A Few Of My Favorite Things

This is one of my favorite times of year (I think I even blogged about it last year). Yes, the acrid stench of fear is thick in the air around educational institution as freshmen (freshpeople? freshpersons?) scramble to find the shortest routes between bed/coffee/class and amble aimlessly amid atrocious administrative alacritouslessness. And 4th years wonder if they will actually be able to graduate and if the piece of paper they receive is worth even as much as the piece of paper I used this morning.

Oh yes, it's a good time to be alive!

Brewing Beer And Changing Lives

Three weeks without a post, eh? Obviously nothing much hahs happened in the last three weeks...right! This is probably the fourth or fifth time I have sat down to post about something...we will see if this one makes it through.

A year ago all I wanted to do was help people. Financially, emotionally, physically, spiritually, equatorially. Now all I crave is space - the space to recapture my life and who I am as opposed to what's going on around me. I think this is the crux of the matter. Anyone who is trying to make a difference in a situation (life in this case) is going against the norm while trying to live within the norm. I f you don't keep your goal in mind and keep pushing forward you remain stuck in the very thing you are attempting to avoid. I guess this ties in nicely with the whole Christian struggle of trying to live in the world when our citizenship is elsewhere. So here we go forward again!

I other news the MC brewing company is currently expanding its production procedures, moving towards all grain brewing. This is a much more intensive method where the goal is to produce something resembling beer (as opposed to gasoline) straight from grains. Any requests for beer styles? My first choice would be an oatmeal stout or proter, but that might be asking too much.

Keeping Up With The Walkers

Just so that I don't fall too far behind Joe in the Cool-Ministry-Leaders-Doing-Cool-Stuff department I've decided to try planning a trek up one of the mountains by Canmore. I know it's not a life-changing trip to the Holy Land or anything, but it's a start. The mountain is called Yamnuska and is one of the most climbed in all of North America. The southern face is perfectly built for rock climbing (not on this trip though) and there's a perfect trail around the eastern edge for summiting. What we will be doing is called a scramble - some pretty steep slopes with loose rock. The route take about 2-3 hours up to the 2240m summit (less to get down...especially if you jump off the face!).

The plan is to leave Edmonton early Saturday Aug 12, drive to Yam, climb and descend, and then camp Saturday night at one of the campground in Bow Valley Provincial Park. Sunday we will leave open to hang or head home early if need be. If you are interested let me know soon so that I can plan for campsites and vehicles.

Maybe I'll even come up with a neat little message relating to our ascent up the mountain...take that Joe!

Here An Angst, There An Angst

So what's the deal with angst? Why is it now acceptable and even expected that we all be so angsty? I can understand teenagers being nervous about their place in life and feeling apprehension over the enormity of the world, but why are so many people my age still wallowing in this stage of limbo? And furthermore, why has angst become the catch-all excuse for people? Life's too hard? - Just be angsty and everyone will leave you alone.

Where did all this come from? I think a large amount of it comes from living in large cities. It's sometimes hard to find a meaningful existance in a city. For instance, I work at a cafe making $4 coffees for people - kind of a superfluous job. Then I take my earnings for doing this service and buy any number of things with it, from food to Uber-Maxi-Super-Magna-Dingo-Infused-Toe-Knuckle-Hair-Removers. We lack attachment to real and tangible things like working to produce food or building our own homes to live in or clothes to wear. Thus, our jobs, which constitute 1/3 of our days, are unsatisfying and often the rest of the day hold about the same. I think of all the farm kids I grew up with and I see no angst there at all. Yes, they are perhaps dissatisfied with a simple way of life at times and some long for the shiny things of the city. When they get there, some (not all), will also lose touch with the value of life.

Even less do I understand why young Christians fall prey to the same angstedness. I don't understand how you can accept the message of the gospel, where God Himself came down to atone for our sin so that He could be with us, and feel valueless and purposeless.

The solution is obvious - head for the hills, live off home-grown granola, grow lots of hemp...for clothes!