Weekly Thought 2009
Biggest Little Things
By the time you read this it will be Boxing Day. I still have no idea why it’s called that other than the common understanding that it’s the time to get rid of all your environmentally unfriendly…
Godless Buses
From all account buses advertising that there “probably” isn’t a god, is going to generate much more open discussion about the nature of religion. I’m not sure where the idea that God has been a…
Condemned to Freedom
With the rugby coaches enjoying the fruits of recent All Black success, you have to wonder whether they aren’t also feeling a little smug that their game strategy is finally working despite the…
The Beauty of Inefficiency
What does it mean to be efficient? I’m often asked if I work in an efficient way? Which I guess is a subtle way of squeezing more work out of me. After all, I’m little more than a biomechanical…
Memory Errors
It’s hard to avoid the political furore over the apparently honorable Hone Harawira’s rather interesting outbursts of late. I have to say I am surprised by both what was said and my own response to…
Shoes
I'm on a flight to Christchurch and I can't be bothered Reading. My glasses are in the overhead locker and the inflight mag offers liitle more than advertising and a few strange articles about not a…
Voltaire's Aliens
Being sure about something is always straightforward when there is nothing to compete with it. So how can we be sure about anything? An anonymous saying goes, “A man with a watch knows the time. A…
A dodgy past
Revelations occur in almost every field of human endeavour – science, social science, religion, sport and philosophy. They are defining moments in which a person sees beyond a problem to a different…
Lighting
One of my background hobbies is web design. I enjoy trying to work out how people would navigate a site and what kind of information or entertainment they are likely to want to view. However that’s…
Snow
It’s very rare to find myself driving while it’s snowing, especially in October. Yet that’s what I was doing on Monday as we detoured via W(h)anganui to avoid the Desert road. I had already heard…
Catastrophic Irrationality
It’s very rare to find myself driving while it’s snowing, especially in October. Yet that’s what I was doing on Monday as we detoured via W(h)anganui to avoid the Desert road. I had already heard…
Sex and Tsunamis
Heading down to the beach to watch a possible Tsunami hit the beach seems a little daft to me, yet more than a few people chose to this week. You have to ask, “Why?”
I think it’s pretty obvious. Very…
A Baboon in Mating Season
When it comes to dancing I have a style all of my own. I’ve been told it resembles a body falling from a great height with limbs flailing in the false hope of actually flying. This doesn’t bother me…
The Unexpected
On certain occasions airports can be the most interesting places to observe the very best and worst of human behaviour, and this week I unwittingly witnessed some of the worst.
I was taking the plane…
The Cat and the Cradle
The sad reality of my miserable life is that I tend to forget fathers day each year. This is surprising considering the endless advertising that is timed for when my wife and kids watch tele. The…
Fools are so much fun
What does it mean to be foolish? I was interested to read about the Cantanbrian canoeist who took to the wave at Kairaki Beach during a storm. He obviously got into serious trouble that resulted in…
Bacon and the Universe
Having a name like Francis Bacon would be hard to live with in the 21st Century. Fortunately in the 17th century such names didn’t rank as unusual, which I guess explains why he never suffered any…
Exposed to the Unexpected
Running from the shower at the gym with a towel wrapped round my waist turned out to be a bad idea. As my feet slid from underneath me and I crashed to the floor without the towel I rediscovered…
Ruling the World
If your over the age of 40 you’ll remember the entertainment bloke, Harry Secombe. I never liked him much but the Brits seemed to swoon over him. He did however leave a legacy in my mind when he…
I'm not interested in Matt Damon
There’s an old Jewish proverb that goes, “A worm in a jar of horseradish thinks he’s in paradise.” It might seem strange but it’s actually a comment on our perception of reality. From my forty-five…
You'll be found out
I’ve been thinking a lot about cars recently. This isn’t a problem because I love cars and always have. My wife thinks I should think more about the house renovations, the garden and keeping the…
Old Parts
A couple of days ago I dragged my son round ‘Pick A Part’ looking for bit for our car. For those of you who have no idea what Pick A Part is, it’s a wrecker where you pull the bits off yourself. It’s…
Food Chain
About a year back we brought home a very small and cute Wet Highland Terrier. We’ve never had a dog before so the learning curve was steep. We had been warned that they poo and wee everywhere if not…
“We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glow worm.”
The German psychologist, Erich Fromm, claimed that, “Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself.”
The passage of life from birth to death is not an easy one. Certainly there are difficulties…
Things to do while naked
I'm in Australia with my wife this week without kids. We've come with some friends and I have just discovered what holidays are supposed to be like - we finally get to do what our wives want to do…
Democracy and You
There’s an interesting article on the Stuff website at the moment entitled, “Warped democracy and other outrages.” Although it’s little more than a benign opinion, it raises questions about the…
Does Prozac do what God can't?
Does Prozac do what God can’t? This was a question thrown at me recently. It’s a good question too. Why is it that people with religious beliefs and experience often use medication to find their…
Museums, Horton and Kids
This week our family went to see the movie, “Night at the Museum 2” and I really enjoyed it. Indeed, I have to confess a love for most movies made for kids that are based on books. “Horton Hears a…
What you don't have
A few years back I visited Chicago for a conference and was billeted with a reasonably affluent family. They had this amazing home on the river just outside McHenry. It was complete with jet boat,…
Worrying Achievement
Until recently I had never flown in a helicopter. It’s something I had always wanted to do, but every time I thought about it the idea of taking out a small mortgage to do so put me off. There was…
Mothers Again!
It’s the week of buying cards for mums. If you’re a Dad you’ll be buying cards for your kids to give to their mums: for two reasons. First, they’re too small to know how or why and you know that…
Swine
The Americans claim a new name is required for Swine Flu. I’m with them, it’s awful. What’s more it undermines the niceness of pigs generally - especially the bacon part. So, what are the…
Trademe Obsession
Trademe has become something of an iconic New Zealand website. I don’t know anyone who has never heard of it and most take a look from time to time. One of my kids has bought a few things over the…
Un-peaceable Voyeurism
As I sat down to write this article the Veitch-Dunne-Powell drama was unfolding on the radio. Months of media and public speculation came to a kind of halt. At least that’s what I initially thought.…
A Dull Saturday
I was speaking to the Dean of the Wellington Cathedral a few days ago and he told me that a visitor commented on his way out that, “it was such a shame that so many great Easter worship services were…
Accountability as a Facade
Headlines capture our attention. Famous people who’ve sinned, gory deaths, sinister government departments, or blame being placed at the feet of respected organisations. Last Thursday I was caught by…
Poetry of Words
“There once was a man from Calcutta, who happened to love peanut butter......”. As with most people, poetry is not gift I have. A poet is a wordsmith. Poets hold words together, chasing after the…
Is God Nasty?
If there was ever a televised illustration of the saying, “Life isn’t fair” then Dancing with the Stars would have to be it. Our family seems to have adopted watching this programme out of some…
Reaping and Sowing
The saying, “a leopard never changes its spots” is often applied to those who are deemed untrustworthy. At it’s best the saying is merely a warning to be wary of certain people. At it’s worst, it…
Industrialised Hospitality
I was born in London and raised in a thin 3-storey house in the East End and spoke with Cockney accent. One of the things I remember is that people in street were often familiar to each other and…
Jonah
I have a love/hate relationship with fishing. I’m not patient with this kind of activity and in all cases fishing requires great dollops of it. Perhaps it’s just me, but every time I step foot on a…
A Life that Matters
The great majority of us find that certain aspects of life can become unbearable at some point. We know when that time comes because we tip over the edge psychologically and explode verbally or…
Aloneness
“The greatest social need among New Zealanders over the last decade is loneliness.” This was the claim of a social worker in Christchurch who has been intimately connected with the community for some…
Hard Work Great Experience
Ketetahi Springs on the northern slope of Mt Tongariro is often used as the gateway to walk the saddle between Mt. Ngauruhoe and Mt Tongariro. It’s very do-able and has gorgeous views. I began this…
Unpredictable Child
The opening sentence of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice states categorically, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”.…
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