More on clutter

Here's some great words on clutter. I'm trying to take them to heart!

Thanks to Kathryn over at Good in Parts.

How do they know me so well?

You're the University of California, Berkeley!

A true hippy, you really wish you could spend the rest of
your life in the 1960's. It's not that you haven't been able to settle down
and be quite successful, but you yearn for the days of agitation and
revolution. You're fond of the old comic Bloom County, as well as the more
recent Outland. The rest of your life looks like a struggle between your
prestige and your radical nature. You really like those cheap Sathers
candies.


Take the University Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Thanks to Wormword's Doxy

You're South Africa!

After almost endless suffering, you've finally freed yourself
from the oppression that somehow held you back.  Now your diamond in the
rough is shining through, and the world can accept you for who you really are.
 You were trying to show who you were to the world, but they weren't interested
in helping you become that until it was almost too late.  Suddenly you're
a very hopeful person, even if you still have some troubles.


Take the Country Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid

Clutter

A friend and I had a great conversation today about clutter and our struggles to bring order to our houses. She recommended the site FlyLady so I've signed up and I'll see how it goes. The idea of being able to see the surface of things really appeals. I'll let you know how it goes.

Systemic Sin

Matthew over on Global Turtle has a piece on the Mattel toy recall story:

I know I am behind on my blog in relation to home reno pics, writing about the west coast trail, Some Southern Alberta trips, and other things on my mind, but I have to put a comment out there about a sad news story.

Last night Fisher Price (owned by Mattel) has recalled up to 83 different toys that are manufactured in China because of the high likelihood that the paint on them contains large amounts of lead. Read more here.

I really struggle with the issues Matthew raises here. I know that there are people who do everything they can to buy only locally raised food and Canadian made clothing and I really admire that. I don't know how they do it though. I've tried reading labels and it is a nightmare trying to find products that aren't made in China. The young son of a friend of mine started reading all the labels in their clothes and refusing to wear clothes made in China and she had a heck of a time trying to respond without denying the point this seven year old was making about unsafe labour practices in other countries.

Years ago, when I was working at the University of Manitoba with the chaplaincy, I brought Fr. Bert Foliot, S.J. to campus to give a talk on something. I remember he talked about how much he liked hearing confessions because people were honest about themselves. He said that in all his years of hearing confessions though he hadn't heard anyone confess their participation in systemic sins. No one confessed that they ate well and cheaply because farmer workers were paid peanuts. He said that it wasn't possible to remove yourself from these systems of exploitation unless you lived off the land and maybe not even then. But he said that there was value in confessing sins you couldn't stop committing if only it made you more aware of what you were doing.

I've thought about that a lot in the 20+ years since I heard that talk and I do try to do some things to keep from sinning even when I know that they are symbolic gestures. I don't shop at WalMart. I read labels. We use fair trade coffee at church. I shop at 10 Thousand Villages. But truthfully I'm still a far way off from making the changes that Matthew is talking about.

My fault, my fault, my most grievous fault...

Summer movies

I'm in the middle of getting ready for renovations so I've got a demolition bin out front and I've been sorting through a lot of crap to find the one or two treasures before pitching the rest. Well, actually it is a complicated process of sorting out the garbage from the Sally Ann stuff from the recycling from the treasures. So while I sit and sort and shred and sort I watch movies.

Last night I watched Hot Fuzz. What a hoot! It is pretty gory in places so if you can't handle splurting blood you better not watch it. But it is a very funny spoof of bad buddy cop movies. The English do humour so well. Makes up for the cooking. I don't always like parodies but this one is really well done - and incidentally kind of a sweet movie about buddy cops.

The night before friends and I watched Breach (I took an evening off from sorting). It is the true story of the worst spy in American history. Really good movie - great acting and a tight story. There was lots of the spy intrigue stuff but also some really good inter-personal stuff between the spy and the young man assigned to shadow him.

Earlier in the week I watched To Kill a Mockingbird. I've never read it or seen it before and I liked it a lot. Gregory Peck has always been a favourite of mine and he is really good in it. I've always heard how brilliant the film is from Americans and I think it is something that you see when you've grown up in the States with that form of racism. I lived in the States for a year and found that the racism I witnessed there was similar to what I had witnessed here and yet different because of the different history. And we didn't experience the civil rights movement in the same way either. But when the preacher tells Scout to stand up because that's her daddy passing my throat closed. Powerful moment.

See, I'm not immature - I'm a rabbit

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Thanks to learnerpriest