Of note in the news....

According to today's health and fitness news:

"Although weight control can help lower your risk for both heart disease and cancer, so can exercise. For all weight levels, a lifestyle with at least 3.5 hours of exercise a week lowers the risk of death 25 to 30 percent, according to a recent study of more than 116,000 women." (Provided by the American Institute for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C.)

Therefore... I strongly recommend that you exercise, since it lowers your risk of death... exercise and you may live forever. According to our experts at the American Institute for Cancer Research anyway.

That's my quote for the day

-Deborah

Say it like you mean it!

Dear men,

When you tell your wife that you love her, say it like you mean it. Don't say it glibly. The word has been too often profaned for you to profane it; too falsely disdained for you to disdain it; etc. Say it like you're throwing a brick through a window. Then, later on, say it like you're threading a needle. Through force and through craft, you must ensure that the message reaches the deep heart's core, where your lady is nourished.

Yours faithfully,

Montgomery, esquire.




I swear I meant to go to bed.

You can't hit what isn't there

I remember a "No Fear" shirt which said, "You can't hit what you can't see." Another truth, less frequently stated, is that you can't hit what isn't there. Postmodernism is one of those things that can't be hit because it isn't there. It's an empty title. When it does have a meaning, it's central doctrine goes something like, "No statement is true."  "But," we reply, "what about that statement you just made?" Other times, it's used to describe truths that were around long before the word "postmodernism," for instance, "you shall love you neighbour as yourself." Some postmoderns say that we should accept homosexuality, which is a lie. Other postmoderns say that we should have more empathy on homosexuals, which is true but not postmodern. Postmodernism covers a range of disparate opinions, and we don't need such an ill defined word. We don't need a cool new word to teach us the above truth. We need to repent of our homophobia, while holding firmly God's truths that homosexuality is rebellion against God, and that homosexuals, just like everybody else, for other forms of rebellion, need to be forgiven and healed by Christ. Likewise with probably any other good thing postmodernism has to say; it was an old truth, known once, and we simply need to remember it and repent of having forgot it. The label "Postmodern" should be dropped, because it's too confusing, and all writings that claim to be postmodern should be read, if at all, with caution.

Hello again

Hi, it's been a while. I haven' posted in over a month, and really, who cares?

If your interested in indie rock, I recommend Sufjan Stevens. I recently bought his album "Illinoise," which is an album in tribute to the state of Illinois. It's got some history, and the music is soft and folky, with plenty of banjo, trumpets, violins, percussion and acoustic guitar. It has pretty great harmony too. Also, the titles of the songs are really great, for instance, "A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, who went Crazy, but for Very Good Reasons," and "Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois," and "In This Temple As in the Hearts of Man for whom He Saved the Earth." It's a sweet, sweet CD. Deborah doesn't like it because it has a song about a serial killer called "John Wayne Gacy, Jr."

I also got a CD by a group called Page France, entitled "Hello, Dear Wind." It's quite good. The instrumentation is minimal, with mostly acoustic guitar and bells. They use a mixture of biblical and non-biblical imagery, and they reiterate their images throughout the album. The lyrics seem a bit hippyish, but they're quite good nonetheless. Here's a bit of lyric from their song "Chariot": "Come and marry us/ to the blushing circus king/ And dance like elephants as he comes to us/ Through a fiery golden ring/ With a violin and a song to sing/ As he brings for us our wings/ Now he's one of us/ He plays the tambourine/ He breaks the bread for us/ and sings."

In more music news, we've a new hymn book from Canon Press. It's called Cantus Christi. It has songs from all through Christian history, and it focusses on the psalms. It has a kind of psalm I've never heard of, namely a "through composed" psalm. It has four of them, I think. For these psalms, the composer took the text of the psalm, and composed music for the whole text. Therefore, the music can't be used for any song other than the one it was composed for. The hymn book came with an audio CD, which we can use to learn the songs and can sing along to. It also has psalms as regular songs, and psalm chants. It's a great book.

It was nice chatting with you. Drop us a comment if you're lonely. We'll do our best to comfort you.

So Tired....

Hello to the few people who read this... how are you all doing today? I'm okay myself, killing some time while on a break at work. The day has been rather stressful, so this is my hour of relaxing relief. I'm pretty exhausted and rather sleepy, but I only have one class left, so I'll survive I think.

It is snowing here right now. We havn't had barely any snow at all here, so it was kind of nice and refreshing to wake up two mornings ago to about two inches on the ground and more coming down as I walked to school in the morning. As I said, it is snowing again... to the dismay of some people here, but I welcome the change in the weather. Change of any kind is usually welcome for me, as my daily tasks become routine and boring.

Anyway, this isn't meant to be a blog of complaints... that will just bore people to death... so on to more cheerful news and events. My brother Shawn and his wife Heather just had their first child and named him Liam Andrew MacDonald... he was quite the porker I guess... 9 lbs and 1 ounce. But I've seen some pictures and he looks pretty cute... Congratulations guys! So, now I have seven nephews and nieces, and I'm sure I'll have many more in the future. I can't wait to meet them all, three have been born since I left, and two of them will be almost a year old when I return... and the others that I do know, will be so big.

Scott has been working semi-diligently on getting his application and related forms all filled out and faxed away.. for applying to Acadia Divinity College. He jokes that 'it'll be so strange living in Wolfville next year... he doesn't know if he can handle the big city life and the crowds of people'. It will be quite a difference, that's for sure, but we both agree that we'll enjoy the small-town living of Wolfville compared with the big city living of Seoul... neither one of us are really the 'big city' type.

At the end of this month, we will have made it through one half of our contract here and will have six more months to go. We are going out for a big 'Western -style' dinner at the end of the month to celebrate this milestone. I look back on the past six months with 'fond' memories... some fonder than others. Let's see... I saw my first cockroach, shared an apartment with guys and millions of ants and weird flies... well other than those things.. it hasn't been all that bad... there are good things to remember like: great new foods, weird cultural experiences, etc...
All the same, I'll be glad to go home in six months.

Well, I had better be going.....

Update

Hey Everyone...

It's been awhile so I thought I'd do a little update on what is going on with us...
... absolutely nothing! Just the usual stuff, teaching, reading, sleeping, eating... it's a pretty boring life for me right now actually. Same thing day in and day out. Especially now that we are practicing English play with the kindergarteners (in the previous months we switched teaching books daily.. text, phonics, storybook etc). Now, we just practice the english play everyday until Feb. 22. So boring! It's easy though, which is a plus.

I've been experimenting with making Korean food at home. I've been buying mostly Korean groceries and have been trying to make a bit of the cuisine and experimenting a bit with ideas of my own, combining Korean and American - style food (kim chee pizza for example).

I've cut down on the exercise a bit on Scott's suggestion. I was going to the gym six days a week, but Scott suggested I just do five, since I was somewhat lacking in energy after a day of work and and hour in the gym.

I guess none of this is particularly exciting, but such is the state of my life right now.

In more exciting news, my sister-in-law, Heather should have her baby soon, it's now overdue, it was due on January 17th, so hopefully we'll have some exciting news from them soon.

Anyway... talk to you soon

Deborah

You're the one for me, Fatty!

In Korea, the older generation and the younger generation have opposing political views. As far as I know, all the younger generation have the same politics, and likewise with the older generation. One of my adult students told me this. He said that Korea was polarized. Another student replied that he thought polarized was an excellent word. We were talking about the generation gap, and he thought that the two generations were completely different and couldn't get along with each other, and that polarized expressed this because it brought in the idea of magnets. And this is how a metaphor helped me to think of the issue in a different way. I commented that actually the parts of magnets that are alike repel each other, and the opposites attract. So maybe, I said, the two generations are the same, both self-centered at heart.

'January Blahs?'

I know that the 'February blahs' are the most often referred to, but mine came a bit early I guess. The past few days, I've been experiencing quite a bit of blah. I'm not really sure what circumstances are causing it.... I just feel blah in general.
Our short vacation is now over and we both returned to work today, although kindergarten classes don't resume until Friday, so I have a few mornings off yet, I just have afternoon classes.
Today, I began the 'great clean' of the apartment, which could last some time. As some of you may know... the place in which we live is very dirty and disgusting... quite depressing to wake up to every morning. I suspect it is from build up of having men living here for years by themselves. I started with the kitchen, scrubbing the gas range and underneath of it (I don't think that it has ever been moved), and washing the cupboards inside and out. I then washed the food closet (which was completely black on the floor and bottoms of the walls)... we can now see the colour of the floor. I then cleaned the small corner with the washing machine in it. It was somewhat tiring, but seeing the black grime disappear was satisfying. Tomorrow I will tackle the main living space and the refridgerator. I have been wanting to do this for some time (since we moved in), but havn't found the time until now. I hope that this helps with the bug infestation that we've also been blessed with.
One of the teacher's from New Zealand finished his contract and went home for a few months, so we got a new teacher today from Ottawa, Canada. His name is Bradley. I have not met him yet, but Scott says that he is very nice. I saw him leaving work today, he looks pretty normal... long red hair, carries a skateboard etc.. Anyhow, he just got here two days ago I guess, and started work today, with no training or observing or anything. We got two days to observe when we came, so it's pretty bad I guess.

Well, I had better go, this is getting kind of long and boring
I hope all is well with everyone at home

Love Deborah

Howl's Moving Castle

I've finally seen Miyazaki's new movie. I've been looking for it since I came to Korea, but I've only found it in a few shops and it was expensive. I was thinking of going to a DVD bang (room) in Myeongdong to see it, but then last night our DVD store had it. I picked it up immediately, we brought it home and then went out to buy speakers for our laptop. Watching movies on this thing is terrible without speakers, and I expected beautiful music because the music on his last picture was beautiful.

I had high hopes, which is often a bad sign, because of course, it's easier to be disappointed when one has high hopes. But friends, I was not disappointed. This movie was excellent! Miyazaki's done it again! The animation was superb; the characters were loveable, quirky, cute and funny; and the whole world was insanely imaginative, from the beginning when Howl and Sophie trip across the towns rooftops, to near the end when Howl creates a new house and furniture is falling from the ceiling and rooms are popping into existence. The movie is also exciting; things happen so quickly that one is never bored.

As always in Miyazaki movies, the heroine is stunning while at the same time unremarkable. Sophie has never been beautiful, and in her words, "all I'm good at is cleaning." Chesterton said that in fairy tales extraordinary things happen to an ordinary boy and that in modern stories ordinary things happen to abnormal people. Howl is definitely a fairy tale, and in this way is similar to The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia . Sophie is a young girl who works at a hatter's and isn't happy there. Because she's not the type of girl to complain, this comes out it a conversation with her mother. One night after accidentally meeting Howl, the Witch of the Wastes comes to the shop after it's closed. Sophie tells her to leave, and she does, but not before casting a spell on Sophie. This spell turns Sophie into an old lady, and she then runs away from her home at the hatter's shop. While running away, she finds Howl's castle, gets in and designates herself the new cleaning lady because it's so dirty. Thus it begins, and through the rest Howl tries to stop a war and Sophie tries to break her spell and the group of people inside of the castle grows and they turn into a extempore family. Because this post is getting too long, I merely say: It's terrific. Watch it.

Scott's Birthday

Yesterday was Scott's birthday. It was a pretty good day all in all and we both had a good time. I made Scott breakfast in bed... heart-shaped pancakes(corny, I know), fried ham and banana-blast smoothie. Then we read the second chapter of 'The Hobbit' together. We have recently (within the last two days) began reading this book... Scott decided that we would start having 'family reading time' where we read a book aloud.. one chapter a day. We have started with 'The Hobbit' because I have not read any of 'The Lord of the Rings' books and Scott likes them. We bought it at one of the biggest bookstores in Korea 'Bandi and Luni's bookstore'; they have a huge English section. A bit later, I went to the gym and Scott went on a very long walk. After the gym, I went on a mad search for birthday candles and found a weird kind of really long skinny ones, then I went to Baskin Robbins and bought an icecream cake. (I probably would have made a cake if we were home, but here we have no cake pans or anything of the sort). It was kind of a girly cake, all pink with a little angel on top... but it was the only cake that was not a Christmas cake, so it had to do.
Later, when Scott got home... hmmm... I don't remember, anyway, around 4pm I started making his birthday dinner. I made a three course tex-mex dinner (although the third course was icecream cake, which is not tex-mex, and I didn't make it). To start, we had Mexican corn soup with Rye bread, then for dinner we had taco salad and taco chips with salsa, cheese and beans. Anyway, it was pretty good and we were both very full afterwards. Then we had the icecream cake... when I took it out of the freezer the angel had somehow been decapitated, but we repaired her before lighting the candles and singing 'Happy Birthday'. The long skinny candles, were combination candle-sparklers, so they were kind of cool... Scott did not blow them all out on the first try. The icecream cake was strange... very different than dairy queen. It had no cakey, cookie stuff or fudge... just icecream, a mix of cherry and almond icecream, it was still good though.
Anyway.... just an update, I have to go, I'm a bit late.
For more birthday photos, check out our photo album link.

-Deborah

Merry Christmas everyone!
This will be short... as I'm sure everyone is quite busy. We had a very good Christmas, with lots of eating of course and fun times for everyone. Mostly this is just a note to let you know that we have posted our Christmas photos in our photos of korea album on this page... so if you would like to see more of what you see now.. just go into our photo album and enjoy!

Christmas Eve

Hello everyone,

Today we are preparing for Christmas and for the Cantata. I caught the bus outside of our apartment and went to Home Plus, a grocery store made by Samsung and Tesco. I had to get some whipped cream for our Christmas breakfast and our Christmas dinner. I also had to get the rest of the stuff for Deborah's stocking. While I did that, Deborah stayed at home and began making some cinnamon rolls. She had already baked a pie earlier in the morning, and it's a blueberry pie; we found the filling at the foreign food market in Seoul. Now that I've got all Deborah's stocking stuff, the only preparation left is for Deborah to finish baking the cinnamon rolls and the wreath of bread she's making with the left over dough.

To prepare for the cantata, I have to find some black pants and a white shirt. I brought neither with me to Korea. I've e-mailed Pastor Bill to ask him to find me these items, because he has all the connections. He hasn't yet e-mailed back a response and I have to leave in under an hour, so I'm unsure about what's going to happen. Anyway, practice begins at 2 o'clock, but the cantata isn't until 7. That's a long practice. Good folks, adieu!

"Love in the Ruins"

I read through contemporary novels much more quickly than I read through classic novels or poems. The Oddysey, for instance, took me several weeks to finish, even though it's not that large. In the middle of it I stopped reading. Love in the Ruins, on the other hand, a novel by Walker Percy, took me five days, and it's larger than the Oddysey. For the curious, here's a bit of what I love about Love in the Ruins:

 

     "Papa, have you lost your faith?"

     "No."

     Samantha asked me the question as I stood by her bed. The neuroblastoma had pushed one eye out and around the nose-bridge so she looked like a Picasso profile.

                 ---

     I wonder: did it break my heart when Samantha died? Yes. There was even the knowledge and foreknowledge of it while she still lived, knowledge that while she lived, life still had its same peculiar tentativeness, people living as usual by fits and starts, aiming and missing, while present time went humming, and foreknowledge that the second she died, remorse would come and give past time its bitter specious wholeness. If only-- If only we hadn't been defeated by humdrum humming present time and missed it, missed ourselves, missed everything. I had the foreknowledge while she lived. Still, present time, went humming. Then she died and here came the sweet remorse like a blade between the ribs.

 

Percy's novels are full of such What's-wrong-with-us passages. In this novel, Doctor Thomas More, a lapsed Catholic, invents a device to measure the ills of the human soul. He plans to use it to save America and the world, which he believes are falling apart in some sense. The tool, however, is mostly diagnostic. It can cure people but only for short periods of time. Chesterton said that for every author, there is one title from his books that can describe every book that he has written: for instance, Dickens's was Great Expectations. Similarly, Doc Thom More's device is descriptive of each of Walker Percy's novels. His novels, Percy said this, are "diagnostic." They examine and describe the ills of the modern soul. And every time I read one, I find myself getting excited and saying to myself, "He's right! He's right!" Also, they have wacky, fun plots, and they're really funny too. So, what's not to like?

Give thanks

I have a rash on my chest. I first noticed it this morning, but at the time I thought it was just from sleeping on my chest. It doesn't hurt, though, and it's not itchy.  My chest is mottled red, pink and white. We've just finished devotions, and we read about how Christ is Lord of creation; he commanded the waves and wind to stop, and they stopped. But not only can he control waves and wind, he healed a man of leprosy and Pete's mother-in-law of a fever. So, it's not like this rash is an accident. God himself decided to smite me with this gift. What can I do? Give thanks.

Haiku

Haiku, as we know it, is that type of poem which is too short to be worthwhile. When I had to learn haiku, I thought I ought to teach my teacher about it, because she didn't seem to recognize that it was a joke. But I think that haiku is perfect for capturing the short moments of beauty that we experience from time to time. Occassionally, common things become intensely beautiful, and it often last for mere moments. It could be anything, too: the steps leading into your home; the monotous neighbourhood when seen while sitting on the curb in twilight; water dripping from a rock; melted snow streaming downhill; McDonalds when you're walking around Sydney late at night trying to get a sundae; the sky slowly darkening over the lake while your friends are on the shore and you're doing the dead man's float; looking at the glistening pavement from an apartment balcony just after the rain; any number of things. Often these moments of beauty are couched in other, more extended experiences. Sometimes they come out of nowhere. At any rate, the haiku seems the perfect form to capture these moments. Read, for instance, "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound.

A small story

When I walked out this morning, I could feel that this world was against me. And how could it not be? It belongs to Him. The graceful curve of the road reminded me of His works, which the cold, bare trees had arisen hours earlier to proclaim. The wind, blowing through the trees like fingers on a harp, was singing, "Great and Terrible, Almighty and Cold."  I shivered, chilled with fear, and walked on. The sun, I could sometimes see it over the grimy buildings, was coming up over the mountain, leaping from the peak to the valley bed to warm our city like a husband his wife.

 

Even when filled with the warm, yellow sun, this city seems a waste. Our merriment is fakery; our laughter is veiled tears; our entertainment a mere soporific, leading to the sleep of death.

 

But while walking to work I saw a strange sight. A child was walking with her mother. In a tree, she saw a leaf that she wanted to get for her mother, so she darted to the tree and climbed it. She climbed almost to the top, for that's where the leaf was, and she stretched out to get the leaf. She stretched too far, and she started to fall forward. She swung her arms furiously behind her, trying to grad hold of a branch, but she missed them all. She fell forward; the mother screamed. The child started somersault to the ground, screaming to her mother for help. I thought child would break her neck, or get some serious injury; she was high enough. But when she reached the ground, it cradled her like a soft mattress. It bent to the shape of her body, took her into the earth a few feet, and then sprang her back out onto her feet. She then ran to her mother, grabbed her hand and they walked away happily, seemingly unsurprised by the kindness of the earth.

Cultural note

In Korea, Christians will often go to worship three times a week. There is usually a worship service on Wednesday night, on Friday night, and then on Sunday. Also, they have services every morning at (I think) 5 o'clock. Some people, I'm not sure how many, go to those. This is quite different from our Western culture, where we attend service three times in one day, two in a row on Sunday morning and another on Sunday evening. This is merely descriptive, though, and no one should take me to mean that Korea is more spiritual than Canada because they have Wednesday and early morning worship services.

 

I suppose our Wednesday evening prayer meeting is similar to the service, because at this we sing hymns, the pastor shares a message and then people pray. However, as far as I can tell (I never went), prayer meeting is not very popular.

 

Koreans are also very open about their problems. They always tell me when they are distressed, and what they are praying for, and what they want me to pray for. My co-worker who sits next to me asked me how my spiritual life was going, and I my first reaction was nervousness. I'm not used to answering that question. Mostly, I don't ask others and they don't ask me. I think that here I'm learning things about the communion of saints. But don't worry; I won't come back saying, "Oh, this is how they did it in Korea." If I do, you can all bludgeon me with maces.

 

I heard in a interview the other day that the secularization of North America hasn't demolished religion, as it has done in England, but has domesticated it. It has made religion private, and Christ our god on the mantelpiece. Moses, on the other hand, approached the bigwig and said, "God said let them go, or He'll smite you with plagues." Contariwise, I would try to apologize for my beliefs, almost as if saying, "I know it sounds dumb and unreasonable, but..." Dei gratia, I am slowly growing stronger in all of my beliefs. I can now take the offensive by mocking and poking fun at false beliefs.

Lord, teach us to number our days

 


Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may learn wisdom.

Every so often it's good for us to reflect on death. This picture is to stimulate your reflections.
 

Various quotes on nothing in particular

"Wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God" (James 1.19-20).

 

"Who doesn't like a parfait?" (The Donkey in Shrek).

 

"And above all things have fervent charity amoung yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4.8).

 

"He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it hath already committed breakfast with it in his heart" (C.S.Lewis).

 

"Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers" (Proverbs 17.6).

 

"Next time I see you, remind me not to talk to you" (Groucho Marx)

 

"Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee" (Deut. 5.16).

 

"The bible tells us to love our neighbours, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people" (G.K.C.).

 

"Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them" (Oscar Wilde).

 

"I wonder what fool it was that first invented kissing" (Jonathan Swift).

Birthday party

This will be a fairly short post as I have class in fifteen minutes. I was alone at school all day. It was the kindergarten birthday party... they have one every month for all of the children who have had birthdays that month. Only one foreign teacher is required to be present for it and this month it was my turn. It's pretty easy, the birthday children hold candles and are paraded in front of the other children as the other children sing a korean song to them, then I shake hands with each of them individually and ask... what is your name? How are you? and How old are you? Some of the children answer, some give blank stares. Then myself and their korean home room teacher pose with each of them for pictures. The party only lasts for about two hours and then I had nothing to do until my afternoon classes at 3pm, so it was a pretty boring day, alone in the teacher's room for more than 3 hours with not much to do. It was interesting though, I guess.

Well, that's all for now.

ta ta