Enchantment
Many are talking about entitlement. It has become the recognized sin of our time. A provincial premier uses taxpayer’s money for expensive airfare and the media speaks of an environment of entitlement within the government. The Boomer generation feels entitled to an affluent retirement after years of hard work. The Millennial generation feels entitled to…
Continue readingWhat Is It That Makes Music Good?
My friend, Malcolm McMillan, who is also a worship pastor at our church, sent me this message on Facebook. Hey everyone, I am giving a guest lecture to a Bible College class in February about art and the nature of beauty, and I could use your help. My talk is supposed to focus on music…
Continue readingLove, Emotions, and Fidelity
Inspiration for blog entries comes from personal experiences, community or world events, and emotional responses to all of the above. A muse may be uplifting or discouraging but the writer is responsible for the wisdom and encouragement that the experience creates. This entry has a number of influences contributing to the lessons learned. Love, in…
Continue readingFollow-Up to Passing Judgement
The love of those things that are outside Christianity keeps me outside the church. – Simone Weil as quoted in Duncan, David James. The Brothers K. New York: Random House, Inc., 2005.
Continue readingFollow-up to Home
Two days ago I posted the latest Key of Zed song on this blog. “Home” is a song that captures three impressions of the concept of home. When we use the word “home” it can mean a number of different things. For many of us that grew up in a good family, “home” can be…
Continue readingHome
Home(Lyrics and Music by Mike Charko and Keith Shields – SOCAN 2013)(Click here to listen while reading the lyrics) Home HomeHomeHome Follow this lane to the clothes on the line The garden, the trees, and the hills that we’d walkThe buzzing of summer, the ponds, and the hayBlossom of thistle, and sweet evening…
Continue readingA Good Wife
My wife and I celebrated Valentine’s Day with a group of friends last night. We had a chocolate tasting at Xoxolat (pronounced shṓ-shṓ-lặ). Who knew there were 400 notes of flavour in chocolate? Following this we walked down the street to enjoy delicious curries at Atithi Restaurant. During the course of the evening we men…
Continue readingMessage in a Bottle
I saw a news story about a message in a bottle that had travelled approximately 4000 km from Gaspe, Quebec to East Passage, Ireland. The message, stuffed into a two litre plastic pop bottle had survived at sea for eight years and then been found by a nine year old boy. The girls who had…
Continue reading
Marriage and the Census
Let me express my bias from the beginning. I am a hopeless romantic who believes in the love of one man for one woman for as long as both shall live. On October 2nd my wife and I celebrated our 33rd anniversary of dating. We have now been married 31 years and in that time…
Continue readingThe Tin Man and Oz
“But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man that he didn’t, didn’t already have. . . . So please believe in me. . .” (“Tin Man” by America; written in 1974 by Dewey Bunnell.) The Tin Man is a fictional character in the American fairy-tale, The Wizard of Oz. The Tin Man is…
Continue reading