a w a k e : t o : d r e a m

Here’s my soapbox issue of the day:

Can we PLEASE, please get rid of the phrase, “the war on…” no matter what conflict it refers to? Can we just say, “the challenge to…” or “the disagreement about”? Can we please, please stop turning every hot-button issue into a slogan-machine so that more people can stick a bumper sticker on their car (or for that matter, around their wrist) and so that the backers of the issue can politicize it ever more?

The reason I rant about this is the recent release of a book, The War On Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday is Worse Than You Thought by John Gibson of FoxNews. First of all, how does Christmas have anything to do with making America hate liberals, I ask you?? Where is there room for polarized sabre-rattling like that at Christmastime? I agree that sometimes the PC machine goes too far and people try far too hard to “not offend” anybody by saying Christmas (gasp) when not everyone is a Christian, but come on.

“Advent,” as I was admonished this weekend on the radio, “is a season of waiting.” I happened to catch a piece of the news on Sunday morning - the morning after the deadline passed to release the four workers from Christian Peacemaker Teams held hostage in Iraq - which included an interview with the director of CPT in Canada, talking about how the parents of the Canadian hostages from CPT were doing. He said (approximately), “About the only thing keeping them going right now is their faith. They’re aware of the irony - Advent is a season of waiting, awaiting the birth of Christ, and for them, awaiting news…”

“Israel!” “…officials.” “President.” Pretty much sums up the most used words on our planet, doesn’t it? Really?
What about “Iraq” at #5, “suicide” at #27…. or weapons, bombs, talks, uk or future? What are the words and pictures that define our times? These words are from 10 X 10, a web applet that gathers the top 100 words and pics from Reuters World News, BBC World Edition, and the New York Times International News.
I may possibly be the last one in the blogosphere to actually find this thing, but my question is this: What are the words and pictures that should define our times?

I was sad to find that I couldn’t think of any really huge accomplishments that happened this year - only tragic stories of loss, earthquakes, hurricaines, floods, bombings and deaths - that fit with this theme. Still, they happened. And we survived.

What pictures touched us this year? For me, video footage of that luxury resort in Indonesia that was swamped with water several stories above the pool as it carried hotel guests out to sea, both from the tsunami disaster around New Years’ 2004. That famous photo of the tipped over double-decker bus in london on July 7 as a result of the subway bombings. In the summer, Live 8 was everywhere - and if you owned an iPod, followed politics or listened to music, so was this guy:

What images will 2006 bring? I’m hoping for one of these:

It’s a sad day for the faith blogosphere. The Bruderhof (”place of brothers”) is a group of Christian believers living in communities across the eastern US, England, Europe and Australia. I have been a devoted reader of their on-line Daily Dig, a thoughtful digest of philosophical, religious and ethical musings, which linked to their website which contained e-books, essays, feedback and more. I really admired the Bruderhof for their ethical and conscientious online presence, and their coura+ge to question their society, their government, and even their own policies in an honest and respectful way.

Yesterday subscribers to the Daily Dig received, without warning, our last Daily Dig:

“The work is more important than the talking and the writing about the work.” - Dorothy Day

“There have been enough words, enough sermons and books. What matters now is deeds.” - Emmy Arnold

Dear Reader:

We will no longer be publishing online, so this will be your last Daily Dig. This is only the beginning, not the end. We want to thank you for your friendship over the years, and look forward to meeting you face to face. Now the real contact can begin. We welcome you to drop by any of our communities any time to join us in our daily life and work.

Unlike all of the previous Daily Digs, it was lacking in its customary link to the Bruderhof website (usually a link to a relevant article in their collection based on the topic of the Dig). Surprised, I looked up the bruderhof website. Gone. Replaced with basic, land-based contact information, and no e-mail address.

I received a comment today from someone who started a website to Bring Back Bruderhof to the internet. If you out there have been moved by the presence of the bruderhof on the internet, take a second to visit this website to let them know. It is being run by an independent person who has stated that he will compile the comments left and send it to them by surface mail (apparently they aren’t answering e-mail anymore either) so the bruderhof can see what a presence they’ve had in our lives. Another thought would be for all of those of us who where touched by their work to send them a postcard from your area, telling them briefly how their work touched you, so they can see how wide their ministry was.

I am worried that this decision was made as a result of past troubles the bruderhof have had with former members and the media. I’ve noticed that wherever there are communities of people who live in true community, sharing everything and serving all, they are viewed as strange. I am sure that the Bruderhof as a community are not perfect, but the fruit of their ministry was a true, living and compassionate discipleship that inspired many. This is such a loss.

My residents (three of whom are American) gleefully informed me of a recent news story (I can’t believe I didn’t hear of it first given my news addiction) about a local case to indict President George W Bush under the Canadian War Crimes Act for war crimes regarding his actions as the leader of a country who invaded Iraq, and more specifically, perpetrated torture against prisoners of that war, including Ontario teenager Omar Khadr.

A group of B.C. lawyers who want U.S. President George W. Bush put on trial for allegedly torturing thousands if not tens of thousands of those ghostly detainees in the war on terror was in B.C. Supreme Court Friday to argue its case. The federal government, however, argued the allegations were being made in the wrong jurisdiction and that such a prosecution must be approved by Canadian Attorney-General Irwin Cotler. The Crown says the case involves a non-citizen being accused of crimes committed outside Canada who was visiting the country as a guest of the government.

From an editorial by Ian Mulgrew, The Vancouver Sun, Nov. 27th, 2005.

I’ve always thought that a great way to make a political point is to arrest the duly (well, sort of) elected leader of a sovereign country! What are they thinking? Furthermore, Mulgrew goes on to say that Davidson, the non-practicing family lawyer who presented the brief was unprepared and inexperienced in these matters… I’m disappointed that they (Toronto legal group Lawyers Against the War (LAW)) didn’t do their homework, for starters, but also that they didn’t find a more credible person to write and present the brief - if you’re going to make a point, then make it in a way that lends credibility to your cause, not removes it!

Interestingly, if you search for it, the majority of links you will find to this issue will have to do with urban legends and internet hoaxes than actual hard news - because of an existing publication ban declared by the first judge who heard the case, Provincial Court Justice William Kitchen. It occurs to me that only in Canada could this even occur: an inexperienced lawyer from a different specialty launches an indictment as a private citizen against a world leader… and we hear nothing about it because of our tradition of publication bans on court procedings.

Beautiful. I like the way our country works sometimes.

There is perhaps nothing we modern people need more than to be genuinely shaken up. Where life is firm we need to sense its firmness; and where it is unstable and uncertain and has no basis, no foundation, we need to know this too and endure it. We need to recognize that we have stood on this earth in false pathos, in false security, in spiritual insanity.

For this is the message of Advent: faced with him who is the Last, the world will begin to shake. Only when we do not cling to false securities will our eyes be able to see this Last One and get to the bottom of things. Only then will we be able to guard our life from the frights and terrors into which God the Lord has let the world sink to teach us, so that we may awaken from sleep, as Paul says, and see that it is time to repent, time to change things.

From “Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas”

…it’s really true, I swear. By way of evidence, I should tell you that Melbourne is sadly lacking in internets. Yes, it’s true - the internets fairy has neglected to sprinkle a fair share of them on this lovely cosmopolitan city, leaving it dull, gray and uninspired in that regard. I am currently sitting in a Gloria Jeans (a tastier Aussie version of Starbucks) on Puckle Street, enjoying that local delicacy known as “raisin toast,” stealing “Belkin54g”’s internet from underneath his/her nose. Internet costs $8 for 15 minutes from Telstra (aka Telus) in any McDonalds or Starbucks, and most don’t have any sort of broadband in their houses. What is the deal, people?! Hence, this update is a week late.

After settling at the Friendly Group Greenhouse Backpacker hostel in Melbourne, I seriously reconsidered my idea of just living in a hostel the whole time. Not only is it quite expensive, but messy, disorganized, and very difficult to concentrate. Within days of my stay there, the only lift up to the main floor (where the main lifts are to the dorm floors) which is operated by the Melbourne police service office on the ground floor of the hostel building, broke down. Much as I love being carried around by cute, strapping Aussie police officers, I’d much rather come and go as I please from my place of residence.

Second hazard of living in the CBD? It is far, FAR too easy to waste one’s time buying fashionable but expensive clothes and eating and drinking fashionable and expensive food and drink. Seriously - I have no idea how I would get any work done living in such a place. For those who don’t know about Melbourne, you should. It is the fashion, culture and sporting capital of Australia - and well, it just as well should be the real capital of the country except that moving the politicos over from boring Canberra would probably ruin this amazingly cosmopolitan and industrious city.