[lit-ideas] Re: Free Stuff from Philosophers
- From: wokshevs@xxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Julie Krueger <juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:15:50 -0330
It often happens here in St. John's that we get almost no snow before
Christmas.
This year, however, a blanket of the soft white stuff coated the entire town
and
now provides a wonderful backdrop for the flood of Christmas lights decorating
the houses and trees in the neighbourhoods.
Christmas is taken very seriously here, especially since we eliminated
denominational education a few years back. We're now working on
de-denominationalizing the cemetaries and the pubs in town but we're faced with
stiff resistance from the Churches who collectively claim that a) being buried
next to a heretic or apostate violates a fundamental right listed in our
*Charter of Rights and Freedoms* and b) "freedom of association" as secured in
the Charter does not contemplate the possibility of being compelled to drink
with persons not subscribing to one's own denomination. Something to do with
freedom of religious expression, I think.
Query: Is religion an institution that divides us from each other and occludes
our essential shared humanity and dignity, or does it harbour the possibility
of uniting us together, across political and ideological differences, in a kind
of cosmopolitan citizenship where we are all equal members of a Kingdom of
Ends?
Wafting pseudo-religiously at this time of season.
Walter O.
Gospodsy, Gospodsy, pomiluy nas.
Quoting Julie Krueger <juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx>:
> Be grateful for the white stuff. Here, it's just invisible, transparent,
> coating of everything -- kind of like trying to walk around on a piece of
> glass that's been well-oiled.
>
> Julie Krueger
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Dec 20, 2008 at 10:58 PM, David Ritchie
> <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>
> >
> > On Dec 20, 2008, at 8:07 PM, Robert Paul wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Robert Paul,
> >> following Shackleton's footsteps
> >>
> >>
> >> Crikey. If you're following Shackelton, then who in this blizzard is
> > this fellow in front of me?
> >
> > David Ritchie,
> > who has just been all the way downtown and back in the city formerly known
> > as
> > Portland, Oregon
> >
> > (it's currently "The White City" but there's a committee meeting at this
> > very moment)
> >
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