Category Archives: Consider

Consider, Homeless

Hmmmmm? Does her family flee when they see her coming?

Leave a comment

This is the flipside of “I had not known Hunger took Holidays” which has been appended to the end of this piece. Ironically this was written almost exactly one week before Hunger took Holidays; the two pieces forming bookends, truely Ying and Yang. I have also appended the Invitation I sent out to some newspeople I know inviting them to the holiday Monday (emergency) lunch.

Last year it was her mother, this year it was her brother and sister-in-law. Which is what has me wondering if her family is tempted to flee at the first sight of her blonde head approaching?

I feel I must protect her identity lest people take to fleeing at her approach since, with her short legs, catching them could be problematic.

The need to press-gang family into service arises at this time every year as the Seventh Day Adventists of the Open Door congregation gather out of town for a several weeks long church camp. This church retreat gives rise to the need to find someone to make and serve the bagged lunches the Open Door serves the homeless 40 Sundays a year.

I had someone who labelled themselves a christian tell me that as Adventists the were not really christians. All I can say to that is that the poor, the hungry, the homeless and those in need in Abbotsford would benefit from a lot more congregations who “are not really christian” but who live the golden rule, practice Christrianity and live their faith.

To her brother, sister-in-law and her “sister” thank you for not running, thank you for the lunch and thank you for the pleasure of your company. To her mother, thank you for the fine job you did with this daughter and son.

I don’t suppose you would consider writing a book on parenting? The world could use many more loving daughters and sons, practicing their faith.


I had not known Hunger took Holidays.

Evidently in Abbotsford hunger takes the last summer long weekend off. What else explains the “meal gap” from lunch Saturday August 4th through lunch Tuesday August 7th, a gap of 72 long hungry hours – if hunger was not taking a Holiday that is?

Usually lunch is available Sundays and Mondays, but with hunger on Holiday the fellowship of the organizations that had taken responsibility for serving lunch on those days joined hunger on Holiday.

Imagine my surprise at finding Hunger on Holiday, as my personal experience with homelessness was that hunger was a pretty constant companion, a gnawing worry.

A simple phone call was all that was needed to set in motion the provision of lunch on Monday, that and a willingness to ask some people to volunteer some time to set up and serve lunch.

Which is what made Hunger Sunday so frustrating – another simple call and Sunday 41 for the year could have been covered with those simple, but hunger appeasing bagged lunches.

I suppose that if the sacrifice to serve lunch on this holiday weekend was to much, I should not expect the effort to give warning so those who understand the meaning of commitment could step in and serve lunch.

Hunger, need, suffering and our host of other social ills take no Holidays.

That is not to say that those who give to their community and the less fortunate in that community do not deserve holidays. It is just that being responsible adults requires making provision for those depending on us for sustenance to be served and not left hanging – and hungry.

Consider, Federal, Homeless, Municipal, Provincial

The Wisdom of Youth.

Leave a comment

One of the most telling comments on homelessness that came out of Philip Mangano’s visit to Abbotsford was from someone not even in attendance.

In speaking to a planner I know after hearing Mr. Mangano’s experiences in successfully beginning to end homelessness, she related the wisdom passed on to her by her eight year old daughter. Previous to Mr. Mangano’s visit she, the planner that is, had been involved in the FVRD mayor’s forum on homelessness held about a year ago in Chilliwack. In explaining the trip to Abbotsford her daughter was informed we would be talking about homelessness.

Her daughter was amazed. Almost a year latter and we were still talking about homelessness – having taken no action to end the disgrace of homelessness. Year after year we keep talking and wringing our hands; year after year homelessness keeps growing.

Perhaps it is time we take the young lady’s advice: shut up, commit our will and ourselves to ending homelessness and putting our resources where our rhetoric is.

Consider

Thoughts on Thinking

Leave a comment
I was addressing a group of geographers the other day on Abbotsford’s social problems of homelessness, poverty, mental illness, addiction and affordable housing.

I decided to use their theme of inclusion and diversity to refer to George Carlin and his bit on mutually exclusive words with inclusion and diversity seeming to hover on the verge of being mutually exclusive, joining such examples as politicians & truth.

The point was to cite this as the root of not only our social problems but of almost all other challenges facing our societies, indeed facing the entire human race.

Not politicians and their propensity for lying or acting on what their ideology says should be the situation instead of what the actual reality of the situation IS. Rather it was my postulation that for the vast majority of the human race, especially politicians, thinking is an incredibly painful task, to be avoided at all costs.

What else would explain the length people will go to in order to avoid thinking about things or outright refusal to think period?

Politicians lie is an accepted truism, born out by the evidence of their words, actions and the outcomes of their behaviours. The solution to politician’s lies and so many other conundrums is the application of tools such as Occam’s razor or the science of logic. But this would require the application of thought, in some instances deep thought, causing pain, even agony throughout the population.

So it is that people go for what sounds good rather than apply critical thinking. They cling to what they want to believe or want to see rather than what the reality is. They avoid any thought or consideration of their core beliefs or world view because that would require deep thinking. Anything to avoid the pain of thought, the agony of deep thoughts

After all, who would refuse to think about problems and solve them, rather than wasting resources accomplishing nothing and allowing the problems to worsen and multiply, unless the very process of thinking was incredibly painful and must be avoided?

ipso facto: thought = painful experience for most people

I asked them to give a little thought to the effect that thinking being painful and thus to be avoided has had on social issues in Abbotsford and Canada. I asked anyone finding themselves experiencing pain, to work their way up to thinking by merely considering these ideas, kind of thought lite.

The point of this postulation was originally to engage their interest and drawing attention to the need to get people actually thinking about the problems, what needs to be done and on solutions. It served very well to engage their attention on major social problems and the hard realities we need to really think about and face in order to make intelligent, rational, sometimes unpleasant decisions on so many pressing issues.

The reason for sharing this here is because, frighteningly, when this idea continued to roll about my mind making me think further on the postulation about thought hurting so much, evidence in support of the proposition continued to grow. So think about (or at least consider the possibility) the proposition that thinking = pain.

Asking yourself: Who would refuse to think about problems and solve them, rather than allowing the problems to worsen and multiply, unless the very process of thinking was incredibly painful and must be avoided at any cost?

Frightening thought isn’t it?