was "showing offhand or arrogant disregard". I don't want to show disregard to others, so perhaps I need to try to walk the fine line between "arrogant disgard" of others and over cautious lifestyle. But maybe I'm just sitting on the fence between walking the fine line and being lukewarm. Argh! The is the paradox of post-modern Christianity!

   [ posted by William @ 1:14 PM ]

Remembrance Day - This Mennonite's Perspective
In high school, I wasn't sure what to do around Remembrance Day, given my pacifist convictions. Upon entering University, and entering the intellectual Anabaptist setting as I did, the alternatives were made pretty clear. For a $1 donation to the MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) I was given a red pin, with the text, "To Remember is to Work for Peace". It was a statement that I agreed with, and still do, so I had no problem wearing the button. Some wore the button with their poppy, some, like me, wore it instead of a poppy.
Veterans
I have always been patriotic, and have been almost as interested in Canadian history as I have been of Mennonite history. Come Remembrance Day, I couldn't help but be sucked in by the tales of war told by our veterans. Listening to what the veterans said, their stories and their analysis of it all, I heard a common thread: "Never again!" These men know the cost of war better than anyone, more than I can learn from the Scriptures or by reading from textbooks. In many ways, they are bigger pacifists than I am.
War Memorials
Another thing that got me wondering this year was a visit to a particular war memorial. It wasn't one back home in Aylmer, or here in Waterloo, or one where I had some connection to the fallen, or even the pride-instilling national war memorial in Ottawa. It was in Munster, Germany. Partly wanting to take in the scenery and partly for the novelty of being there, I went for a random walk around the city, on a path that marked where the city walls once stood. I saw a monument of some kind, and as I approached it, I realized it was a war memorial. There were no distinct differences between the one in front of me and ones that I had seen all my life in Canada. It was clearer than ever, these soldiers died fighting bravely for God and country, left behind grieving mothers, wives and families as much as my Canadian departed soldiers had. If death is tragic when it's a soldier from a victorious army, it's even more tragic when it's a soldier from a losing army blindly following the commands of a dictator.
Poppies
Looking at the veterans selling poppies this year, I pictured them fighting, averting death, while their friends fell to the wayside. They were lucky enough to make it home, lucky enough to fight on the side of good. Remembrance Day isn't about glorifying war, and wearing a poppy doesn't label me as someone who does. I decided to wear a poppy this year, instead of the MCC button, for the first time since leaving high school, because the day is about remembering those who died at war, and the horrors endured by the ones who came back. Perhaps others saw it to mean something else, but this year, that was what seemed fitting to me.

   [ posted by William @ 10:20 PM ]

Poverty and Voting
I was talking to a girl recently, yes that does happen from time to time, and she said that based on my economic origins (having grown up semi-poor) she would have expected my political allegiances to have been with either the NDP or the Liberals. At first glance, her logic made sense, those who are most likely to take advantage of social services would naturally be more likely to support those politicians who are least likely to destroy the structure that administers those services. I justified to her my political allegiances, economic standing aside, with what I felt was a intellectual enough defense. But still I hadn't refuted her logic, which I knew to be fundamentally flawed, but I couldn't figure out why. Today, it hit me. Poor people don't want better social programs, they don't want to be helped like that, they just don't want to be poor anymore. Also, poor people are also the first ones to be disenchanted by political promises, tax hikes hurt them the most, and tax cuts benefit them the least. The first promises broken are the ones that were made to poor people. Poor people have no say, because money equals influence. People have accused me in the past of betraying my allegiances to the impoverished and disenfranchised because of my right wing political views, and this is not new to me. The truth is that you can never spend enough money helping the poor, healing the sick, etc. However, the best way to help the poor, and what they actually want of politicians, is to creative an environment in which they can end their poverty under their own terms.

   [ posted by William @ 4:03 PM ]

Problem solved, finally
A classic argument between men and women, is what to do with the toilet seat. Traditionally, men are accused of leaving the toilet seat up, while women want it left in the seat-down, lid-up position. Both parties want to do nothing when they leave the bathroom, which is the crux of the issue. The sticking point is that women also want to have to do nothing when they enter the bathroom. The fundamental difference is that women enter the bathroom with one option, to sit down, while the man enters the bathroom, with two options, to stand or to sit, depending on the call of nature that initiated the trip to the bathroom. Women don't want to have to touch the seat because of it's inherent uncleanliness. The other thing, unknown mostly to men, is that women also want the option to go into the bathroom in the dark and trust that the seat be down. Men don't even consider this, because they are used to adjusting the toilet to their bodily function at the time. A toilet has no natural position, and if it did, it would not be lid up, seat down. If this issue was about fairness, both parties would need to do equal work, but that's not the entire problem. The perfect solution, one that I have been exercising since I discovered it, is that after each use, both the seat and the lid of the toilet be returned to the down position. The solution is fair because both parties do work before and after the visit, it's clean because the women need only touch the sanitary lid and not the seat, and it's neat because the toilet looks better if it's always in the double-down position and it's reliable so that women walking into the bathroom in the dark know that the lid is always there or discover that with relative painlessness. Alas, the argument has been settled.

   [ posted by William @ 4:53 PM ]

A Hitch-hikers guide to ... Hitch-hiking
So I decided to try hitch-hiking. I made a sign saying where I was going, and how I wanted to get there, "401 to Kingston". It had three different fonts, and was on white cardboard, which I thought would greatly improve my odds of getting rides. Standing at the on-ramp to the Hwy. 8 South from Kitchener by Fairview Mall, I got picked up after probably two minutes of standing there. This guy gave me a ride to Mississauga Road. He gave me some advice as well, having been a hitch-hiker himself once upon a time. He said that I shouldn't be afraid to refuse rides. Things to watch for: Beer bottles, bongs, and weapons. Another guy gave me a ride another distance through the city and dropped me off, telling me to be careful and use my head. The next couple gave me a ride to Kennedy road in Scarborough. They reminisced about other hitch-hikers that they had picked up, and mentioned how the whole process could be a lot of fun. The man spoke with a bit of an accent, but was still comprehensible, while his wife, spoke with more of an accent and was quieter, so I didn't catch a word she said. Standing in Scarborough at 10:30am, after having started at 8:00, I felt I had made pretty good time. After standing by the on-ramp there for an hour, I was quite frustrated, and decided to walk to the next on-ramp and try my luck there. That on-ramp turned out to be at the Scarborough Town Centre where I stopped for lunch. I ate at London-style Fish & Chips. It was quite an authentic London, England experience. Very few white people working there, all speaking with bad English, and I walked away thinking I hadn't gotten enough for my money. Anyway, I picked up some cardboard along the way, and made another sign, because I had left my awesome sign in the first guy's car. Anyway, standing at the on-ramp for an hour and a half, and getting no rides, I eventually gave up, went to the bus terminal at Scarborough Town Centre and bought a bus ticket to Kingston. What was supposed to be a free trip to Kingston turned out to only be a slightly cheaper than normal trip to Kingston. Next time, I'll remember not to try to hitch-hike out of the city, only through it. Heck, if I was driving out of Scarborough, I might not pick up any hitch-hikers either, they'd probably be from Scarborough. The lesson I learned on the trip, was one that I knew all along, people from the city are less-trusting. I was surprised by the success of hitch-hiking up to that point though. I'll likely do it again.

   [ posted by William @ 4:26 PM ]

Looming NHL work stoppage
It's no secret to the astute hockey fan that next season is in jeopardy because of the upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement talks. I'm kinda tired of sitting idly by while bigwigs make decisions about my favourite league. The fans are left out of the talks entirely, and too often, their needs are ignored by those involved.
What we need to do, is to put together some kind of co-operative of fans, that would send a representative into these talks. I propose that the representative be me. What we need is a lot of people and money to make our presence known, and someone to give me a brush up on the legal make-up of this type of agreement. Thanks for your support.

   [ posted by William @ 11:36 PM ]