I went with a friend this evening to see an ice hockey game: the Binghamton Senators (farm team for the Ottawa Senators) versus the Philadelphia Phantoms (farm team for the Philadelphia Flyers). In the first five minutes of the second period, something strange happened on the ice.
I heard a whistle blow, stopping play. Two players, one from each team, skated to a point on the ice where they were distant from all the other players. They faced each other, about eight feet apart, and threw their helmets and gloves on the ice behind them. The crowd roared and rose to its feet.
Now, I don't know about the gloves. I suppose if you want to play ice hockey without gloves, the officials might allow you to do so. Sure, it would be stupid, what with all the sticks and hard rubber and ice flying everywhere. But maybe they'd let you play without gloves. I know for certain, however, that they wouldn't let you play without helmets. Helmets are just a standard safety thing in sports today, for good reason. They're an absolute necessity. I know the officials won't let hockey players play without helmets. Thus: when the helmets come off, there's a clear violation of the rules going on. At this point, the officials' job--if they are like officials in any other sport--is to step in and set these guys back on the path to righteous hockey.
They didn't. Not only did they fail to grab the guys and instruct them to put their helmets back on and play the game they had come to play, but they circled around these two players who now had bare fists in the air, ready to box each other. No lie! It was like a schoolyard fight, but with the teachers keeping the kids away to see which fourth grader is going to beat the snot out of the other.
This isn't ice hockey. This is gladiatorial combat. You might as well give one a net and trident and the other a spear.
I think most sources probably state that the goal of ice hockey is to put the puck in the net. However, for this brief period of about 45 seconds, the sanctioned goal of the game was to see how much damage these two guys were going to do to each others' faces. Hm. Strange. My ticket read, "Veterans' Stadium," not "Colosseum."
Weird thing is, I think the whole crowd enjoyed this part of the game more than the goals and the power plays. What's even weirder, I think the refs were prepared for this incident. I think they have rules that govern the fights. In other words, I'm pretty sure--whether it's in the "official" (no pun intended) rule books or not--there are rules that allow for and govern hockey fights. This I believe.
It was clearly orchestrated and sanctioned. I'm not sure these two guys really had a beef with one another. I know what guys on the ice (or on the field) act like when they think they've been wronged during a game. They try to wreck the other guy when the ref's not looking. They shove sticks in places where wood isn't meant to go; they jab and scrape and foul. No, this wasn't competitive rage; I think this was a side-show.
I know all the cliches about fights in hockey. I just never saw it as clearly as I did this evening. Gladiatorial combat: Rome on ice. For a willing and bloodthirsty crowd. Where's the emperor holding out his thumb?
After witnessing all this, however, I'm still left with a quandary: why did these two, whose combat was sanctioned by the officials, still have to spend five minutes in the penalty box? It looked to me like they were playing by the rules; and the refs didn't stop them.
~ emrys
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Friday, February 01, 2008
Walking for a Cure
As most of you know Our Great Adventure, unexpectedly started off with my cancer diagnosis in 2005. Since then, we've traveled through chemo, radiation, around the world and into 2 ½ years of remission.
My remission has been heavily marked with support for groups like the Leukemia, Lymphoma Society and the American Cancer Society. In thankfulness for the work that these groups do to find cures, and in response to all those who Walked before I ever got sick in order to find cures, I Walk. In 2007, I walked a marathon, by myself mostly. While a great accomplishment and something that I’m so glad that I did, 2008 is about motivating others to join in the Walk to find cures.
I am captaining a team with the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. For those who don’t know, it is an all night event full of music and fun. On June 3, 2005 I started chemo and I also walked the Survivor Lap at the Durango Colorado Relay for Life. It was a fitting end to a rather scary day to know that there were other’s who had also Walked through that day in their life. Relay also holds a luminaria ceremony where luminaria decorated in honor or memory of those who have fought cancer are lit around the outline of the track and it’s amazing to see it and think that every bag that is lit represents someone’s loved one.
On May 9, 2008, a team of us will join over 30 other teams in Bainbridge, NY and join the Walk to find cures. I even got Emrys signed up to walk. He wasn’t up for the marathon. We invite you to support us as we Walk. Below are links to make a tax deductible donation to the American Cancer Society on behalf of either of us – or if you can’t decide you can just donate to our team. It all goes to the same place :)
Thanks in advance for your support!
Donate to Emrys
Donate to Sara
Donate to NPC Team
Sara & Emrys
My remission has been heavily marked with support for groups like the Leukemia, Lymphoma Society and the American Cancer Society. In thankfulness for the work that these groups do to find cures, and in response to all those who Walked before I ever got sick in order to find cures, I Walk. In 2007, I walked a marathon, by myself mostly. While a great accomplishment and something that I’m so glad that I did, 2008 is about motivating others to join in the Walk to find cures.
I am captaining a team with the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. For those who don’t know, it is an all night event full of music and fun. On June 3, 2005 I started chemo and I also walked the Survivor Lap at the Durango Colorado Relay for Life. It was a fitting end to a rather scary day to know that there were other’s who had also Walked through that day in their life. Relay also holds a luminaria ceremony where luminaria decorated in honor or memory of those who have fought cancer are lit around the outline of the track and it’s amazing to see it and think that every bag that is lit represents someone’s loved one.
On May 9, 2008, a team of us will join over 30 other teams in Bainbridge, NY and join the Walk to find cures. I even got Emrys signed up to walk. He wasn’t up for the marathon. We invite you to support us as we Walk. Below are links to make a tax deductible donation to the American Cancer Society on behalf of either of us – or if you can’t decide you can just donate to our team. It all goes to the same place :)
Thanks in advance for your support!
Donate to Emrys
Donate to Sara
Donate to NPC Team
Sara & Emrys
Thursday, January 17, 2008
The Fair Trade
We saw the screening DVD this afternoon: it's called "The Fair Trade," a documentary film about both one young woman's journey to find vitality after loss and also the beginning of a fair trade business. Wonderfully weaving together a personal story of death and rejuvenation with a bold mission to give value to struggling poor in Togo, Africa, The Fair Trade tugs at the delicate strings of the human soul and dares to take up the heavy moorings of human economy.
If you see The Fair Trade playing, trade your time for it and go see it.
If you see The Fair Trade for sale, trade your money for it and go buy it.
'Tis a bargain that will benefit your souls.
~emrys
If you see The Fair Trade playing, trade your time for it and go see it.
If you see The Fair Trade for sale, trade your money for it and go buy it.
'Tis a bargain that will benefit your souls.
~emrys
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Bored and on the Internet?
Then I have a favor to ask! I am in the process of re-doing my business website - take a look www.charityscrafts.com and let me know what works, what doesn't, what you like, don't like etc!
and Thanks!!
and Thanks!!
Monday, January 07, 2008
Down (or Up) the Hatch!
For the last year I've been getting into our ceiling crawl space (to check insulation, open the house fan, and wage bloody war on squirrels) by emptying the closet in our bedroom, removing the shelf and clothes rod, taking out the ceiling panel, extending a ladder into the overhead recess, and climbing up to the crawlspace.
I even installed 50 feet of 18" x 24" plywood sheets to make a catwalk down the length of the house using this entrance.
I even installed 50 feet of 18" x 24" plywood sheets to make a catwalk down the length of the house using this entrance.
No more!
I just completed a new access to the crawlspace from the other end of the house, where a loft exists that sits just 4.5 feet below the ceiling. There's still ladder climbing involved, but it's a fixed ladder that's part of the decor, as opposed to one I have to lug in from the garage. And I only have to remove a 21" square panel, as opposed to a hundred pounds of clothes and an awkward piece of drop-drywall in a closet.
I even framed the hatch (with wood salvaged from our living room ceiling project of last summer--thanks again, Josh and Christopher) to match the trim in the rest of the house: clear-coated white pine. Here are a few pictures to celebrate.
Homeowners: 4
Powers of Chaos and Disorder: 0
(for anyone who's keeping score)
View from the crawlspace:
(for anyone who's keeping score)
View from the crawlspace:
View from the loft up:
With the hatch in place (as yet unpainted):
From the ladder (Escher View):
From the second floor (can you tell the trim is new?):
~ emrysLe Plus Ca Change (or Revolution)
[If you are not interested in history, or the analysis thereof, I shall not be offended if you skip this entry.]
I just finished reading a book by Gordon S. Wood entitled "The Radicalism of the American Revolution" (1992). It won a Pulitzer or some such great prize for history. This guy's thesis is that the great revolution of 1776 in the British colonies in North America was one of huge social consequence, far beyond the normal high-school summary: Paul Revere giving the finger to bunch of Redcoats because taxes were too high.
Gordon wrote a tome, almost two inches thick, with no pictures and huge paragraphs. It's really a historian's book. But I found his style just accessible enough for me to make it through and gain some good insights, even if I did have to pay attention more than when I'm reading Clancy. Gordon rewarded my attention.
One of the many discoveries I made through this book:
Monarchy was a worldview, way of life, and complete social structure. To believe in monarchy (in the 1700s) meant to believe that there was a great chain of being with many levels, from the king and queen down to the beggar, and one had his or her place in it. Monarchy, though it committed the unpardonable (by our standards) sin of slotting people in classes of aristocracy and lower classes, also allowed people to belong somewhere in society. No one could easily lose one's place in the chain: there was security in knowing where you fit.
The great chain of monarchy also meant that higher levels were responsible for lower levels; the aristocracy was wealthy and didn't have to labour for money, but it also had a responsibility for tending to the lower levels with justice and mercy. The lower levels had to serve the higher levels, but they could depend on those above to tend to their needs. You knew to whom you had to go for help and support. You knew your place, but you also knew others' places.
This is how monarchy offered a cogent worldview which, when operating as it was supposed to do (and we know how often humans do that), explained the needs and responsibilities of everyone in society.
The great shift of the Revolution, after all was said and done (and there was much said and done between the 1750s and the 1800s--hence a 2-inch tome), was one to a society of equality. We applaud this equality, and hold it up as one of the great maxims of our country: that all men [sic] are created equal.
However, when we are all equal, that means there's no aristocracy anymore. There is no ontological lower class. Therefore, no one is beholden by the social worldview to take care of anyone else, and no one can rightly go to someone else and stake a claim on that person's aid. Everyone may (and must) work for self-improvement, and the drive to better oneself--most often expressed in the earning of money--is the one thing which makes us equal.
The Revolution deprived the colonists of their security in privilege and responsibility. Now everyone stood on a level: the game became every man (still just men in those days) for himself. You could make yourself out to be anyone you wished; but you could depend on no one to help you do it. The only tool by which you might curry favour or aid was money (or its equivalent in labour or resources). Every person, it could be assumed, was driven by self-interest--the "pursuit of happiness"--and upon that motivation alone did individuals make their choices: intellectual, political, and economic.
I was struck by the radical loss of security and certitude that comes from losing the monarchial structure of English society. If you don't have a place, then you've got to make one for yourself, and that place can be lost to someone else who wants it. So with the opportunity for self-promotion and aggrandizement comes the danger of debasement and destitution.
Gordon retiterated several times the disappointment of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, and Ben Franklin at how the Revolution had turned out. Apparently they hadn't wanted everyone to become quite that equal; they maintained a vision of an educated and politically active upper class who would act for the good of all the people. What they found instead was controlled mob rule where people gathered in solidarity only around economic interests (hence the development of political parties as we know them now). As Gordon put it: it's not that the Revolutionaries' ideas didn't work, it's that they worked too well.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in some heavy, thought-provoking words about how this country came to be the way it is. Reader beware: this one requires your full attention!
~emrys
I just finished reading a book by Gordon S. Wood entitled "The Radicalism of the American Revolution" (1992). It won a Pulitzer or some such great prize for history. This guy's thesis is that the great revolution of 1776 in the British colonies in North America was one of huge social consequence, far beyond the normal high-school summary: Paul Revere giving the finger to bunch of Redcoats because taxes were too high.
Gordon wrote a tome, almost two inches thick, with no pictures and huge paragraphs. It's really a historian's book. But I found his style just accessible enough for me to make it through and gain some good insights, even if I did have to pay attention more than when I'm reading Clancy. Gordon rewarded my attention.
One of the many discoveries I made through this book:
Monarchy was a worldview, way of life, and complete social structure. To believe in monarchy (in the 1700s) meant to believe that there was a great chain of being with many levels, from the king and queen down to the beggar, and one had his or her place in it. Monarchy, though it committed the unpardonable (by our standards) sin of slotting people in classes of aristocracy and lower classes, also allowed people to belong somewhere in society. No one could easily lose one's place in the chain: there was security in knowing where you fit.
The great chain of monarchy also meant that higher levels were responsible for lower levels; the aristocracy was wealthy and didn't have to labour for money, but it also had a responsibility for tending to the lower levels with justice and mercy. The lower levels had to serve the higher levels, but they could depend on those above to tend to their needs. You knew to whom you had to go for help and support. You knew your place, but you also knew others' places.
This is how monarchy offered a cogent worldview which, when operating as it was supposed to do (and we know how often humans do that), explained the needs and responsibilities of everyone in society.
The great shift of the Revolution, after all was said and done (and there was much said and done between the 1750s and the 1800s--hence a 2-inch tome), was one to a society of equality. We applaud this equality, and hold it up as one of the great maxims of our country: that all men [sic] are created equal.
However, when we are all equal, that means there's no aristocracy anymore. There is no ontological lower class. Therefore, no one is beholden by the social worldview to take care of anyone else, and no one can rightly go to someone else and stake a claim on that person's aid. Everyone may (and must) work for self-improvement, and the drive to better oneself--most often expressed in the earning of money--is the one thing which makes us equal.
The Revolution deprived the colonists of their security in privilege and responsibility. Now everyone stood on a level: the game became every man (still just men in those days) for himself. You could make yourself out to be anyone you wished; but you could depend on no one to help you do it. The only tool by which you might curry favour or aid was money (or its equivalent in labour or resources). Every person, it could be assumed, was driven by self-interest--the "pursuit of happiness"--and upon that motivation alone did individuals make their choices: intellectual, political, and economic.
I was struck by the radical loss of security and certitude that comes from losing the monarchial structure of English society. If you don't have a place, then you've got to make one for yourself, and that place can be lost to someone else who wants it. So with the opportunity for self-promotion and aggrandizement comes the danger of debasement and destitution.
Gordon retiterated several times the disappointment of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, and Ben Franklin at how the Revolution had turned out. Apparently they hadn't wanted everyone to become quite that equal; they maintained a vision of an educated and politically active upper class who would act for the good of all the people. What they found instead was controlled mob rule where people gathered in solidarity only around economic interests (hence the development of political parties as we know them now). As Gordon put it: it's not that the Revolutionaries' ideas didn't work, it's that they worked too well.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in some heavy, thought-provoking words about how this country came to be the way it is. Reader beware: this one requires your full attention!
~emrys
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Just How Cold is 0 Degrees?
So cold that in the 20 step trip to the mailbox this morning my hair (still wet from the shower) FROZE!!
I think today is a work inside day!!
I think today is a work inside day!!
Monday, December 24, 2007
Friday, December 21, 2007
Let the Son rise on Christmas
I've been preaching on the Psalms during Advent this year. On Sunday I'll preach on Psalm 80, but not in the traditional fashion. Psalm 80 is a peom of lament, but also calls, as a prayer, on the Lord to "Restore us, O Lord God of hosts, let your face shine, that we may be saved." As I struggled with how to preach this poem, I found myself faced with the rising sun. So I have decided to follow the lead of the psalmist, preaching in poetry this Sunday. My sermon is as follows, and carries the title, "Let the Son rise again on Christmas."
When gifts grow expensive and money grows tight
In a world growing hard to afford,
And more than a bandage of lead-painted toys
We wish for a hope shining bright
Remember the life that was given for free:
A baby born eons ago.
His wealth we inherit and kingdom we own
By faith we gain eternity.
Let the Son rise again on Christmas!
As years of success become lost days of old
When main street with dreams was aglow
When milking brought profits and work better pay
Yet now children flee from the cold
Remember the glory that does not depend
On anything built with our hands
And trust in the one who comes down from above
To bring ev’ry woe to an end.
Let the Son rise again on Christmas!
When souls weep with sorrows no doctor can hear
And limbs cry with voices of pain
As bills stack up higher than letters and cards
And hope seems a debtor to fear
Remember our master whose touch cures the ills
Of everyone who would draw near:
Lord Jesus our saviour, physician, and friend,
All cups of desire he fills.
Let the Son rise again on Christmas!
When mem’ries fade slowly in sepia tones
And bright crowns of youth turn to grey
When dreams of the rest at the end of this race
Preserve us from dining alone
Remember the one who flung grace open wide
Who carries our burdens above
Who giggled first under the starry night skies
To show us that he’s on our side
Let the Son rise again on Christmas!
No magic elixir can keep at the door
The sufferings and sin of this world
But promise and miracle call in the voice
Of Jesus our lives to restore.
This infant so lowly, this swaddled young boy
Who later rose king from the grave
Revealed that God loves us and all through this life
We walk with the master of joy
Let the Son rise again on Christmas!
Let the Son rise again this Christmas!
Shalom,
emrys
When gifts grow expensive and money grows tight
In a world growing hard to afford,
And more than a bandage of lead-painted toys
We wish for a hope shining bright
Remember the life that was given for free:
A baby born eons ago.
His wealth we inherit and kingdom we own
By faith we gain eternity.
Let the Son rise again on Christmas!
As years of success become lost days of old
When main street with dreams was aglow
When milking brought profits and work better pay
Yet now children flee from the cold
Remember the glory that does not depend
On anything built with our hands
And trust in the one who comes down from above
To bring ev’ry woe to an end.
Let the Son rise again on Christmas!
When souls weep with sorrows no doctor can hear
And limbs cry with voices of pain
As bills stack up higher than letters and cards
And hope seems a debtor to fear
Remember our master whose touch cures the ills
Of everyone who would draw near:
Lord Jesus our saviour, physician, and friend,
All cups of desire he fills.
Let the Son rise again on Christmas!
When mem’ries fade slowly in sepia tones
And bright crowns of youth turn to grey
When dreams of the rest at the end of this race
Preserve us from dining alone
Remember the one who flung grace open wide
Who carries our burdens above
Who giggled first under the starry night skies
To show us that he’s on our side
Let the Son rise again on Christmas!
No magic elixir can keep at the door
The sufferings and sin of this world
But promise and miracle call in the voice
Of Jesus our lives to restore.
This infant so lowly, this swaddled young boy
Who later rose king from the grave
Revealed that God loves us and all through this life
We walk with the master of joy
Let the Son rise again on Christmas!
Let the Son rise again this Christmas!
Shalom,
emrys
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto
In this time of year when spending gets scrutinized and prioritized and we’re rushing around to parties and engagements take a moment to find the little blessings in your day. On Tuesday, mine showed up something like this…
I was running errands in Binghamton, hadn’t checked the weather (duh!) and was out in pouring rain and 34 degree weather running errands to get ready for this weekend’s activities.
I was planning on making home-made hummus for a party on Sunday and had all the necessary ingredients, but over Thanksgiving we had added sun-dried tomato pesto to the basic garlic hummus and it was fabulous and I was craving an encore performance of this special treat.
I headed through the rain and puddles into Wegman’s with my list –checking it twice. Somehow the pesto sauce hadn’t made it on the list- it wasn’t really necessary. It’s very easy to be naughty in Wegman’s and leave with many, many things that aren’t on the list! I walk through the produce section and spot the sun-dried tomato pesto sauce: itty-bitty-jar- $4.69. I my craving and my pocketbook weren’t on the same page. So I walked past it. Then I walk a little farther and see package sun dried tomatoes – those might work. 3 oz bag, $3.69. Mmmm, I don’t really need the sun-dried tomatoes. So I keep on walking. Past the refrigerator pasta and I stop to do a double take. Usually this section is full of expensive pasta and usually I don’t give it a glance. But today there was a $0.99 sign flagged in two places in the case. I stop and look again. And again! Sure enough, all the Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto sauce was on sale for $0.99.
I happily walk out of Wegman’s with only one thing that wasn’t on the list and while balancing my shopping bags, purse and umbrella walk outside to find that the rain had stopped.
I was running errands in Binghamton, hadn’t checked the weather (duh!) and was out in pouring rain and 34 degree weather running errands to get ready for this weekend’s activities.
I was planning on making home-made hummus for a party on Sunday and had all the necessary ingredients, but over Thanksgiving we had added sun-dried tomato pesto to the basic garlic hummus and it was fabulous and I was craving an encore performance of this special treat.
I headed through the rain and puddles into Wegman’s with my list –checking it twice. Somehow the pesto sauce hadn’t made it on the list- it wasn’t really necessary. It’s very easy to be naughty in Wegman’s and leave with many, many things that aren’t on the list! I walk through the produce section and spot the sun-dried tomato pesto sauce: itty-bitty-jar- $4.69. I my craving and my pocketbook weren’t on the same page. So I walked past it. Then I walk a little farther and see package sun dried tomatoes – those might work. 3 oz bag, $3.69. Mmmm, I don’t really need the sun-dried tomatoes. So I keep on walking. Past the refrigerator pasta and I stop to do a double take. Usually this section is full of expensive pasta and usually I don’t give it a glance. But today there was a $0.99 sign flagged in two places in the case. I stop and look again. And again! Sure enough, all the Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto sauce was on sale for $0.99.
I happily walk out of Wegman’s with only one thing that wasn’t on the list and while balancing my shopping bags, purse and umbrella walk outside to find that the rain had stopped.
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