Running about

There is a growing platoon of neighbourhood boys that play with plastic guns and assault rifles that are as big as them in some cases. They run around with very serious looks on their faces shrieking at each other and strategizing behind garden gates. I had to interrupt them yesterday because they had started storing their weaponry in my basement window well and set up a cardboard hiding place, which I would have admired except they kept bashing into the window and I feared for the glass.

Once I drove by and one of them pointed his gun at me and mimed pulling the trigger. I stuck my tongue out and lolled my head as I drove by. I shouldn't have. It was much to his satisfaction but the whole thing was really quite distressing. I don't think children should be encouraged (or, if they were my kids, allowed) to point weapons at people. If they must fire things, fire them at inanimate objects. These kids are completely clueless about real guns, real violence, real death, because they live in a safe middle-class neighbourhood. They have no fear of a passerby or police officer thinking their guns are real and responding with a real weapon. I notice these things since I started following a diversity of people on Twitter. It's serving to broaden my mind. One can only hope those boys are learning social skills, or strategy, or something. At least they're outside running about, I suppose.

I have also been doing a lot of running about lately (without weaponry except for my razor sharp wit). I organized a Community Sale at my church (so called because evidently there is no Canadian word for Fete.) It was a success, and we raised more than I expected for MCC's humanitarian and peace-building work in Iraq (off-setting the guns and machetes there, although those terrorists do very much test one's commitment to non-violence.) So now that's done I'm back to self-promotion in an effort to get myself properly and usefully employed. Onwards Christian...oh. Just Christian. Onwards, Christian!

I've been thinking through more ideas to write about - I want to say more about emotion and theology being integrated, not disconnected. I also have more to say about hospitality and solitude being connected, especially for those on the margins who need the provision of a safe space for solitude. It's hard right now for me to figure out what counts as 'productive' for job-hunting/discernment and how 'productive' I ought to be in a day - can I take an hour to walk to the shops instead of drive? that's good for exercise and mental health but does chip into my online researching time. Can I blog or is that wasting time? How many episodes of Psych is too many in one day? If I work at a coffee shop I'm interacting with other humans (good) but also spending $3 on a drink I could get for free at home (bad), etc etc. - as well as which things I'm genuinely passionate about and which I'm developing because they're bankable skills or topics. It can be a little paralyzing. So I take it a day at a time, make up my own rules, and try not to overthink (ha!)

But really mostly the answer is to just get on and do things, and not have too much of a 'scarcity' mentality. That's the key, it seems to me. The key to faith and life in general. I can be a warrior without carrying a weapon.

available here :)