{"id":482,"date":"2007-10-22T14:54:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-22T21:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/breckenridge\/?p=482"},"modified":"2008-10-25T22:40:30","modified_gmt":"2008-10-26T05:40:30","slug":"james-breckenridge-and-the-missing-checkered-sock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=482","title":{"rendered":"James Breckenridge and The Missing Checkered Sock"},"content":{"rendered":"

from Something Cool News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Like most people with a functioning brain, I too have wondered about the mystery of the disappearing sock. You know, the one you put in the dryer with a bunch of other socks and yet, without exception or explanation, it always goes missing. No matter where you look or what you do, the sock goes missing. Every time. Some of the greatest minds of our generation have been unable to explain the enigma of the disappearing sock.<\/p>\n

Except, it would seem, for one James Breckenridge. Breckenridge, the subject of this week\u2019s mini-documentary Changing Lanes, had the opportunity to espouse his wisdom to me at a Starbuck\u2019s in Abbotsford where he had been invited to partake in a coffee with his good friend Vince Dimanno. It was within the confines of this little establishment that he explained his theory to me, also an invited guest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to understand where these socks go,\u201d he said, \u201cwe need to conduct a study, raise some funds so we can get a bunch of dryers which we can then experiment with. Once that process is complete, we need another set of dryers to try and replicate our results. After that, we need to invest in acquiring some experts to analyze those results. And then\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

It went on like this for a little while until the search for the missing sock was costing something like three billion dollars. It was a parable of course, a metaphor for the way government works. Rather than simply solve a problem, the wisdom of our modern day politicians seems to be to first study the problem, hold a never-ending series of conferences, write a number of reports and assessments and then start all over again, costing the taxpayers innumerate sums of money yet getting no closer to an actual solution to whatever the original problem was.<\/p>\n

Now, two things struck me as I listened to James speak on this weighty subject. Firstly, how right he was. And secondly, how he was even able to tell this story given his current situation. For those not in the know, James is homeless and has been living in his car for the past few weeks. He was laughing and making wisecracks as he spoke, and I recall wondering how a man reduced to sleeping in the front seat of his car could find anything funny. Yet there he sat, chuckling at his own joke.<\/p>\n

See, if I were James Breckenridge I\u2019d be a very angry, angry man. This is a guy who has championed the homeless and worked tirelessly for them during his time at the Salvation Army Shelter where he works. And when not working, he has written extensively on his blog and to local newspapers, doing everything he can to raise awareness on the issue. Even now, homeless and alone, he is working on a way to get to Kamloops to attend a housing conference there or some such thing. He\u2019s going to class to learn how to better help other people even as he himself needs help. Who is this guy?<\/p>\n

And what result has James garnered for all this virtuous work? A giant goosegg, that\u2019s what. He wrote a letter to local newspapers \u2013 a letter that was actually published \u2013 but not one of his friends\/acquaintances stepped forward to offer him a place to live. These are the same people James tries to help when he can and defends when someone speaks ill of them. Even though some of them have a couch or a spare room they could lend, they remain silent and allow James to sleep in his 1987 Plymouth Duster.<\/p>\n

The media hasn\u2019t been any more accommodating. How do they repay him for all his insightful writing that he does for free? They also ignore his plight. The newspapers know he is homeless and living in his car \u2013 they published the letter that he wrote telling them so. Did they dispatch a single reporter to cover this development? Did they try and raise awareness about what he was going through? No \u2013 instead they remained silent, leaving it to SomethingCool News to tell the story.<\/p>\n

Which, of course, we were more than happy to do. The point of it all is that we really shouldn\u2019t have to, just as James really shouldn\u2019t have to call a Rest Area along the freeway home. In a community that bills itself as caring and \u201cChristian\u201d, this kind of thing really should not be allowed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a point James understands well. \u201cYou know that thing that really pisses me off?\u201d James said to me, taking a sip of his coveted coffee. \u201cIf I went into a local church, raised my hands and said, \u2018Hallelujah, Praise the Lord!\u2019, all of sudden everyone would come forward to help me. But because I don\u2019t do that, I end up sleeping in my car. How\u2019s that for a caring community?\u201d<\/p>\n

It reminds me something I read recently \u2013 a story in the newspaper about a church that was luring kids into church by allowing them to play the ultra-violent video game Halo 3. In justifying this, one of the pastors said, \u201cWe want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell. If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it. My own take is that we can do much better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

So\u2026.lure the kids into the church, let them play a violent video game and then tell them that doing so is wrong? It\u2019s the kind of blatant hypocrisy James knows well. Once the \u201csin\u201d of being homelessness is forgiven, then all is good. Then people can help. But until the homeless beg for forgiveness, they\u2019re ears, eyes and mouth are closed.<\/p>\n

The pastor at the Halo Church said that God wants ministers to be \u201cfishers of men.\u201d Elaborating further (and using a more disturbing tone), he said, \u201cTeens are our fish. So we\u2019ve become creative in baiting our hooks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evidently, it\u2019s not just the teens that are the fish, but the homeless as well. And until they start tugging on the bait, well, they\u2019re just going to have to get used to sleeping outside, or as it is in James\u2019 case, in their cars.<\/p>\n

But James isn\u2019t angry about that and instead makes a joke about it. I don\u2019t understand how this man is able to turn so many negatives into such positives, but he does. For him, being a fish is an alright life, not one that he necessarily wanted or chose, but then why be depressed about it? Whether he\u2019s angry or sad, he\u2019s still going to be homeless, so I guess in his mind, he\u2019s better off thinking about disappearing socks. I mean, if no one else seems to have any emotion on the subject, why should he?<\/p>\n

Fred Johns
\n<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from Something Cool News Like most people with a functioning brain, I too have wondered about the mystery of the disappearing sock. You know, the one you put in the dryer with a bunch of other socks and yet, without exception or explanation, it always goes missing. No matter where you look or what you do, the sock goes missing. Every time. Some of the greatest minds of our generation have been unable to explain the enigma of the disappearing sock. Except, it would seem, for one James Breckenridge. Breckenridge, the subject of this week\u2019s mini-documentary Changing Lanes, had the opportunity to espouse his wisdom to me at a Starbuck\u2019s in Abbotsford where he had been invited to partake in a coffee with his good friend Vince Dimanno. It was within the confines of this little establishment that he explained his theory to me, also an invited guest. \u201cIn order to understand where these socks go,\u201d he said, \u201cwe need to conduct a study, raise some funds so we can get a bunch of dryers which we can then experiment with. Once that process is complete, we need another set of dryers to try and replicate our results. After that, we need to invest in acquiring some experts to analyze those results. And then\u2026\u201d It went on like this for a little while until the search for the missing sock was costing something like three billion dollars. It was a parable of course, a metaphor for the way government works. Rather than simply solve a problem, the wisdom of our modern day politicians seems to be to first study the problem, hold a never-ending series of conferences, write a number of reports and assessments and then start all over again, costing the taxpayers innumerate sums of money yet getting no closer to an actual solution to whatever the original problem was. Now, two things struck me as I listened to James speak on this weighty subject. Firstly, how right he was. And secondly, how he was even able to tell this story given his current situation. For those not in the know, James is homeless and has been living in his car for the past few weeks. He was laughing and making wisecracks as he spoke, and I recall wondering how a man reduced to sleeping in the front seat of his car could find anything funny. Yet there he sat, chuckling at his own joke. See, if I were James Breckenridge I\u2019d be a very angry, angry man. This is a guy who has championed the homeless and worked tirelessly for them during his time at the Salvation Army Shelter where he works. And when not working, he has written extensively on his blog and to local newspapers, doing everything he can to raise awareness on the issue. Even now, homeless and alone, he is working on a way to get to Kamloops to attend a housing conference there or some such thing. He\u2019s going to class to learn how to better help other people even as he himself needs help. Who is this guy? And what result has James garnered for all this virtuous work? A giant goosegg, that\u2019s what. He wrote a letter to local newspapers \u2013 a letter that was actually published \u2013 but not one of his friends\/acquaintances stepped forward to offer him a place to live. These are the same people James tries to help when he can and defends when someone speaks ill of them. Even though some of them have a couch or a spare room they could lend, they remain silent and allow James to sleep in his 1987 Plymouth Duster. The media hasn\u2019t been any more accommodating. How do they repay him for all his insightful writing that he does for free? They also ignore his plight. The newspapers know he is homeless and living in his car \u2013 they published the letter that he wrote telling them so. Did they dispatch a single reporter to cover this development? Did they try and raise awareness about what he was going through? No \u2013 instead they remained silent, leaving it to SomethingCool News to tell the story. Which, of course, we were more than happy to do. The point of it all is that we really shouldn\u2019t have to, just as James really shouldn\u2019t have to call a Rest Area along the freeway home. In a community that bills itself as caring and \u201cChristian\u201d, this kind of thing really should not be allowed. It\u2019s a point James understands well. \u201cYou know that thing that really pisses me off?\u201d James said to me, taking a sip of his coveted coffee. \u201cIf I went into a local church, raised my hands and said, \u2018Hallelujah, Praise the Lord!\u2019, all of sudden everyone would come forward to help me. But because I don\u2019t do that, I end up sleeping in my car. How\u2019s that for a caring community?\u201d It reminds me something I read recently \u2013 a story in the newspaper about a church that was luring kids into church by allowing them to play the ultra-violent video game Halo 3. In justifying this, one of the pastors said, \u201cWe want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell. If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it. My own take is that we can do much better than that.\u201d So\u2026.lure the kids into the church, let them play a violent video game and then tell them that doing so is wrong? It\u2019s the kind of blatant hypocrisy James knows well. Once the \u201csin\u201d of being homelessness is forgiven, then all is good. Then people can help. But until the homeless beg for forgiveness, they\u2019re ears, eyes and mouth are closed. The pastor at the Halo Church said that God wants ministers to be \u201cfishers of men.\u201d Elaborating further (and using a more disturbing tone), he said, \u201cTeens are … Continue reading James Breckenridge and The Missing Checkered Sock<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hmmm"],"yoast_head":"\nJames Breckenridge and The Missing Checkered Sock - James W. Breckenridge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=482\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"James Breckenridge and The Missing Checkered Sock - James W. Breckenridge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"from Something Cool News Like most people with a functioning brain, I too have wondered about the mystery of the disappearing sock. You know, the one you put in the dryer with a bunch of other socks and yet, without exception or explanation, it always goes missing. No matter where you look or what you do, the sock goes missing. Every time. Some of the greatest minds of our generation have been unable to explain the enigma of the disappearing sock. Except, it would seem, for one James Breckenridge. Breckenridge, the subject of this week\u2019s mini-documentary Changing Lanes, had the opportunity to espouse his wisdom to me at a Starbuck\u2019s in Abbotsford where he had been invited to partake in a coffee with his good friend Vince Dimanno. It was within the confines of this little establishment that he explained his theory to me, also an invited guest. \u201cIn order to understand where these socks go,\u201d he said, \u201cwe need to conduct a study, raise some funds so we can get a bunch of dryers which we can then experiment with. Once that process is complete, we need another set of dryers to try and replicate our results. After that, we need to invest in acquiring some experts to analyze those results. And then\u2026\u201d It went on like this for a little while until the search for the missing sock was costing something like three billion dollars. It was a parable of course, a metaphor for the way government works. Rather than simply solve a problem, the wisdom of our modern day politicians seems to be to first study the problem, hold a never-ending series of conferences, write a number of reports and assessments and then start all over again, costing the taxpayers innumerate sums of money yet getting no closer to an actual solution to whatever the original problem was. Now, two things struck me as I listened to James speak on this weighty subject. Firstly, how right he was. And secondly, how he was even able to tell this story given his current situation. For those not in the know, James is homeless and has been living in his car for the past few weeks. He was laughing and making wisecracks as he spoke, and I recall wondering how a man reduced to sleeping in the front seat of his car could find anything funny. Yet there he sat, chuckling at his own joke. See, if I were James Breckenridge I\u2019d be a very angry, angry man. This is a guy who has championed the homeless and worked tirelessly for them during his time at the Salvation Army Shelter where he works. And when not working, he has written extensively on his blog and to local newspapers, doing everything he can to raise awareness on the issue. Even now, homeless and alone, he is working on a way to get to Kamloops to attend a housing conference there or some such thing. He\u2019s going to class to learn how to better help other people even as he himself needs help. Who is this guy? And what result has James garnered for all this virtuous work? A giant goosegg, that\u2019s what. He wrote a letter to local newspapers \u2013 a letter that was actually published \u2013 but not one of his friends\/acquaintances stepped forward to offer him a place to live. These are the same people James tries to help when he can and defends when someone speaks ill of them. Even though some of them have a couch or a spare room they could lend, they remain silent and allow James to sleep in his 1987 Plymouth Duster. The media hasn\u2019t been any more accommodating. How do they repay him for all his insightful writing that he does for free? They also ignore his plight. The newspapers know he is homeless and living in his car \u2013 they published the letter that he wrote telling them so. Did they dispatch a single reporter to cover this development? Did they try and raise awareness about what he was going through? No \u2013 instead they remained silent, leaving it to SomethingCool News to tell the story. Which, of course, we were more than happy to do. The point of it all is that we really shouldn\u2019t have to, just as James really shouldn\u2019t have to call a Rest Area along the freeway home. In a community that bills itself as caring and \u201cChristian\u201d, this kind of thing really should not be allowed. It\u2019s a point James understands well. \u201cYou know that thing that really pisses me off?\u201d James said to me, taking a sip of his coveted coffee. \u201cIf I went into a local church, raised my hands and said, \u2018Hallelujah, Praise the Lord!\u2019, all of sudden everyone would come forward to help me. But because I don\u2019t do that, I end up sleeping in my car. How\u2019s that for a caring community?\u201d It reminds me something I read recently \u2013 a story in the newspaper about a church that was luring kids into church by allowing them to play the ultra-violent video game Halo 3. In justifying this, one of the pastors said, \u201cWe want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell. If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it. My own take is that we can do much better than that.\u201d So\u2026.lure the kids into the church, let them play a violent video game and then tell them that doing so is wrong? It\u2019s the kind of blatant hypocrisy James knows well. Once the \u201csin\u201d of being homelessness is forgiven, then all is good. Then people can help. But until the homeless beg for forgiveness, they\u2019re ears, eyes and mouth are closed. The pastor at the Halo Church said that God wants ministers to be \u201cfishers of men.\u201d Elaborating further (and using a more disturbing tone), he said, \u201cTeens are … Continue reading James Breckenridge and The Missing Checkered Sock →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=482\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James W. Breckenridge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-10-22T21:54:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-10-26T05:40:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James W. Breckenridge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James W. Breckenridge\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\\\/?p=482#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\\\/?p=482\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"James W. 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Breckenridge","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=482","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"James Breckenridge and The Missing Checkered Sock - James W. Breckenridge","og_description":"from Something Cool News Like most people with a functioning brain, I too have wondered about the mystery of the disappearing sock. You know, the one you put in the dryer with a bunch of other socks and yet, without exception or explanation, it always goes missing. No matter where you look or what you do, the sock goes missing. Every time. Some of the greatest minds of our generation have been unable to explain the enigma of the disappearing sock. Except, it would seem, for one James Breckenridge. Breckenridge, the subject of this week\u2019s mini-documentary Changing Lanes, had the opportunity to espouse his wisdom to me at a Starbuck\u2019s in Abbotsford where he had been invited to partake in a coffee with his good friend Vince Dimanno. It was within the confines of this little establishment that he explained his theory to me, also an invited guest. \u201cIn order to understand where these socks go,\u201d he said, \u201cwe need to conduct a study, raise some funds so we can get a bunch of dryers which we can then experiment with. Once that process is complete, we need another set of dryers to try and replicate our results. After that, we need to invest in acquiring some experts to analyze those results. And then\u2026\u201d It went on like this for a little while until the search for the missing sock was costing something like three billion dollars. It was a parable of course, a metaphor for the way government works. Rather than simply solve a problem, the wisdom of our modern day politicians seems to be to first study the problem, hold a never-ending series of conferences, write a number of reports and assessments and then start all over again, costing the taxpayers innumerate sums of money yet getting no closer to an actual solution to whatever the original problem was. Now, two things struck me as I listened to James speak on this weighty subject. Firstly, how right he was. And secondly, how he was even able to tell this story given his current situation. For those not in the know, James is homeless and has been living in his car for the past few weeks. He was laughing and making wisecracks as he spoke, and I recall wondering how a man reduced to sleeping in the front seat of his car could find anything funny. Yet there he sat, chuckling at his own joke. See, if I were James Breckenridge I\u2019d be a very angry, angry man. This is a guy who has championed the homeless and worked tirelessly for them during his time at the Salvation Army Shelter where he works. And when not working, he has written extensively on his blog and to local newspapers, doing everything he can to raise awareness on the issue. Even now, homeless and alone, he is working on a way to get to Kamloops to attend a housing conference there or some such thing. He\u2019s going to class to learn how to better help other people even as he himself needs help. Who is this guy? And what result has James garnered for all this virtuous work? A giant goosegg, that\u2019s what. He wrote a letter to local newspapers \u2013 a letter that was actually published \u2013 but not one of his friends\/acquaintances stepped forward to offer him a place to live. These are the same people James tries to help when he can and defends when someone speaks ill of them. Even though some of them have a couch or a spare room they could lend, they remain silent and allow James to sleep in his 1987 Plymouth Duster. The media hasn\u2019t been any more accommodating. How do they repay him for all his insightful writing that he does for free? They also ignore his plight. The newspapers know he is homeless and living in his car \u2013 they published the letter that he wrote telling them so. Did they dispatch a single reporter to cover this development? Did they try and raise awareness about what he was going through? No \u2013 instead they remained silent, leaving it to SomethingCool News to tell the story. Which, of course, we were more than happy to do. The point of it all is that we really shouldn\u2019t have to, just as James really shouldn\u2019t have to call a Rest Area along the freeway home. In a community that bills itself as caring and \u201cChristian\u201d, this kind of thing really should not be allowed. It\u2019s a point James understands well. \u201cYou know that thing that really pisses me off?\u201d James said to me, taking a sip of his coveted coffee. \u201cIf I went into a local church, raised my hands and said, \u2018Hallelujah, Praise the Lord!\u2019, all of sudden everyone would come forward to help me. But because I don\u2019t do that, I end up sleeping in my car. How\u2019s that for a caring community?\u201d It reminds me something I read recently \u2013 a story in the newspaper about a church that was luring kids into church by allowing them to play the ultra-violent video game Halo 3. In justifying this, one of the pastors said, \u201cWe want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell. If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it. My own take is that we can do much better than that.\u201d So\u2026.lure the kids into the church, let them play a violent video game and then tell them that doing so is wrong? It\u2019s the kind of blatant hypocrisy James knows well. Once the \u201csin\u201d of being homelessness is forgiven, then all is good. Then people can help. But until the homeless beg for forgiveness, they\u2019re ears, eyes and mouth are closed. The pastor at the Halo Church said that God wants ministers to be \u201cfishers of men.\u201d Elaborating further (and using a more disturbing tone), he said, \u201cTeens are … Continue reading James Breckenridge and The Missing Checkered Sock →","og_url":"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=482","og_site_name":"James W. Breckenridge","article_published_time":"2007-10-22T21:54:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2008-10-26T05:40:30+00:00","author":"James W. Breckenridge","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James W. 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