Category Archives: Simple Ideas

26

Feb. ’11

An Act of Kindness

This person sent me a comment on my blog, and i’m posting it because its beautiful to read, and emulate. Its true. When you hang out with the homeless, you give lots away. I know they do and its catchy. Well done to this person. Nice job

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I live near downtown houston and every year on Thanksgiving, my mother and I go down and volunteer at the George R Brown convention center [they give out meals to the homeless on that day. So these past winters have been really biting, right?

And the end of november is NO different

Im put in charge of the mashed potatoes, right? (dont you laugh too long, thats important) . Well,this lady comes in, and shes nice and pleasent enough, but when she holds out her tray for the mashed potatoes, i can see that her thin fingers are so cold, theyve cracked and are slightly (if not recovering from) bleeding. At the last minute I remember my gloves in my jacket pocket (the jacket which is tied around my waist) so ive gotta fumble around, acting like im not suspicous, while taking forever with this ladys mashed potatoes (she MUSTVE thought i was crazy).

Finally, i find the gloves and slip them on the tray, under the bowl of mashed potatoes and hand the tray back to her

She had no idea

Posted by . Categories: Characters & People, Homelessness, Simple Ideas, Thoughts on Life. Tags: , , . Leave a comment

27

Nov. ’10

Then Puke up Whatever is leftover Part 2

There is so much pain and suffering in our world.

We don’t have to go to the Congo and watch as little boys are raped, or Darfur where men are butchered in front of their children. We can stay right here in Toronto where thousands of children go without 3 solid meals a day.

Poverty and hunger is rampant in Toronto. It is out of control and as the million dollar condos go up so too does poverty.

What would happen if we were all conscious of what was really going on in our world? What would happen if each one of us decided that we really could not stand aside while terrible things happened around us, and instead took a courageous stand to stop them?

I include myself in this question for I think that I have been a safe humanitarian, a computer d0-gooder and I’m tired of it. I have been witness to the great courage of mighty people in the world, individuals with children, who put themselves in harms way to help others. That is not me.

I am not being self-deprecating only trying to be honest and encourage you to do the same. Very few of us are righteous Gentiles, righteous Jews, righteous Muslims, or righteous atheists. Very few. From time to time you’ll meet someone who consistently hurls themselves in front of a streetcar to save another life, somehow surviving and going ahead and doing the same thing the next day.

So with all the talk of saving the world, rescuing it from ourselves, not enough has happened, is happening or likely will. My guess is that every century has had those few chosen individuals whose balls were larger than watermelons, big enough to allow the person carrying them to stand up against the Knight, challenge the church, and grab a sword by the blade so as to save a child’s life.

Does it have to be that way? I don’t think so. I believe those people exist to remind us that we can achieve our own level of greatness; they remind us that lofty actions can be done by human beings.

And from time to time, all of us are faced with something lofty, but we hope with all of our heart that we can run from anything like that again. If we are to save our world from ourselves; stop war, famine, rape, murder, diarrhea that kills millions of children just like pneumonia does and malaria – then we have to decide that Wall Street and Bay Street are only streets, and that yachts, boats, pools and jewels do not go to the grave with us. We have to remind ourselves that our good name does; and our deeds do; and the life we saved or rescued is always ours.

What with the diamonds and the Mercedes? How does it feel to wear a 5-karat VVS rock and drive in a half-a-million car? I don’t know. Is it fun? Special. I imagine so. But there is no doubt, that saving 10,000 women from being enslaved as prostitutes (as the most recent CNN hero has done) is a shit load more fun…you’ll pardon my use of ‘fun’.

Because it is then you have saved a life, and out of that comes other lives, and out of those come more. And if you were to follow the slave’s lineage backwards and forwards you would find worlds upon worlds upon worlds. Just imagine indeed..Not winning a fucking lottery, but saving a 12 year old from a life of rape and prostitution.

It’s time for me to have some balls, to be stronger and braver. It’s time for you to have the same. If we all mustered up the courage to change things, things would change. This is the truth. This is what religions try to teach us, and strong valiant men and women try to show us.

One day you will come face to face with yourself as I will and I hope I/you will see something special….really special. I hope we will be able to say, we gave a shit and did everything we could to help the crying and shouting man tortured in a prison somewhere by a gutless and ruthless despot.

This is history. This is the present and while everything seems okay outside my window, it’s not.

There’s puke there, dripping down the windowsill. It’s been barfed up by all of us when we were witness to terrible things, but we just let it stay there.

We didn’t clean it up, like a women who’s drunk and too wasted to undress or wipe her face off. History is full of piles of puke, mountains of barf. We sure enough have the energy and ingenuity to destroy; why shouldn’t we use that to create?

Why?

 

Posted by . Categories: Humanity, Simple Ideas, Tikun Olam (Repairing the World). Tags: , , , , , . Leave a comment

23

Jul. ’10

every day is extraordinary

Today  I met a man who has been subjected to bullying and stereotyping all his life,  and in the end came out on top. I realized that those who attend school, do not do well, and survive it, are frequently the ones who accomplish great things in life. Why? Part of it is the  ‘nothing to lose’ syndrome, in which the individuals feels so shitty about themselves that they can only go forward from way they kneel.

Today I saw a mother who cried tears of joy knowing and  seeing her son, who had been  subjected to so much bullying and stereotyping, achieve greatness. I say greatness for if it were not she would not have cried in the way she did. She has known great tragedy and  has grown so much because of it and through it and therefore her tears are reserved for something very special and  sacred.

Today I saw the rawest side of parenting one could imagine. Watch ‘Autism: The  Musical’, a movie about  autistic children and their participation in a musical put on by a very  talented woman who is the mother of an autistic child. One mother said she hopes her daughter dies before  her. Why wouldn’t she ? She is terrified to leave her alone in this world. Why wouldn’t she be? Fill her  shoes for a moment. She is a mom to a person who cannot run their own life.

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15

Jul. ’10

Watching Mel Gibson Meltdown is liking Watching Ourselves

Watching a meltdown of a human being is daunting.

It is because when we do, as we are with Mel Gibson, we are privy to the destructive forces within a human being taking over the creative. Rarely, if ever, in past generations have we been witness to the personal collapse of a human being. The internet and mass media have allowed us to be in the front seat of other people’s lives.

I am not aggrandizing in anyway our vantage point; the chance to see something which is generally very sad, either for the individual  falling apart or for those affected by his/her free fall, or for both.

Not at all.

In fact, what I am saying is seeing Mel Gibson go off on anti-Semitic tirades, racist binges and abusive rants toward his current wife is a picture into our own psyche. While most of us do not suffer from the type of anger Mel has, we do have the ability to melt down in our own way, and that is what is so riveting and scary about seeing Mel do it.

When we watch leaders like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe go from being a ‘freedom fighter’ to a heartless dictator we are allowed into the mind of another person and given the chance to understand how life affects others and how they deal with it.

Mugabe’s meltdown has affected millions of people. We’ve been there for all of it. He has displayed an insecurity that only a world ‘leader’ can, having all that  power and simply becoming drunk on it and unable to handle it.

The vast majority of us will never lead a country but we all lead something - whether it be a family, a company or traffic. And within us is a bit of Robert Mugabe. The question we ask ourselves as we see Mugabe melt is, is that me as a leader, as a father, as a boss? Can I loose it like he has? Can I take the control I’ve been given and misuse it?

Meltdowns are commonplace in our world. At some point in our lives we’ll all experience one. They come in different shapes and forms and they are hard to duck and weave. I’ve had my fair share of them and know that they are never pretty.

Mel Gibson is slowly running out of gas. He is doing so in front of us and it is nauseating and terrifying to catch a glimpse of.

On some level, despite the fact he is so hated by so many of us, we do wish him well because the suffering etched over his face is just terrible to see. Really what we’re saying is we wish ourselves well because his meltdown and yours reflect what can happen inside of me.

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23

Apr. ’10

Some Thoughts for the Day – Four!!!!!

1. Oil slick off Louisiana – the destruction to the sealife and environment will likely be enormous. What will the world be like when oil is not as important?

2. Canada’s Governor General apologized to the Rwandans for the world community, which includes Canada, not being involved in stopping the  genocide there in 1994. It’s nice but means very little. We need instead to apologize and launch a world wide entity that ensures dialogue and an understanding of ‘peace tools’ so that such genocides are pre-empted. Words mean little, although it’s nice.

3.  Warren, a homeless fellow who lives on Eglinton and Yonge, is very sweet. Please note that. He is childlike in nature and is much beloved on the street, because, I think, people want to take care of him. He’s that type of guy.

4. Today my boy is 3 1/2 according to him and tomorrow he’ll be 4. It’s his birthday. Are  you kidding!!!! I could write a trilogy on my feelings. 4444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444444

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19

Feb. ’10

I Believe Tiger Woods, The Emotional Show Man

Tiger Woods is a man who likely has a hard time being himself.

He has been a showman all his life; he has been watched, studied and idolized. Inevitably he had to have moved into that role. So today when he apologized to pretty much the entire universe, cosmos and more, there was something about it that  was so admirable, sad, and compelling and there was something about it that  was contrived, overly-penciled, and repetitive.

He apologized so much that one wonders if that much apology lies inside any man.

Tiger Woods is a superhuman being. If you think otherwise than look closely.  He is one of the most known faces in the world, ever, and has accomplished that through brilliance.

If not, wouldn’t more people being doing it? He is black, Asian, Buddhist, composed and a changing force in golf, and therefore in society. 

He orchestrated that apology, or so it seams, trained for it and choreographed the sentences, around the paragraphs around the hyperbolic emotion. But I believe it was real never-the-less. Some people can say sorry and feel it as they do, and cry and beg and get all snotty.

While others are so used to public adulation, oratory and performing — there apology script will be exactly that.  But I think he is suffering and deeply sorry for hurting his wife, mother and children and maybe others. 

Tiger Woods is right. He has along road ahead of him to get better; to uninstall his strong sense of entitlement about being our royalty. But he is a master many times over, and people like him have the ability to go deeply and powerfully in many different areas of life.

I say Tiger comes back, is a kick-ass golfer, stays with his wife and chills out a little bit. The public will know him better and he will understand his fans and those who love him as a role model. His road is one in which he needs to take a look at himself and then be at home with himself. The fact he was so private all these years played a role in his downfall.

And I believe he is sorry.  

Ps. I would like to call a revolt against newspapers and journalists. I think the fact Tiger Woods 2 ½ year old’s school location was published in the newspaper is criminal. There seems to be little to know recourse when a paper commits a crime, perhaps some of which are felonies. The revolt and rebellion are called. Demand classic journalism, void of gossip, allegations and no need for sources or accountability. More to come on this.

P.P.S. Notice that so many of the giants in sports and entertainment are melting down. The pressure these folks must be under appears to be so great. The stardom environment is not as golden as it seems.

Posted by . Categories: Humanity, Simple Ideas, sports. Tags: , , . 2 Comments

10

Oct. ’09

Newspapers: Some Reasonable Questions from Avrum

1. Do you think that newspapers are accusatory; that their general motif, way, is that of ‘got’chya’? Read your favourite newspaper(s) today and apply this thought while you’re doing so. How much of what  you read reflects: we found the worst aspect of this  person’s life, or a situation, highlited it, and now are presenting it to you, to read, for entertainment…so you can be tantalized and excited by how ‘bad’ others are, and therefore how ‘great’ you must be?

2. Isn’t the news supposed to let us know about the very important things going on, asking us to digest the facts, and then determine for ourselves how best to respond, how to incorporate that news into our lives? Isn’t it supposed to make our  world better? Ask yourself: when did a newspaper article last made you pick up a phone, or write a letter and try to help a situation. Perhaps once, twice or three times? But is that enough for all the serious trashing that we need every day, in every newspaper? What is the ultimate affect newspaper reading has on our psychi? Does  it motivate and encourage us to create a  better self and world? Or does it influence us in such a way that  we become more discouraged and jaded?

3. How would you design, write, layout a newspaper? What would it look like? What would its voice sound like?

newspaper

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10

Sep. ’09

Michael Bryant and Darcy Sheppard Two Weeks Later

It’s quite amazing what has happened since the road incident that took Darcy’s life a couple o f weeks ago.

People have taken a stand on the issue and either consider Michael a ‘murderer’ or see Darcy as a person who instigated and therefore was not killed but caused his own death.

Couriers and bikers have taken very strong positions on this. Many bike couriers have gotten out on the street to protest, sometimes very aggressively. They see this situation as representing what they go through very often and obviously, many of them hold drivers in great distain.

Michael, according to the media, is building his case and team. Apparently he is drawing upon the contacts he has made throughout his shiny career to deal with this so that he does not end up going to jail. For some reason many people seem to be critical of Michael for doing this – for defending himself. There was a letter to the editor in the Toronto Star yesterday, however, saying that it makes sense he is utilizing all his resources; wouldn’t we?

So this is a pivotal case and will in many ways define the relationship between drivers and cyclists and ‘haves’ and ‘have-not’s.

At the end of the day a man’s life is done…way to young. Darcy seemed to have suffered throughout his life and tragically his exit from the world was not at all pleasant.

Sadly a very capable man who has made huge differences in our society is suffering greatly and has cast a giant shadow on his future.  His situation reminds me of Ted Kennedy R.I.P.  and Chappaquiddick.

Ted did  not become president because a girl in his car drowned after he drove into a body of water. He took off and did not report until the following day. I don’t think Michael will be the premier of Ontario – as he seemed to be hoping for.

Strangely, when I was on the streets for 3 days, we held a BBQ at Evangel Hall, a local drop-in and temporary housing agency. I was sitting at a table with Jackie Stein, who accompanied me, and Darcy came to our table. He was looking for vegetarian burgers or something he could eat, which we didn’t have – and decided instead to take off.  How eerie.

R.I.P. Darcy.

Our prayers go out to the Sheppard and Bryant family. Life can be so very tragic.

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28

Jul. ’09

What do you tell your 3 Year old About Death?

1. I met a woman today who seemed very nervous and shy, but driven and accomplished. She works on Sundays. I wondered when we put our work before our family and visa versa. This is not a judgment call of her or anyone else, just a meandering about passion for issues and career versus familial stuff. Sometimes it’s okay to put your work before family – I don’t think anyone would argue that. As an example, is a military soldier going off to war; or a leader strategizing important issues. When do you think it is okay, and not okay?

2. I had lunch today with an old friend who seems, in many ways, to have come into her own. She has always been a tad shy but has overcome some of the challenges that come with shyness. She is humble and terribly in love with the Jewish people and Israel. I asked her a lot about parenting (she is a Mother of three) and her responses were very satisfying. She said it’s okay to tell your children that you are having a bad day; and it’s fine to cry in front of them (‘not always,’ she said, ‘if someone is sick or died, that is fine. But if I’m having a personally really lousy day, I may hide my tears. I don’t want to burden them.”).  I was happy for her because time moves on and so has she. It’s a drag to meet an old friend and detect that they are in the same place as they were 20 years ago.

3. I met a doctor today who told me about his three year old and five year old. I asked a few questions about child rearing, one of which is what do you tell your 3 year old about death. He said his father died two years ago, when his eldest son was three, and they told him that: some people believe that when we die we go to be with God, and some people do not believe that, instead thinking that our lives are over, and that is it. I was surprised he was so ‘option oriented’ because I figured the best thing to tell your 3 year old is something very simple -like, “Grandpa has gone to heaven” or ‘Grandpa has gone to be with God”. Your thoughts? How would you/or have you explained this?

Posted by . Categories: Simple Ideas, Uncategorized. 2 Comments

23

Jul. ’09

Is there time to be Introspective in Darfur?

Not Rocko my Mechanic

Not Rocko my Mechanic

I CAN’T HELP IT. THAT’S THE WAY I THINK…

1. I’m sitting home and it’s quiet. Sometimes it becomes quieter than it should be, or perhaps ever was. The other side to the loneliness of stillness is that I realize I am closer to me. The louder the quiet becomes the more self aware I am. When I am able to mask the hushness then I am fooling myself.

2. I wonder if people in Darfur ever have the chance or the time to think about what I wrote in #1. I am so blessed that I have the time to be introspective?

If that is so, if I am blessed to have the gifts of freedom that facilitate and allow for wonderment, then what do I do with my findings of introspection, so that they are not wasted? Simply to allow them to exist, to be inside of me seems terribly wasteful. So I try to discover myself, more and more chapters, and then share my discovery with others. I try.

I cannot believe the disparity that exists in our world. One moment one person in Canada is considering the silence in his 1100 square foot condo, with redwood floors, and the next a woman is being killed in the thorny bushes outside of her village, while collecting wood to burn, if there is any. I can think and suppose while she is busy surviving.

I can’t help it. This is the way I think.

3. Rocko, my friend at the garage where I take my car refused to eat a chocolate bar today because he ‘stuffed his face with sugar all my childhood’. He is overweight, doesn’t work out and had a heart attack. So on one hand he is disciplined and on the other, reckless. How does that work?

Rocko has always been good to me. He’s one of those people you and I have in our lives that doesn’t charge us for a new spark plug; doesn’t make us pay right when we pick up the car; and will give us solutions for life outside of his expertise as a mechanic. Where does your friend work? Where is your Rocko?

4. Damn it’s raining a lot. I love the rain and even more so in this season. I’ve loved the rain ever since I read a very provocatively sexy scene in Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Today I bought an umbrella. It was $5.00 and a rainbow of colors. I watched as an avertable sea of umbrella people walked toward me this morning, as I walked toward them, and noticed that most of them were muted in color. Every once in a while though an umbrella would come along full of  silliness and with great panache, flair and flamboyance. Umbrellas with ears as an example. An umbrella with ears has, for some reason, a lot of character and is one of those things that makes people smile. What else does?

When somebody slips on a banana peel. Or a kid tells a bald man he’s bald. My son did that recently. The bald guy was okay with it though.

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