Confessions of a Shiftless Mind

What got me on this subject this morning?  I am trying to remember…

Oh yeah.  I have this Christian news RSS feed, and it came up with a story on the new WOW 2009 CD, in stores October 9.  I was passably curious about what was on it (they are good collections of Christian music if you’ve never been into it before), and I discovered the newest edition is donating a portion of its proceeds to Shaohannah’s Hope, a charity founded by Steven Curtis Chapman, one of the most popular Christian musicians of the past 20 years.  He and his wife adopted I think 3 or 4 kids from overseas, and then set this up to help families pay for international adoptions, as the process can be expensive - into the tens of thousands of dollars when all is said and done.

My mother and father-in-law adopted a whole bunch of kids a few years ago from Russia, and recently their oldest adopted son won national recognition for advocacy for orphans (I hope I am describing that accurately).  My sister-in-law also adopted her son from Russia.  Hence, we have been involved and informed about both the need and the expense of adoption for a long time.

Being remarkably good at producing sons (we have four now) naturally has a downside.  I’ve always wanted a daughter, and it seems I suck at producing the necessary chromosome.  Cheryl and I have talked on and off about adoption, but the latest obstacle is definitely money.

So, I checked out Chapman’s charity.  Wouldn’t you know it, they don’t help Canadians.

After a little more digging, I did find some organizations in Canada though, who do provide grants to families looking to adopt internationally.  I give you Orphan’s Hope and ECHO.  Apparently they can give you up to $10 000 to help with the costs of international adoption.  It looks like it is income-based, but we should qualify.

Something to think about.  It really does break the heart to think about the difficulty faced by orphans in 3rd world countries.  While supporting charities that improve their plight help, if you have room in your life to give a child a family, why wouldn’t you?

Anyone who knows me well knows that I don’t really like where I live very much.  It was a romantic fantasy of my youth that brought me to the Lower Mainland.  It was a romantic attachment that has kept me here.

But, there are some good reasons to love Vancouver.  I won’t trouble you today with the reasons why I hate Vancouver.  Today is the positive.

1. The Mountains.  They really are stunning.  Especially up close.
2. The Ocean.  Being within walking distance of the ocean at any given moment will increase my contentedness factor by at least 30%.
3. 4×4ing.  The forestry roads are a lot of fun to drive, even for a car.  And there is so much to see.
4. All You Can Eat Sushi.  ‘Nuff said.
5. Indian food.  There’s tons of it around.  Samosas in every corner store.
6. Thai.  You know what?  The diversity of quality ethnic food in general.
7. Western Redcedar.  The trees are gorgeous, the smell of a cedar mill is even better.
8. Stanley Park
9. Sunsets, anywhere along the water
10. Sunrise on the Alex Fraser Bridge

I only accidentally went to Buffalo.  Then, when I returned to it, I missed my exit and ended up driving through its downtown area.  I love that city.

It’s just a little city by America’s standards.  It’s famous for wings, the Bills and the Sabres.  And the Bills may be leaving in a few years.  But the city’s character, its history struck me.  I don’t even know much about its history but the architecture, the buildings, the streets were gorgeous.  It made Victoria look like a modern caricature of a city of history and culture.  I wonder if anyone has ever described Buffalo as a city of history and culture before?  But I saw it, I felt it by every old brick warehouse I passed, by every three storey house that was running down, by every towering cathedral and church I passed by.

The parts of town I drove through are probably considered its rougher areas.  The houses were old, and some were falling apart.  The people on the street were mixed - black, white, old, young.  Some looked like college students.  Some looked like gang members.  Some looked like residents who have seen half a century drive by on the street beyond their front porch.  The city had a vibe I’d never experienced before.

How much did these things cost to build?  How long did it take?  Was it worth it?  What is being done to honour these halls now?  It was just inspiring.

Maybe it’s just the fact that I’m a Western Canadian kid, and I’ve never spent much time at all in any place more than 100 years old.  Most of Vancouver is less than 60 years old.  Same goes for Edmonton and Calgary.  Brick buildings are rare out here.  I just thought it was great.

I thought I’d just put this up as the top post here - currently I blog in three places.  Each has a different purpose.

The Politic is a group blog on conservative political issues.  I am one of many contributors of content and commentary.  It is about to undergo a revamp, so check it out.

Confessions of a Shiftless Mind is my personal blog, about nonpolitical issues.  It also incorporates my old blog posts from previous, more political solo efforts, the now defunct The High Places and Left-Handed Right.  However, its emphasis has shifted over time from the political to more about my personal life and about religious issues.  Now, currently it is exclusively personal anecdotal stuff.

Planting on Faith is my newest blog, focusing on my family’s journey from a typical suburban Vancouver family to full-time vocational church planters.  I know… that’s quite the change!  It is where we believe God is calling us though.  We’re not ready yet, but we’re getting there.

Right now, I don’t have a lot of free time, so casual, personal subjects are kind of off the radar, which is why you haven’t seen a lot on this blog.  I have been much more regular with both of the other efforts.  I am sure I will get back to Confessions sooner or later, and I have no plans to dismantle it, as it is an historical record of my online blogging.  But for now, if you want to see more current updates on what’s spurring me to write, check out the other two.

Bye for now!

It was a good 12 days we were gone, and we had a great time both at the convention we went to and at Disney World.

Funny thing about Disney World, in light of all the global warming rhetoric.  I don’t hear of any eco-organizations lobbying against Disney, even though a day on the park in August illustrates waste of energy and garbage on a scale dwarfed by just about everything.  I mean, every building they have is open-air and they all have air conditioning pumping cool air out like crazy.  I can’t imagine the juice that takes.  Even some of the rides are just crazy in light of the new, cool hatred of all things fossil fuel - both Disneyland and Disney World feature a car ride where literally hundreds of go-kart sized cars follow a simple track on a rail.  Every last one of them are powered by gas engines probably of the lawnmower variety.  It creates its own little cloud of carbon monoxide, you can smell as you walk by the ride.  I couldn’t imagine working on that ride as a “cast member”!

Putting that aside, it was great fun though.  The kids were brave enough to enjoy many of the rides - Splash Mountain was a favourite.  We checked out Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom were good, but their best rides were insanely busy.  We couldn’t come within miles of the Everest ride, and the new Toy Story ride in the Hollywood Studios, we got fastpasses for at 10am, for 5pm that night!  That’s right: within an hour of the park opening they were only issuing fastpasses for the evening.  The lineup for that ride was an hour and a half all day.

Let me just say though, August really is the worst time to go to Florida.  It was beastly-hot.  The humidity made the heat (over 30 every day at least) unbearable, and sweating all day long combined with hiking through the park for 13 hours a day led to chafing.  I was glad to come home.  30 degrees in Vancouver is infinitely more bearable than 30 degrees in Florida.

Lots of pics on facebook if you’re interested.