The Lonely God

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There’s an old adage that goes something like this; a work of art is never finished, only abandoned. This has been attributed to many different writers and poets, including W.H. Auden and Gore Vidal to name just two. After some research, it seems that the first published instance of this statement appeared in March 1933, in an essay by the French poet, Paul Valéry. He wrote:      “Aux yeux de ces amateurs d’inquiétude et de perfection, un ouvrage n’est jamais achevé, – mot qui pour eux n’a aucun sens, – mais abandonné” or, if you prefer the English,      “In the eyes …

How Ghosts Could Be Real

Brain Farts / SuggestionsLeave a comment

Let me ask you a serious question. Do you believe in ghosts? Before I continue, let me put my proverbial cards on the table and say that I do not believe in ghosts, certainly not in the sense that they are the wandering souls of the departed. Last night, however, I found myself thinking that perhaps there is a logical explanation, other than “it’s your imagination,” for the existence of ghosts, spirits, and other supernatural entities. We’re all familiar with the concept of “bugs” in the computer programs we use, glitches that crop up from time to time with unexpected …

A No BS Guide to Getting Rid of Your Back Pain!

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Let’s start with my tragic backstory. I suffered with crippling back pain for more than twenty years. I’m talking about being out on my back, unable to drive, barely able to walk, or work. I spent every moment trying to deal with the pain while doing my best to lead something resembling a normal life. Sometimes, I’d spend a few days in bed loaded up with painkillers and muscle relaxing drugs to get rid of it. Every few weeks, or, if I were lucky, months, my back would go out, and the entire process would start all over again. In …

We Need to Stop Talking About Government Debt

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The Ontario government, in its most recent budget, warned of deficits for the next 10 years. So what? Why are we still talking about deficits? Granted, it’s a pervasive myth, as myths go, but it’s high time for concepts like government deficits (or GDP, for that matter) to be retired for something more meaningful. The first mistake is to assume that an economically sovereign country’s budget (i.e. Canada, or the US) is anything like your personal household budget. It’s not. The “national debt” is just a measure, over time, of how much money the government put into the economy (health …

Our Botched Pandemic Dress Rehearsal

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Here’s a cheery Saturday thought for you all, as you line up for your vaccine, or breathe a sigh of relief that you’ve at least got your first dose of Moderna, Pfeizer, or Astra Zeneca. Now, you can sit back, worry less, and wait for the booster shot. At least you won’t wind up in the hospital on a ventilator. Hold that optimism for a moment though, but don’t throw it away because you’re going to need it. You see, COVID-19 is, as pandemics go, a relatively benign pandemic, despite the staggering economic cost, despite more than 3 million deaths …

Where Has God Gone? US Church Membership Plummets.

Religion & Atheism / UncategorizedLeave a comment

Yesterday, as I write this, anyhow, a friend popped up in chat and said the following. “Looking at the posting regarding the drop in church membership. I noticed that The highest rate of decline took place from 2010 – 2020. I think that many good folks said goodbye to the church because of the evangelical support for Trump. It was for many, the last straw. It would be interesting to see the statistics from 2015 – 2020. The unholy trinity of Trump, Franklin Graham, and the Falwells & Pool Boy.” He was referring to reports, like this one from The …

You Are Your Avatar. Sort of.

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On our lunchtime walk, Sally and I were discussing so-called “Zoom fatigue” and how some people just would rather not turn on their cameras. The result are people who follow protocol (as opposed to hard and fast rules) and they then experience a heightened level of fatigue because they are unable to properly (intuitively?) feel the conversation. If anything, there’s additional pressure because the people on camera get no visual feedback from those initials staring back at them on the screen. This is normal and it is, frankly, human nature. We look for visual cues when we’re in a face-to-face …

Heroes Like You

Brain Farts / LifeLeave a comment

It seems so cliche to say it, but these are difficult times and 2020 has been one difficult time after another. Rather than provide a laundry list, I’ll let you fill those blanks in for yourself. Even as you try to ‘fight the good fight‘, it starts to seem hopeless and you may even find yourself questioning whether there’s any point in trying. It’s good to step back and consider that there always needs to be an island of sanity in the raging sea of madness. Sometimes, it just seems so hopeless and you become convinced that the bad guys …

The True Story of Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer

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You know Dasher and Dancer, and Prancer and Vixen. You also know about Comet, and Cupid, and Donder and Blitzen, but nobody really cares about any of those others, even Olive (the other reindeer). The only reindeer anyone cares about is Rudolph. You may not know the actual and honest-to-goodness true story of Rudolph, but lucky for you, I am here to tell you. So, sit back, gather your kids, hug your Christmas tree, light a fire in the fireplace, and enjoy the true story of Rudolph.

Money Has Officially Jumped The Shark

COVID-19 / Life / OpinionLeave a comment

One of the hard truths of our world is that money is really just a collective fantasy that only works because we’re all in on the game. There’s an expression, “suspension of disbelief,” that is usually reserved for written works of fiction, movies, or television shows, where the person enjoying the fiction is willing to temporarily accept the fictional premise as real for the same of entertainment. If you pause in the middle of a show (let’s use Game of Thrones” for fun) and you decide to note every place where this or that can’t possibly be real or make …

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