The Game of Life

Saturday I was helping out with one of our Squads for kids. This one kid (Taylor) was playing darts (magnetic darts, don't worry!) and he was really good. He's not the brightest kid on the block, so it was just really nice to see him being good at something and I was praising him a lot and stuff. Then he started playing against another kid (Jacob) who is a fascinating kid and very creative, but not very good at darts. They decided that it might be fun to put the dart board on ground and sort of drop the darts rather than throw them. Taylor was still good at this. Then Jacob started changing the rules - saying you got points for getting as far away from the bullseye as possible. And then he just kept adding rules. Basically whatever Jacob did got good points, and whatever Taylor did did not get points. And Jacob just kept adding new rules and after each "drop" he would say "Yes! I'm still in the lead!" And poor Taylor just kept trying and trying.

 

It was fascinating to watch, and (of course!) reminded me of international politics. Even when countries are good at their game, other (more powerful) countries will keep changing the rules on them to keep in the lead and to keep others down. So often when people think of justice, they think of how they can get their hands on whatever resource they're lacking (land, power, "points", money, etc.) rather than asking for a complete switch of game. Becoming the new exploiter of a new game is not justice, now is it?

 

 

15 minutes continuously

So, we have a mini gym in our apartment building, and I've been using the facilities. What can I say? A new year's resolution to do some form of exercise. I like the cross-trainer (the machine where you run and move your arms like cross-country skiing), but have been avoiding the treadmill like the plague. I HATE running. But then I got to thinking that there will likely not be cross-trainers in Zimbabwe, but there will be land where I can run. So, I tried the treadmill the other day, and ran for 4 minutes. It almost killed me.

Today I ran for 15 minutes continuously. Now, trust me, I realize this is not a marathon (John's the marathon man), but for me this is a huge athletic victory. Yay!

This reminds me of when I was helping out in a grade 3 classroom and they were playing soccer baseball. I was put on one of the teams and actually kicked a grand slam (where all the bases are loaded and you get a home run). It was incredible. Most of the kids had never even seen a grand slam before. Never mind that I was 20 years older than them - it was huge.

So, I'm thinking maybe the Olympics...

Great sentence

OK - I read a great sentence in the Miroslav Volf book last night - here goes:

"There are good reasons for the vacuity of divine femininity. For if we were to give it concrete content, we could not avoid freezing a particular cultural construction of gender and then infusing it with divine powers and claims."
Good, eh? (Yes, I'm a geek - I love university!)

In every day English - we should be cautious of creating or promoting a Female God because we will - undoubtedly - impose our own gendered/cultured views onto that God.
And yet we do that all the time with God now, right? Sure, we would never say that God is male, but sometimes we sure describe "Him" as male, infusing our particular constructions of gender with divine powers. People always complain of "political correctness crap" when someone is unsure about using male, gendered language for God, but the language DOES affect our thinking.

And speaking of feminism - Amnesty International has an interesting campaign advocating on behalf of Stolen Sisters. Read the stats about the risks that Aboriginal women face in this country  - they are scary.