So What's New?

I used the phrase in a recent post; "so what" ("Good-Lifers," May 10, 2021). It was my slightly plaintive way of asking the question about things possibly learned by all of us thanks to our recent pandemic lifestyle. In other words, what are we doing with new knowledge gained after digital worship services or webinars or Zoom meetings or chat sessions? I'm afraid the answer is "not much."

I attended in person worship this last Sunday. It was a hybrid, with both in-person and on-line options available. Worship leader was one of our techno-savvies, live streaming provided by one of our techno-experts, and sermon by our techno pastor. The 'in-persons' gathered? You guessed it; it was us oldies who prefer sitting in church as we have done for decades, a habit not yet broken even after last year and a half of staring at screens. A few children and one young person - offspring of the hard workers. After church the senior citizens drove off in pursuit of the other pre-corona habit, lunch at a nearby restaurant. Nothing new here. Lunch to the tune of $20 - $25 per person no problem! Church budget may be struggling but as yet old patterns still in place.

So what's new? Nothing much also in my other diversion - the hockey world.  We still pay the gladiators to kill each other while hockey fans spill beer over each other. It's NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs! In a couple weeks one team will hoist the Cup for all the world to see. In the American cities - to whit Vegas or New York or Tampa Bay - it's almost 'back to normal' again. Hockey has returned to the delirium of in-person fans instead of tarpaulin covered empty seats. 

Playoffs round three, semi-finals. My expectation (hope?) for a kinder-gentler series seems already nixed. Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Islanders game two ended in a brawl even though the coaches are best of friends. Back to hockey I guess! And playoffs are always rougher tougher, like a new season with only the best allowed. Players worth their ilk need playoff experience; so say the talking heads - Kevin Bieksa, Kelly Hrudy et al. Now it's back to plexiglass rattling front seat fans announcing their in-person presence like kids in their playpen. One fight featured a full grown middle aged inebriated spectator yelling and making faces at the player (can't remember whom) getting pommeled. Wow, what maturity! It's as though the old devil of previous lifestyle is back. We're still the idiots who entered into corona season a couple eaons ago. I smile at a couple of my idealistic positive thinking blogposts about a year ago, hinting at possibilities of civility thanks to this sobering pandemic (Eg."The Civilizing of Hockey," September 19, 2020). 

So is it just me? Although occasionally affected by moodiness, I think this observation stands. It's not just my moodiness. [Okay you can beg to differ if you wish]. I am in midst of a true-blue disappointment about my fellow human beings. Indeed I had positively, optimistically, humanely (naively?) predicted a nicer gentler perspective possibly in the political, the community and familial environments after this pandemic got done with us. Read some of those heartfelts (Eg. "Corona Community," April 3, 2020 or "The Stretch," June 28, 2020). 😞 Apparently Real Estate markets are a good indicator of what drives local economies. Modest houses like mine are going like crazy I'm told because people who can't afford a house will try to bite into ownership because prices and interest rates look affordable. Ah, familiar old fashioned values. Real estate agents probably lining their pockets just like they have done in previous years.

Bottom line here, I am back to the opening question, "so what?" As life returns to some degree of normalcy; as many have complied and many defied protocol, along with the bleating of opinions in beginning, middle and post-pandemic, who had it right? As churches and sport coliseums reopen doors my bet is firmly on at least one thing, and I find that in the Bible, "Not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the Kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 7:21). We still have things to learn. We also still have things to unlearn. 

God is not done with us yet. Fortunately for us, that also is nothing new.

Blessed Belateds

It is now five days after my birthday. I have never been one to put great emphasis on birthday parties. In fact my anxiety level usually goes up the several days before, just hoping that my wife or kids not be fraught with undo efforts in that direction. In my mind birthdays are but another day, the one day a complete number can be calculated/claimed in the passage of time! Even from this rather simplistic perspective I do, however, appreciate one practice way back in my family of origin - simple Mennonite farm family with many kids. Lord have mercy on any one of us who thought we might have a birthday party for only that one! But, and I say this with deep sentiment and appreciation, the birthday kid got to sit on a pillow! And somewhere in course of the meal (can't even remember whether it was breakfast, dinner, or supper) we might sing a raucous version of happy birthday. There you go. That was it. On with life and the next pillow birthday for the next sibling in a few weeks or a month or...

So now social media provides a little tweak of familiarity for me. I appreciate the Facebook initiated greetings which come my way - each a window on a relationship which is a reassurance of connectedness with people who have been there and still consider it worth their time to "pass the peace" even if it was only the computer which provided the reminder. It's so easy, and so special - a bit like a momentary sit on the pillow! 

It is this ordinariness, this valuing of simple almost non-celebration which leads me to a new insight - and it could well be a spiritual discovery in this new modernity. 😀 I admit I am even slightly extra touched by the handful of greetings beginning with "Happy Belated" or "Sorry this is late but ..."  These have been the occasion of quite the tender exchanges. My inner being immediately gets it. Somebody is before me in genuine transparent desire, actually facing themselves or facing me with the greeting even though 'the big day' just slipped by. Special prize to my youngest son, totally in character, on the day after, on my cell while I'm driving, "Sorry a day late dad, but happy birthday." Very readily this dad will pull into nearest available parking lot and receive full dose of that blessing. 😚

Hey, my latest birthday was only the day that made it a complete number of years since my birth, and now we're moving along. And thanks for moving along with me even in the 365 minus 2 or 3 until it comes again - if I'm still around.

I think it is thanks to my large family's simple beginnings that now in the twilight the simple greeting here or there is a blessing beyond compare. Thank you all for the birthday wishes. They mean the world to me!

Learning to Lose

I thought I became a considerable gentleman last year about this time. I posted my gratitude for NHL Stanley Cup playoffs, sufficient coronavirus adjustments made to provide abbreviated playoff format so the fan-base could be at least partially accommodated. I now recall congratulating coach Travis Green and the Vancouver Canucks being the only Canadian team to even qualify for playoffs. In my mind they did us proud, but lost to those millionaire upstarts, Vegas Golden Knights from that Sin City down there in Nevada! Then the VGK (chuckle) lost next round to the Dallas Stars who then lost to the likeable Jon Cooper and the Tampa Bay Lightning to win Lord Stanley’s mug. All was somewhat well in my mind. I got to watch playoff hockey during Coronavirus which would be over soon.

That was last year. Here we are at end of first round playoffs 2021. Coronavirus still doing its thing and one whole slightly abbreviated season played in front of tarpaulin covered empty seats with fans all over U.S. and Canada relegated to family rooms and dens in front of televisions. [What a loss of revenue. I marvel at the reserve funds available somewhere to even attempt this. Money not being my specialty nor favorite topic, I cannot even visualize the billions $$ professional sport industry. It's big]. Evenso, some things still the same! Toronto last night exits first round, losing game seven to arch rivals Montreal Canadiens who almost didn’t make playoffs. And, Edmonton already golfing, got ushered out four straight by Winnipeg, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl notwithstanding. Round two, here we go. This ‘true North strong and free’ Canadian division renamed Scotia North by the business tycoons still trying to make money in Corona time. I guess that’s also still the same. Another thing the same? It’s still our game even with a new division title sounding like a bank. And I am assured there will be at least one Canadian team, Winnipeg or Montreal, going to next round!😔

At this point this year my thinker (yes!) into heavy further reflection about the great courtesy I exuded last year. I am of similar attitude this year. Yes I am. I confessed a bit on Facebook that I was a poor loser when Oilers were busy doing exactly that, but now it is becoming obvious I’m actually pretty good at it. Take Toronto for instance. I’m learning from the fans.  They are more experienced on said subject than the current coaches and players. They’ve been doing it for years. There is even a funeral joke where it was said family of the deceased should have asked for pallbearers from the Maple Leafs. They could have let him down one more time. 😏 As I watched the sad faces of longtime pros like Joe Thornton, Mitch Marner and wannabe superstar Austin Matthews, I realize I have something to say to them. “It’s only a game, boys.” Thornton can tell stories about “almost” to his grandkids, and Matthews can go with his millions of dollars and start training for next season together with his Edmonton buddy Connor McDavid. It’s as old as ---- snow, this hockey! 

My brothers and sisters and I, we all cheered for Gordie Howe and the Detroit Red Wings; dad for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yup, Leafs already in existence way back there, dad’s team would win an occasional Stanley Cup – last one 1967 (Wikipedia gets credit for that detail). We’d listen to Foster Hewitt Saturday night during bath time, alongside dad describing the moves he made when he was a young guy playing for the Embury Beavers. We believed him. He was probably just as good as his favorite Leaf, Frank Mahovlich. Then we got TV, 19” black and white.  By now we watched only when we weren’t playing the game ourselves, either on our homemade farmyard outdoors rink, or in nearby small-town arenas, occasionally even with NHL scouts in attendance – not to watch me, but one of my younger brothers and a couple others. Hockey was good back there!

Exciting, all this hockey. In fact I cannot easily remember whether my team was a winning or losing team. As far as I knew we were winning because we had a heck of a good time playing the game. So, looking ahead to this 2021 remainder of playoff bracket I’m rooting for Winnipeg – all the way to Stanley Cup. After all, their General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, comes from Blaine Lake, SK, just up the road from where I grew up, and maybe as a kid (yup I’m even older than him) he or his dad saw us playing hockey on that rink on that farm beside the highway. It’s just a game, boys. And boy, is it ever! 

Maybe, just maybe (I doubt it) the Jets will win the Stanley Cup this year. And us Canadians, or Scotia North fans will be ever so proud.