One Liners

 

 

A few years ago, the phrase 'sound bytes' was originated. It refers to short bursts of information, a type of communication that seemed to be the only way to convey information effectively because of the shortening of attention spans.

My observation is that this problem of shortened attention span is increasing, for a variety of reasons. It started in large part, when we strayed from reading, to watching TV. The newspapers of years ago had lengthy articles and in depth research, so that the reader was well informed. The TV reduced the amount of time spent reading a book or a newspaper because it condensed all the facts into a 2 minute story.

Then the internet and easy access to information of all kinds shortened the time even further and often only headlines were or are read. The internet spawned the iPhone where information was at our fingertips any where and any time. What followed was texting and tweeting where the information bytes were reduced in size even more. The texts because people did not bother with the awkward keying in of letters on the text or were limited to a certain amount of characters on a tweet.

I have spent enough time on Facebook now to see it happening there too. It has taken the form of posters or graphic one liners. Someone shares a cute or funny or profound poster and it hits the timeline of everyone of their friends. It gets shared and re-posted and soon goes viral. It is a short-cut of communication that, on the surface, lets our 'friends' know what we like, how we feel, and what we are thinking.

Many of these posters are good, some are bad, and some just need to be challenged. When I see and read one, unless it is brainless and just funny, I think about it and if it I think it needs to be challenged, I will challenge it. This is difficult for some people to handle, but if you put something out there with your name on it, you should be willing and able to stand behind it.

I have been accused of 'phishing', I have been challenged for challenging, and I have been unfriended for challenging. It seems that very few people want meaningful dialogue on Facebook.

I am always very careful to never get personal in my challenges, but only challenge the statement made in the poster. However, if you chose to put the poster on your timeline, it becomes personal and so the challenge takes on the appearance of a challenge against your person.

What I am trying to do is to get people to think about what they let others say for them, and also to create some meaningful and helpful dialogue.

The poster above is one that I challenged recently and the person who posted it defended it by reading something into it that I had not thought of. I like that. What I challenged was the hypocrisy of Isaac Asimov by putting down those where not intellectually elite like he deemed himself to be. To me, he was implying that democracy was not safe in the hands of the ignorant masses but leadership should be left to those who were intellectual. That is dangerous ground to stand on.

The poster below, shows even better where Mr. Asimov stands. He is assuming, by his statement, that he and his ilk are the only ones who know how to properly read the Bible. Talk about intellectual superiority and arrogance! I like his ability to write science fiction and he should have stuck to that.

Not Again!?

I recently wrote about the car that bumped the side of the bank and the reaction of emergency services that resulted. The blame lies both on the respondents and the 911 caller. How often have we heard about the 'bomb squad' being called out because of a mysterious package which in reality was a left over sandwich in a brown bag?

This morning we read about the latest incident of this nature. It happened in Saskatoon where the city police responded to a 911 call regarding guns in a vehicle. It was a family, mom, dad, three kids and a friend, on a trip to the mall. They were stopped, the parents were forced face down on the ground, and the kids were traumatized with the cops guns being pointed at them. As it turned out, the kids had a toy gun, an over sized white, orange and green dart gun.

The 911 caller should be taken to task, perhaps given a crash course in what a real gun looks like. The cops could have used a bit more discretion too. Incidents like this are another reason for us to mistrust the judicial system. Everything is an overreaction, another example being the delays in charging any Vancouver Hockey rioters.

If this kind of thinking is a result of the Sept. 11 attacks, which we just recently memorialized, and I think in large part it is, then perhaps it is time to put that tragedy behind us and move on instead of letting it slowly erode our common sense and our freedoms. Ten years of remembering is perhaps enough and maybe next year there could be a huge celebration to announce that we are now taking a new direction. We are no longer going to let paranoia rule our lives. There is no way to eliminate all risks at all times, but instead we will move forward with confidence and common sense. Don't worry. It will never fly.   

MCC Follow-up

What do you do when the local newspaper makes a liar out of you? I read that the proceeds from the sale were just over $600,000.00 which was short of the goal. But then there was a paragraph on the symbolic loaf of bread, which, they said, sold for $100,000.00. Just a minute. I was there. I witnessed the bidding and final offer of $2000.00! There can only be one explanaition for this.

At the sale, there a number of booths where one can simply donate money to MCC with cash or cheque. Perhaps they total all these donations and put them under the 'loaf of bread receipts'. If this is the case, then the announcement of the auction price is very misleading. The way they play it up, it sounds like one person bid the large amount and paid, out of his pocket, the total sum. That would indeed be one very generous person.

Menno is my Homeboy

The famous MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) sale was this past weekend and for the fourth time in my life, I attended. There are very few changes over the years, but there are some: The people you meet from your past are much older looking. The venue. They now sell Sushi, although what that stuff is doing at a traditional Mennonite event is beyond me.

Pretty much everything else stays the same. For those who are not familiar with this event, or are, but have never gone, this is the deal. First off, you buy your food tickets because food is king at the MCC sale. You then line up for the sausage and pancake breakfast. With Aunt Jemima syrup running off your Styrofoam plate, you find someone you know at the endless rows of tables and chairs and join them for breakfast. It will be somebody you have not seen for many years but have some sort of connection with through a church you once attended.

After the last gulp of so-so coffee, you start wandering. With one eye on the booths and their wares, and the other eye on the lookout for familiar faces, you do the rounds. The rows and rows of food booths can take a back seat now that the pancakes are digesting, and you look for the quilts. At least that is what we did because busylizzy is into quilting. Even a novice has to admit that the quilts are amazing! At this point, you part company with your spouse because she knows a whole set of people from her past that you do not know, and vice versa. It is just more efficient that way.

I wandered to the Auction area and watched the proceeding there for while. There are boats, cars, and three brand new RVs this year all sold at auction. Something I saw at the auction shocked me. They start the proceedings off by selling a loaf of bread to the highest bidder. Of course, it is a donation and the bread is only symbolic. In past years, this loaf has sold for $100,000.00 to $200,000.00. With the economy being down, I was really curious to see how much this loaf would fetch this year. The bidding bogged down at a mere $2,000.00 and that was the final offer. This is unprecedented and does not bode well for the lofty goal of raising at least $700,000.00 at the sale for this year. It also says a lot about the financial well being of our community, or maybe just the fear of letting go of money in a bad economy. There were few bidders and the prices on all the items were very low. It was getting depressing so I began to wander again.

There was no shortage of familiar faces. I could not walk a few yards without making eye contact and then saying hi, or stopping to chat. I even picked up some business when I bumped into an old client from 10 years ago. I spoke with the 92 year old pastor who married busylizzy and myself 41 years ago.  He was so thrilled to see that we were still married. Isn't that a sign of the times? 

We then decided on what to have for lunch. Because we eat all the traditional 'Menno foods' at home, the usual fare did not appeal to us so I had a Bison Burger heaped with fried onions. We found a retired pastor couple from our church and ate with them and what ensued was an interesting conversation regarding their recent trip to Peru. A bit more wandering and meeting and greeting and then back home to get on with our day. 

In the next few days, we will hear how much money was raised for HIV/AIDS as well as clean water wells, all for Africa. I sincerely hope they reach their goal, but it will surprise me. We usually leave a big donation, but because my work situation has been abysmal this year, we too are being careful. If we are typical of the average attendee, there will be a downturn. Let's hope not. 

busylizzy's mom and dad together with Reverend Erwin Cornelson, the pastor who married us. He crafts beautiful wooden dishes and busylizzy purchased a bread plate. He tells us it will be his last MCC sale. If my mind is half as sharp as his when and if I attain his age of 92, I will be thrilled. (And will still be blogging) 

We actually had two pastors marry us, and the lady on the left is the wife of the other one, together with two of her daughters.

Here is me with a real 'find'. This woman, together with her now deceased husband, were witnesses at the signing ceremony of our wedding 41 years ago. She also happens to be one of our neighbours in Oroville.

     

Faces of Multi-Culturalism

Our economy has an agricultural base. The first to farm our valley were Japanese and Mennonite immigrants. Today, there is a healthy mix with Dutch and East Indians adding to the soup pot.

 The Scots do not have a corner on bagpipes, but you could say that they are primarily responsible. They seem appropriate in a parade.

This fellow seemed a bit eccentric but was having fun and was entertaining the crowd as he rode his bicycle with hands only for juggling the hackey sacks.

Medieval games seem to be attractive enough to start a club.

Three miles of sword play and jousting is a thirsty business.

Minus the flag, this is a very typical sight in our town.

I don't think this is the typical 'Wendy' that Dave Thomas had in mind when he first started this hamburger franchise.

What is a parade without First Nations representation? I would give recognition to this particular band but my keyboard does not have the right characters to spell it the correct way. It was nice to see the elder riding on the 'float' and the young men and women doing all the dancing.

Bollywood comes to the Canada Day Parade.