Cultures – James Robert Kitson

Taste of the Danforth 2014

It’s late Sunday afternoon and I’m taking in the tail end of the Taste of the Danforth, an annual weekend street festival in Toronto, with an emphasis on Greek food. There’s other stuff too, exhibits from Toronto pro sports teams, feats to try, even rock climbing in the middle of the street (centre of above photo). I just take it in. We do this enough now it doesn’t seem particularly novel to be wandering down an otherwise busy main city artery. But it does occur to me that there are many streets closed down for much less happy reasons–in Aleppo, in Gaza, or Baghdad. So I don’t really have to do anything. It’s just nice to be able to do it.

Surrounding Voices

I like public transit. Really. Sure, there’s something about getting in a car and going where you want when you want. But, in addition to environmental concerns, there is something I really like about public transit.

I thought of this once again while having coffee on the upper level of a McDonald’s at Queen and Spadina in Toronto, looking out at the corner (phone photo above), with streetcar after streetcar going through the intersection. In a car you are insulated from the world (yes I know, that can be the appeal). In public transit, you notice more around you, or at least have the opportunity to do so.

It’s not always pleasant, but it does help connect you to some degree with the lives and condition of some part of humanity you might not otherwise encounter. And that’s a good thing, especially for those of us who presume to bring Good News to that humanity, and even more if we are prepared to acknowledge how much we have in common.

Smuggling KFC to Gaza

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/05/17/it-takes-a-smuggler-to-satisfy-kfc-cravings-in-gaza/?xid=rss-topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29

A number of major news outlets in the last couple of days have made much of a report, apparently first reported by the Christian Science Monitor, that KFC is being smuggled to Gaza from Egypt. So what? As the reports themselves note, lots of things are smuggled through the many tunnels. Is there a touch of condescension in this? Anyway, maybe it points to an observation we should make: that we have more in common than things that make us different. Are we in the more ‘sophisticated’ culture above such cravings?

in the early church, food was a major issue related to unity between colliding cultres. Maybe we have a clue here toward better negotiations–between nations or people in conflict of any kind: Put food on the negotiating table that all can enjoy. It may be a kind of communion.
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