"planning my day"

I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.
E. B. White (1899 - 1985)

it's not about me: a review of the purpose driven life

the 40 days of purpose are presented in rick warren's bestseller, the purpose driven life, which is a well-crafted book, though sprinkled with cliches and rhetorical devices such as alliteration and acronyms, all tied up neatly with a bow. he develops quite a system of belief, quite an infectious ideology. the 40 days of purpose for me as it turns out is to confront my own ideology in the face of rick warren's and to ask myself, what do i find attractive about rick warren's purpose, what do i find repulsive, and why?

there are five main purposes, and the final purpose, as it turns out and as revealed by rick's father from his deathbed, is to "save one more for Jesus!"

up to that point i was attracted to the daily revelation of purpose: turn from worldly pursuits, serve your community, be inclusive (at least, of believers and their faults).

while warren does not overtly come out for or against homosexuality, he does use patriarchal language in refering to god only in the masculine, he opposes abortion, and he avows that he is a conservative christian. i infer that his personal stance on homosexuality falls in line with other conservatives.

however, none of these views is mainline to his purpose, nor me seeking my purpose, and i read on through the 40 days' deluge. but when i heard that death-bed cry of salvation, i realized that the real purpose of a christian is to espouse the unique moral superiority of being christian and save every nonbeliever from the sinking ship SS Humanity.

which has bothered me for decades. and it continued to bother me this past year as i returned to church. moral superiority is a sin with which i'm well-acquainted; it is a paintbrush with which i've painted myself many times in the past, and am sure to do so again. i might be doing it right now, as i wonder if warren's Salvation-Only-Thru-Christ is morally bankrupt in our multicultural and pluralistic world. there are many people, non-christians, who live devout, self-sacrificing lives. their evident faith and action are integrated. if they were christian, they'd be sainted, they'd be saved.

and do i paint myself again when i wonder if i'm morally superior to hypocritical Christians who deny full communion with their fellow christians on the grounds of their sexual orientation, or their gender?

in the beginning, the real purpose of warren's book is stated in the first paragraph. here it is in its entirety:

It's not about you.

it's not about me, it's about god. or at least my search for god. to a degree, i agree with warren that the purpose-driven life of a christian seeks five things: (1) worship god, (2) grow in fellowship with others in god, (3) serve god, (4) grow like christ, and (5) move in this world driven by worship and fellowship and service and growing. the last is my re-interpretation of warren's fifth, evangelical purpose: "to be on a mission with God in the world," because i don't like the context of 'mission,' which is loaded with that "solo Christos sola" (Spanish for 'Only Christ Saves") evangelism, that dying battle-cry, "Save another one for Jesus!"

over time, my moral superiority, whether as an atheist or as an ardent christian, has hurt a lot of people. in many ways i prefer the humbleness of my agnostic days, when it wasn't about me and god was ineffable and i was more open to the mystery of the universe and the love that is all around me.

perhaps that is my path as a christian, a path of humility, to worship, to serve, to commune, to grow, and to move.

be an ontario peakbuster!

"The Ontario Clean Air Alliance is challenging communities across Ontario to reduce the need for dirty coal by reducing their use of electricity in peak periods. We will recognize the communities that do the most to use the least in October 2007, so make sure your community is an energy winner!

"Find out how you can be a Peak Buster and Challenge Your Community"

Canada, Africa, and the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany

Dear Prime Minister,

Regarding Canada's participation in this year's G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, June 6-8. Africa's issues with development are on the table, and I believe Canada can play a significant role:

• Enabling sustainable economic growth in Africa by improving economic policies,
debt, and strengthening local markets and businesses;
• Promoting democracy by supporting African institutions that foster citizen participation;
• Establishing peace and security by strengthening the peace building and conflict-
abilities of African regional organizations;
• Fighting disease by strengthening national health systems, improving AIDS prevention
treatment, and designing programs to retain African doctors and nurses.

I call upon you and our government for Canada to work unilaterally and as a mediator between the other nations:

Canada must renew its promise to double aid to Africa by 2008-2009 by creating a timetable for increasing our official development assistance to 0.7% of gross national income.

The AIDS pandemic may be the greatest crisis of all. Seventy-five percent of the world’s 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS are in Sub-Saharan Africa. The 2005 Gleneagles G8 summit promised universal access to HIV treatment by 2010, but is falling short of this goal.

Canada can work towards the creation of a comprehensive plan to address the health crisis by increasing funding for prevention and treatment programs, strengthening infrastructure, retaining local health-care workers, and improving management and access to information. At the same time, Canada can guide the G8 to ensure that such broad approaches do not let donors influence national policy-making in ways that citizens cannot.

Furthermore, Canada can use its experience as a major food-producing and resource-rich nation to advise the G8 summit to find ways to strengthen regional markets in Africa that support local agriculture and food supplies. We must also advocate for stronger corporate responsibility guidelines for international mining companies, and trade laws that allow developing countries to stabilize their economies by regulating imports and exports and setting environmental standards.

There are also significant problems with the debt cancellation agreement signed at the 2005 Gleneagles G8 summit. Very few countries are eligible, and those that are must agree to a set of harsh conditions from the World Band and International Monetary Fund (IMF) that have already been shown to worsen poverty. Canada must live up to the spirit of Gleneagles and support full, unconditional debt cancellation for 62 of the world’s poorest countries so they can redirect their resources towards health, education, and economic development on their own terms.

Sincerely,

Peter Ladage
Midland, Ontario

with information from make poverty history

malalai joya needs your help!

you can read and view this courageous young woman's struggle at http://www.malalaijoya.com/index1024.htm. she needs all the international exposure she can get right now to protect her from those who want to kill her and silence her. on the site there are email addresses for the president of afghanistan and other officials. here is the letter i wrote:

Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 22:03:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: Peter Ladage
Subject: Concern for Malalai Joya
To: president@afghanistangov.org
Cc: aquddus@supremecourt.gov.af, hasib-n786@yahoo.com, moinews@gmail.com,
wahed.moi@gmail.com, info@moj.gov.af, hidayatr@moj.gov.af,
mj@malalaijoya.com

Dear Mr. President,

I am greatly troubled to learn of the expulsion of one of the members of your parliament, Malalai Joya, and that death threats are being uttered against her.

I am sure that your great country honours the will of the people who elected Ms. Joya to represent them. I understand that she has done much good for the poor and the children of Farah, and that she is much loved and respected.

As you know, Malalai Joya is greatly respected around the world, and her humanitarian efforts bring much respect to your great country.

I am sure that as President you will do everything in your power to protect this honoured citizen and restore this parliamentarian to her seat in your legislature.

Most sincerely and humbly,

Peter Ladage,
Canada

i also wrote to our government.


who is malalai joya?

from Human Rights Watch (http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/05/23/afghan15995.htm):

The Afghan parliament should immediately reinstate Malalai Joya, a member suspended for criticizing colleagues, and revise parliamentary procedures that restrict freedom of speech, Human Rights Watch said today.

Joya, 28, is the youngest member of the Afghan legislature. As a 19-year-old refugee in Pakistan, she taught literacy courses to other Afghan women. During the Taliban years, she ran an orphanage and health clinic in Afghanistan. In 2003, she gained international attention for speaking out publicly against warlords involved in drafting the Afghan Constitution. Two years later, she was the top vote-getter from Farah province in Afghanistan's parliamentary elections, and was easily elected to the lower house of the legislature.

Since her election, Joya has continued to be an outspoken defender and promoter of the rights of Afghan women and children. She has also continued to publicly call for accountability for war crimes, even those perpetrated by fellow parliamentarians.

Joya has survived four assassination attempts, travels with armed guards and reportedly never spends two nights in the same place.

Birdsong & Coffee

i know some of you are planning to go to cellarman's friday night to enjoy my band, blind mary.
but before you do, i urge you to see the SHARE Film Presentation of Birdsong & Coffee.

"Coffee drinkers will be astonished to learn that they hold in their hands the fate of farm families, farming communities, and entire ecosystems in coffee-growing regions like Costa Rica. In this film we hear from experts and students, from coffee lovers and bird lovers, and-most importantly-from coffee farmers themselves. We learn how their lives and ours are inextricably linked, economically and environmentally." http://www.olddogdocumentaries.com/vid_bsc.html

THEN come on out to cellarman's and enjoy the band. we'll be there till midnight, and we can stay till 2 a.m. talking about coffee and birds and the rest of life.

if you want to go to the film, please call ahead so that sue knows how many are coming.

that's what men are good for

wars rage on in israel and palestine and around the world
at home and in the forests and oceans

"now words i think are just a noisy dirty wind
makes the trouble we get in so why do we speak
now we made another war that's what men are good for
men with stupid insecurities not a lot more"
-- hawksley workman, merry christmas (i love you), almost a full moon