lifestyle – James Robert Kitson

Choose Infinite Possibility

When we work together there are infinite possibilities. That’s an observable truth. From the perspective of faith, it should be no surprise. We have been given a world in which we have everything we need. We have been given minds and hearts to make loving use of it all. It is all meant for the sake of living in community — with one another and in partnership with all of creation. The possibilities are boundless.

It doesn’t take much thought for anyone with even half a heart of caring to recognize how valuable it was for Alberta to release medical equipment to other provinces. School children are undertaking projects to help food banks and help fund Personal Protective Equipment for front line workers. The examples, as you know, go on and wonderfully on.

There is, however, and sadly, another kind of possibility. It could be characterized, broadly, as opportunism.

Coronavirus Coups. That’s the term that’s been used to characterize the actions of national regimes that go far beyond what is necessary in having enhanced powers to deal with the pandemic. They take it as an opportunity to grab powers, with no end date, that enhance their dictatorial predilections. Then there is some price gouging here and there, and looting of closed retail locations. Yes, opportunism.

Any moral person recognizes the beauty of one and the ugliness of the other here. But it goes deeper. Opportunists among us, you take many forms. Know that you are cheating yourself. There is a simple equation to this. Work together: boundless opportunity and possibilities. Go it selfishly and opportunistically alone: Initial success of some kind, perhaps, but ultimately constriction and dead ends. It is not “just the way the world works.”

The way the world works has been shown not to be working. We must not go back to what we have known if that’s what’s “normal.”

Littered Path

You no doubt have been disgusted, rightly, by the news shots of gloves and face masks discarded in the parking lots and on the walkways leading from grocery stores. The thoughtless grotesqueness of this is in stark contrast to the heroic selflessness of so many others.

I have heard it said that we are always in danger of crossing a line that makes us less human, or even less than human. This may be one of those lines.

The Biblical creation accounts give expression to a humanity created for community–with God, one another, and all created, abundant life. Any littering is of course harmful, potentially unhealthy, as well as ugly to the senses. Those committing this particularly egregious form apparently do not care, in addition, that they are stepping away from their own made-for-community nature.

The path to inhumanity is paved with litter

Caring Will Endure

A crisis brings out the best and worst traits and behaviours. On one hand, we are warned of coronavirus-related scams. But we also see companies retooling to produce ventilators and personal protective equipment, and people making a point of showing appreciation for frontline workers.

How will I conduct myself? has always been a question in time of testing, and may be just beneath our consciousness as we try to absorb the enormity and implications of the current crisis. We can fret internally over this, or focus on the everyday practical measures we keep hearing about–and need to–to help keep ourselves and others safe. If we believe love is at the heart of everything (see the beginning of John’s Gospel), then everyday caring is how we exercise that deep truth in a practical manner, and experience some peace and assurance in the doing.

The scammers and opportunistic leaders will have their day. It is caring that will endure.

Controlling the Narrative

The public impeachment hearings that have been held in Wahington over the past two weeks should be important to take in But are they? The drama going on may simply be between, on the one hand, establishing truth to act on (or not), and, on the other hand, simply engaging in a nasty battle over who controls the narrative. In other words, it’s all about what it’s all about.

It could be argued you’re not missing anything if you haven’t seen any of it. After all, you live it every day.

Do you live your own truth? Decide what that is? Do your best to live it? Or accept the most appealing narrative of the most compelling influencers–personal, political, or commercial?

It is almost Advent in the Christian calendar. You will find (still, at least in some churches) Scrioture employed that focuses on ultimate things, with Jesus talking about his Advent to come (e.g. Mark 13).

Advent celebrates that we have the opportunity to know, now, the one who is yet to come.

There is truth. Truth will win out. Truth matters. That should be obvious, but apparently it is not obvious.

And oh yes, there is an accompanying major Scriptural theme in Advent, drawing on scenes with John the Baptist (e.g. Luke 3). He anticipates Jesus’ own warnings against leaders who are obsessed with their power and status, and with controlling the narrative of their people and their time.

It will not end well for such people in any age.

Ready for Alien Visitors?

Apparently when Edward Snowden was snooping into top secret government computer files he decided to check out some things we wonder about and argue about over morning coffee or evening other-stuff. Like, Is the U.S. government hiding evidence of alien life visiting earth? The answer, you may be disappointed to know, is no. The moon landing, by the way, did happen. Meanwhile, Google is touting the successful test run of a quantum computer that can solve in a couple of minutes what a conventional computer would take, they say, years to get through.

These bits of other-than’Trump news maybe appeal to us because they hint at the possibility of something other than our own problems and ways of dealing–or not–with them, especially if it’s as if the people you have to live and work with have materialized from some parallel reality. Or maybe people who show up in the context of whatever you are trying to accomplish in this world seem like some new species if hominid. You want a break.

So it’s somewhat understandable if we can entertain thoughts of other-worldly or wonder-computer ways of making everyday life different. But everyday life is exactly where we–in this current dimension and in our present hominid form–can make a difference. We could start, as prodded by the sign n the photo, with how we dispose of batteries

And, if and when the aliens do come, maybe they’ll be impressed with what we’ve undone with the place.

Genesis 1:31

Image and Worth

Let’s face it. We are all image-conscious. That’s not a bad thing. You wouldn’t want go to a job interview looking like you just got up in the morning. It wouldn’t be good to have no concern about how you are perceived by others, or, more importantly, by yourself. Self-image is important. But there is something even more important, and it keeps self-image from being an unhealthy obsession. We can benefit in this from a Biblical-historical perspective.

John the Baptist appeared on the scene when his nation’s self-image would have been very low. Luke makes a point of providing the historical-political setting in which John appears (Luke 3:1-3). Israel was surrounded in its setting and experience by powerful, unfriendly forces, and this had been the case for a long time, centuries in fact. They were ripe for a hero to lift them to new heights, reliving the glories of old, restoring their image, you could say. But who announces this? One who appears in the desert, a wild figure, pointing to one, Jesus, who is the opposite in appearance of the conquering hero.

Nevertheless, there is something about this Baptizer who recalls Elijah and the hope of the ages. Such hope would not be disappointing, because it all points to the one who alone is worthy to rescue the people–all people–from what really ails us, more than any self-image issues: a sense of worth, which cannot come just from a good self-image. It runs much deeper, and withstands what can easily cause a good image of ourselves to evaporate, say, when we fail badly. Sure we say then that we just pick ourselves and get back at it, but the truth is that not everybody does. There are countless human tragedies stemming from failure of self-image.

What is the answer when, like John’s people in their collective experience, you feel oppressed and beaten down by others, but circumstances, by life itself?

Two handy and apparently popular options are: 1. Wall owin victimization and blame of others. 2. Find victims of your own to oppress, i.e., become a bully.

Or, 3, you can change your mind, how you think and deal with such circumstances. A word for this kind of change is repentance. You can say, I’m not even going to think in such categories as options 1 and 2. No matter what happens, no matter what I have to deal with, I refuse to waste my life on what can only bring (further) pain and pointless, soul-sapping misery. I am worth more than that, not from how I view myself, but from how God sees me, loves me, and accepts me, no matter how I might, at times, see myself.

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.

Epidemic of Blame

If we’re honest we would probably all have to admit we’ve indulged in the blame game at some time, but the public display of it in high places has become epidemic. When was the last time you heard a public figure accept personal responsibility for something gone wrong, or a misjudgment, or just plain wrongdoing, without his or back being against the wall?

There is a better way. There is a healthier environment for us to share. There is a character of life, a reign of influence, the character of which is described in a few sayings at the beginning Matthew 5. They are called the Beatitudes, but the handle may be unfortunate if it evokes Hallmark images of fluffy clouds and flower petals. It really describes a gutsy way of thinking, feeling, and living. But how can being “poor in spirit” be good? It is if I accept that there is Another who is all good and offers to share his power with me. I am blessed or happy if I “mourn” over the state of things around me, and thereby show some genuine concern outside myself. “Meekness” is not weakness but humility that makes room for the other. If I hunger and thirst for righteousness I want what genuinely is right, and now just, or I might think, for me. Mercy, purity of heart, peacemaking, blessing those who are against me: There is no room for blame here, no excuses. A better. I know I need to embrace this daily. And I suspect I am not alone.

Consumer Electronics Show

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas officially opened today. The emphasis is definitely on “officially” since more than a glimpse of what is being flaunted there has been showing up in the news for days.

There are bigger and sharper-than-ever televisions. Mere HD apparently is so day before yesterday. Now it’s OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) HD TV. The South Korean firm LG announced its own Ultra HD, based on a different technology, which is said to provide a screen resolution four times sharper than your current full HD set. And there are of course new doo-dads to go with these TVs. One has something called “my homescreen” that lets you organize all your digital content in one place and help you organize content for each family member. If don’t have a family, this will make you want to get one.

There’s lots more than TVs, naturally. The theme running through all the gizmos and gadgets, they say, is connectivity, with techonology embedded in the technology that feeds into your tablet and smartphone, so that you can control the devices with the tablet or smartphone.

Some of this wizardry is probably very useful. The bulk of it is no doubt entertainment. Nothing wrong with fun. And there is a time for everything, says the Bible (Ecclesiastes 3:1). But it does, in one more way, point to the huge disparity between rich and destitute in the world. While I gawk idolatrously at much of this stuff, Syrian kids are gawking at the sky watching for fighter-bombers, even while they are scavenging for food and scratching the ground with sticks to try to make a shelter from the destructive technology from the sky. Will forgoing your Ultra HD TV help them? No. But it can’t hurt the world around us, and our own well-being, at least to be mindful of our priorities and try to keep things in balance. Furthermore, many of us obtain these things with money we don’t have. And then there is the issue of what kind of content is on those screens, and how much they detract from relating to actual people – although yes, a lot of technology is meant to help us connect with one another.

In the end, the appropriateness of the technology we latch onto can be judged by the quality of life it contributes to. By quality of life I mean that which is measured by standards other than the amount and sophistication of the stuff we have. How about this:
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23 NIV).

Or this:

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).