Augustine on Friendship

"This is what we prize in friendship; prize so highly that conscience stands self-accused, if it does not answer love with love, asking no personal gain beyond these proofs of goodwill. Hence comes the anguish of bereavement, the blackness of mourning, when joy is turned into bitterness, and the heart is steeped in tears, and the lost life of the dying is the death of the living. Blessed is he who loves Thee, and his friend in Thee, and his enemy for Thy sake. He alone loses no dear one, to whom all are dear in Him who is never lost. And who is this but our God, who made heaven and earth, and fills them all, because by filling He made them?"

Augustine, Confessions, London: Methuen & Co, 1905, p. 128-129

Eve of an Election

Finally. The day is almost here. After two years of a long campaign, the end is nigh. I'm rooting for Obama.

Defenstration

“Throwing people out of windows – ‘defenestration’ – was a traditional Czech way of expressing disapproval.”

Anthony Pagden, Worlds at War, New York: Random House, 2008, p. 305.

Election Called

It's official: Canadians will vote on Oct. 14.

I get the impression that Toronto Star columnist James Travers is not going to vote for his Conservative candidate.

He writes,

"Canadians have had more than 30 months to test-drive Conservatives. They have witnessed the party's strengths, its weakness and, more importantly, its values and its world view. They know, or should, that the party stands four-square with picket-fence families and is making a loose federation even looser. It favours military solutions over diplomacy, beliefs over science and wedge politics over consensus. The direction is clear, as is the choice facing voters. They can opt for more of the same and Canada will accelerate along the path now leading it away from much of what defined it for most of the last century. Or they can force the pendulum back toward the centre."

Source: James Travers, "Voters face starkly different visions" The Toronto Star, 7 Sept. 2008. Accessed 7 Sept. 2008. Available: <http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/492227>

Psalm 111

Praise the LORD!I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. He hascaused his wondrous works to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and merciful. He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever. He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the inheritance of the nations. The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy;8they are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness. He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name! The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever! (Psalm 111 ESV)

Che Irony

I spotted a young man wearing a Che Guevara shirt, which is not unusual in Toronto. I was surprised, however, to see him sitting in a Starbucks. Talk about irony!

Egerton Ryerson

"Even at the elementary levels of education, where the new state reigned supreme, the advance of secularism was met by a stern defence of the importance of instilling an unshakeable religious code in the minds of youth. Egerton Ryerson, to whom is ascribed such praise for creating the system of public education, never questioned the necessity of religious instruction in his schools. Indeed, he hoped that the creation of a system of public education would expand the place of religion in the classroom by removing special privileges and creating ‘a common patriotic ground of comprehensives and avowed Christian principles.’"


William Westfall, Two Worlds: The Protestant Culture of Nineteenth Century Ontario, Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1989, p. 6.