Uncategorized

Amazing how the small things of life become great talking points.

Where have all the trick-or-treaters gone?

Yesterday I was in a group of people after a choir practice.  We were all comparing those who came to the door.  For Halloween.

One related how a few years ago they had well over 100.  Another said they lived in an apartment and had no one.  We had 19.  Others not many more.  Another mentioned that they were on the other side of the street from a home where “full” chocolate bars were handed out – thus their home was missed.

Not to complain – but I bought lots of candy.

And I don’t need to be eating all of it (although I’m sure a little can’t hurt!).

Administrators tend to think bigger. 

That’s vision.  That’s moving ahead.  That’s progress.

To think bigger is to plan for bigger.  To plan for bigger is to upset the apple cart, or perhaps more rightly, to put new tires on a larger box.

Then I ask myself how we got bigger, or at least why we have grown to this point. 

And the question arises, is the smaller what we build on to get bigger? 

The idea that understanding the great movement we have been a part of, that we would like to invite others into, that has been a great thing up until this point – is where we should start to figure out bigger.

Go back to go forward.

And perhaps in engaging in the excitement of the past, we will trust that the structure to hold the organism will be forthcoming.  If we merely borrow someone else’s infrastructure, we may eliminate the very thing that makes for growth.

Be sure you know where you came from to get where you want to go.

Is there ever a time when we do not censor?

As a Master’s of Library Science grad, I remember the discussions on censorship.  All intellectual property should be available to all.  We harm people by not exposing them to the full orb of knowledge.  Knowledge is power.

The decades following brought variant views (not all of them worth listening to).  Here are some of the many thought lines you can follow.

Knowledge is not power, transformation is (thus we seek our inner self to gain an understanding that leads to who we truly are). 

A collections policy for a library is censorship (you can’t have it all, so choose the information that will socialize them to the current culture you want to see promoted).

Even the publishing of books is subject to censorship.  A publishing company designs what will be there theme.  The Canadian Government will no longer do Cataloguing in Publication for self published authors (oops, that should be authours).

Why do we fight censorship?  Most often because our point of view is assailed, assaulted or set aside by censors.  Oppression appears everywhere and we are not willing to be set aside or dismissed.

And the war goes on – all of us looking to promote our truths.

Who says truth is dead?  Censorship proves that the pursuit of truth is alive and well.

So, I’m sitting in the midst of a group of us at our local seniors home.  The session is a devotional by one of our local clergy.

He holds his hands to his ears and says:

What do you get when you put your two ears together?  A heart.

What is in the middle of the word heart?  Ear.

What a great illustration of the need to listen to other people.