Bad Dreams Are Good

Joni Mitchell -- Bad Dreams The cats are in the flower bed A red hawk rides the sky I guess I should be happy Just to be alive... But we have poisoned everything And oblivious to it all The cell phone zombies babble Through the shopping malls While condors fall from Indian skies Whales beach and die in sand... Bad dreams are good In the great plan. You cannot be trusted Do you even know you're lying It's dangerous to kid yourself You go deaf and dumb and blind. You take with such entitlement. You give bad attitude. You have no grace No empathy No gratitude You have no sense of consequence Oh my head is in my hands... Bad dreams are good In the great plan. Before that altering apple We were one with everything No sense of self and other No self-consciousness. But now we have to grapple With our man-made world backfiring Keeping one eye on our brother's deadly selfishness. And everyone's a victim! Nobody's hands are clean. There's so very little left of wild Eden Earth So near the jaws of our machines. We live in these electric scabs. These lesions once were lakes. No one knows how to shoulder the blame Or learn from past mistakes... So who will come to save the day? Mighty Mouse? Superman? Bad dreams are good in the great plan.

Carpooling

Could we do this in Calgary, if we got some heavy-duty snow tires?

Windows In Edinburgh et al

Today's food for thought: Windows in Edinburgh. Good news for old windows, potentially. Oh to live in a house with old windows. Might sound like an odd thing, but after reading a blog about the joys and trials of counter-weighted windows, I've gained a great appreciation for them. Also, any intrepid blog readers out there want to offer advice on power adapters/converters for laptops? With Denmark looming up in the distance, we need to invest in something that will make European 220 volts into 110 volts that my lappy can use. Do we need an adapter? a converter? both? And where's the best place to get this doohickey? Having a frustrating and not-so-proactive afternoon, so we pulled out the album Camino by Oliver Schroer. Schroer came recommended to me by my cousin G, and he was just the thing for this afternoon. Thoughtful and provocative, introspective without lulling us to sleep. Just that much different from "normal" classical violin music to require us to lean in and listen more carefully. There's no real good videos on youtube or I would attach one, but you could listen to clips on Schroer's website, or order an album. Last night for supper we made Smoked Salmon Bisque. It was incredibly tasty. We didn't have Old Bay Seasoning, like it called for, but I looked it up on wikipedia and made my own version. Mustard, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, celery salt, bay leaf...what could be better? Finally, we went to Avenue Diner on Stephen Avenue this morning with E&B. If you haven't been there, I highly recommend it. Great food, great ambience, cheerful and kind staff. A great way to start off the day (with two of our favourite people!).

Just a coupla things

We're off to Lacombe for the weekend, to run some errands and, more importantly, spend some long overdue quality time with family.

Just a couple of things then before we go:

Today's Calvin and Hobbes: interesting in light of so many things going on today. Rice shortages everywhere--including here in Calgary. The price of basmati rice has almost doubled in our Co-op, and there was little of it to be had. Have you noticed this too, Rach and Trev? I've heard that a lot of the food shortages in the world are because of 1) the new production of biodiesel (which is controversial in its own right) and 2) the loss of farmland in general. As my brother Karl is fond of lecturing us, don't complain about farmers with your mouth full.

Also, strange weather occuring all through North America. Major flooding, tornadoes where they don't normally occur. Like it or not, the climate is changing.

Call me a tree-hugger if you wish, but I think we all need to be very mindful of our use (and misuse) of green space and of our society's overwhelming force of consumerism. Brent and I are of the opinion that experiences are more important to life than "stuff." Of course, this doesn't always work. We need a vehicle that runs. And, because we live in North America, one set of clothes just isn't socially acceptable. But you know what are fun? Hand-me-downs. I just got a couple of shirts from a friend. I really like hand-me-downs. New-to-me and already broken in in. (Although as a kid, they were not so much a treat).

These are my thoughts for today. Anyone want to add or disagree?

Finally, a webcam in London for your viewing pleasure. Thirteen days til we go...

Earth Hour again

Tomorrow night at eight o'clock is Earth Hour--eight o'clock everywhere--so interested Koreans, Brits, Ontarians, British Columbias, everyone can participate.

I figured energy crazed and dependent Calgary would be the last to join, but even here Calgary aldermen have voted to turn off non-essential lighting for the hour.

Obviously this is just a symbolic action representing a much larger issue of stewardship. And on that note, stewardship is a thoroughly Christian concern, and thus, something that we can stalwartly stand by our non-Christian peers in support of.

As our pastor commented,

In the context of Easter, knowing that God's dream is not just to save individuals from sin, but the redemption of the created order, this is very timely.

We as Christians can, I believe, do much better as stewards of our planet. (I know of one person who gave up electiricity for Lent. I guess one hour is doable, hey?....)

Here's some Calgary-specific information about it:
Calgary "how-to"

More general how-to

And country-wide news about it:
CTV

As for us, I think we will go to Nose Hill for a walk and look at the stars.

More on Earth Hour

Check this out: http://www.cbc.ca/cp/science/080219/g021906A.html I don't care if you think that global warming is a naturally-occurring phenomenon or if you think we humans are causing it. The fact of the matter is that we are a horribly wasteful society. It goes against the Bible, because God wants us to be good stewards of the earth. And it's just plain silly, wasting the resources of the earth so that future generations have to deal with our garbage and the loss of integral parts of the world, like wildlife and open space and clean air. So, don't take this movement as a personal affront, or as a tiresome overreacting environmentalist movement, take it as an opportunity to be mindful of the amount of electricity you use in a single hour. And if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, go read this previous blog.

Earth Hour 2008

I'm in. Are you? Why not?