Happy Planet

I just took the Happy Planet Index survey from the New Economics Foundation. It's a great way to measure our impact on the environment, our satisfaction with work, and also calculates life expectancy and a number of other factors. Apparently Ericka is going to have to put up with me until I am 90.8 years old. Lord have mercy on her soul... The bad news is that I still have an ecological footprint of 4.4 global hectares, mostly because I've been in an airplane a bit this year. The cycling and TTC-ing are certainly helpful, but flights are certainly contributing to the high-ish rating, even if it is below average for Canada. Thanks to No-Impact Man for the link...

Trash Talk

After nearly an hour on the subway and RT, I get off to await my ride. I'm in Scarborough on the day after Canada Day, and I'm a little out of my element. I never come out this far. I rarely even leave downtown, and here I am in a world made for giants. It's McCowan station, it was my first adventure on RT, which wasn't a big deal, except for the question "do people really live out here?" The answer, it seems, is yes. People with cars live out here, because it would be near-on-impossible to live here otherwise. Here there is nothing in walking distance. A small but pointed example. I have just finished some water. A bottle I purchased, because I forgot to bring my Nalgene (sidenote: did you know that the clear ones actually leech chemicals into your liquid? neither did I until recently). I am standing outside of the station and walk back inside. There is no recycling or garbage receptacle immediately inside. There had been one on the RT platform, but not one here. I go back outside and locate a lone garbage can across six lanes of traffic, possible more, if you count the turning lanes. Make that 8 lanes of traffic. Here's the problem, if 8 lanes isn't already a daunting task, the fact that there are signs prohibiting crossing from this corner to the opposite. Rather, in order to comply with the law, you must cross with the lights (changing with pedestrian-unfriendly-infrequency) all the way around the intersection in a clockwise direction. As an experiment, since I had some time to kill before my ride arrived, I decided to test it out. In all, it took approximately 10 minutes to legally get to the other side of the road in order to toss something. I know what you may be thinking, should you be thinking anything about this at all. And no, I didn't actually throw the bottle out. I put it in my bag, and waited til I got home in order to recycle it. But really, 10 minutes to dispose of an empty bottle? It's surprising there wasn't more trash on the side of the road.

Saturday Gathering Recap

On Saturday night we held our first of what I hope will be many evening services at bppc, the church that Ericka and I are attending in Parkdale. The church isn't holding any Sunday services throughout the month of July, and we saw this as an opportunity to start something new and also to maintain a community connection throughout the month. We don't really know what will come out of these community gatherings, but I hope and pray that they become a place where relationship continues to grow with members of the congregation and with the broader Parkdale community. It has been encouraging to hear from different people who attend the church that they think this is a good idea, and that they can't wait to bring Potato Salad or other food items to the next gathering... Food, I think, has such an amazing and powerful way of disarming us, of making us to feel comfortable, and opening us up to one another. Perhaps that's why the original conception of the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist is more powerful to me than the wafers and shot glasses employed in many traditions today. As much as I like the high view of the Eucharist held by Anglican, Catholic and Orthodox traditions, I really like to see "the elements" incorporated into a great feast of Christian charity and mutual concern. Everyone brings what they can, everyone receives food and drink a-plenty, and together we gather in the presence of one another, in the presence of Christ. In point of fact, we gather as the Body of Christ. We are the broken. We are those who are poured out. We are the ones called to pour ourselves out for the sake of God's good world. On Saturday night there were only 9 of us gathered, but it was a good group. We sang some songs of worship, we shared some food, and I shared a few reflections on 1 Peter 2:9-10. This passage has appeared in our bulletin for several weeks, and I thought it was an interesting place to start. I've written about this passage before, but my remarks this time focused on our need to embrace the role of Royal Priesthood for the good of our neighbourhoods. Discussion of the passage came to the fact that Peter was writing this letter to diasporic Christian Jews, the lowest of the low in society. People who would have no right, or no reasonable claim to be a Royal Priesthood. They were a marginalized people who found themselves at the edges of both Roman and Jewish society. They were the outcasts. And yet Peter wants to empower them with the truth of the gospel, the truth of God's relationship to Israel and the Church - that even though the world may malign them, they are called to be leaven. I think this passage applies to us specifically in Parkdale. We are a small group, but we are called to live out the gospel in the midst of this neighbourhood. We are called to give our lives as Christ gave his. We are called to seek grace and mercy for those who have not received such things. We are called to be agents of change, change for the coming of the kingdom where injustice falls away, where love abounds and community grows and becomes more loving.