Could you go?

I don't know who designed this public washroom. (Found through my brother Arthur)

Election 2004

We had an election here in Canada tonight. I have to admit that I was hoping for more of a horserace. I find these things as exciting as a good hockey game. I can't get to sleep. Sad, I know. For the first time in years, the result of this election wasn't a foregone conclusion. That was kind of fun. It's easy to complain about our politicians. In the end, I have my political preferences, but I can't help but stand amazed and grateful for generally decent people who try their best and who subject themselves to the political process. Some good people lost tonight. You couldn't pay me enough to do what they do. Update: This is going to be interesting. The Liberals and NDP have 154 seats combined. The Conservatives, Bloq, and the one independent have 154 seats combined. This will be an interesting Parliament. The party whip is going to have lots of work.

Hurray!

I'm going to England.

Forgiven

I finally talked to the woman who hit our car. I told her someone had volunteered to pay the bill. They had been forgiven, and they wanted to pass that forgiveness on to someone else. She was pretty surprised. It's cool to see something like this happen.

Please don't assume you know

Christy posted this in the comments. I thought it was worth highlighting here:

I've been following the posts and the comments about church attendance with interest. I grew up in church and used to be on the staff of one. At the moment, I fall into the non-church going camp. I certainly can't speak for every Christian who doesn't go to church, but I would like to make a request to church goers on behalf of myself and my non-church going Christian friends. Please don't assume that you know why we're not in a church on Sunday morning or that our lack of attendance automatically means that we're not serious about our relationship with God or don't want accountability or something. I can't speak for everyone, of course, but I and some of my circle of friends stopped going to church BECAUSE we wanted to find God, not because we didn't. Their stories are not mine to tell, and mine won't fit in the comments section, but the common theme is being crazy desperate for some redemption and healing and having to look for that outside of the institutional church because most churches are not a safe place for broken people to tell the truth about themselves - especially when the church has been the thing that has done some of the breaking. I know that my alienation from the church is not ideal, but it's the best I can do right now. I am humbled and blessed by the gut-level honesty and acceptance and desire to do good of my friends and encouraged by the strange and painful ways that the Spirit is healing me at this stage of my journey. If you've found a faith community that encourages and nurtures you and helps you find God - that's great. I wish all churches were like that. Most aren't, so if you could extend some grace to those of us with a different experience, we would gratefully appreciate all the mercy we can get. We already know we need it.

Well said.