Back Again, Again...

Tonight is one of those nights where I have a lot to say, but I'm not sure where to start. I guess a good place would be to say that I'm back again, after a few days without postings. If you're up on Theo's blog, you'll know that I went home for the weekend to have a birthday celebration and bring the family back here. That is done, I'm happy to report. Yes, it means that the bachelor days are over. But it also means that I get my family back, which far outweighs the lack of diaper changes.

It was, yet again, a whirlwind weekend. Flew in at 11:00 on Friday night, had Theo's party on Saturday, church on Sunday and a date night with my wife (stayed over in a hotel downtown and had a fabulous dinner at Steamworks), Theo's actual birthday on Monday, which involved a trip to the Vancouver Aquarium (pictures on Theo's blog) and a dinner at my parents', and a flight home yesterday.

The party was good. Had a good turnout (roughly 40), and I think everyone had a good time. If not, nobody was rude enough to tell us. We hosted it in the community room at our complex, which is surprisingly well-apportioned and a good venue all around. Air hockey was played, gifts were given, cake was eaten, fun was had. Good times.

On Sunday, Steph and I stayed over at the Wedgewood hotel on Hornby at Robson. What a place. It's one of those "boutique" hotels, which basically means that it's small and it's not a national chain. Great service, though, and really nice rooms. It's tough being in downtown Vancouver, because, unless you're right on the water, your view is singularly unimpressive--mostly just concrete jungle. We were directly across the streets from the law courts, and our ninth floor view looked directly out onto the construction being done on them. But it was also fun being downtown (said by someone who grew up in Ladner and never spent more than 20 minutes downtown at a time). There's the whole hustle-and-bustle aspect which is fun (not necessarily to live in, but to visit). Of course, there are also the dang-nabbed panhandlers. If anyone tries to tell you that Vancouver doesn't have a problem, they're idiots. Steph and I were saying that it's funny how we went to Manhattan and walked around at crazy hours of the night (we even took the Subway at midnight), and we didn't feel nearly as unsafe as we did walking the streets of Vancouver.

It's the unpredictability of it that gets me. For example, we were a little bit early for our dinner reservations on the edge of Gastown, and so we walked over to the edge of the water to look out. Suddenly, some guy starts rambling on over toward us at a rapid pace--we turned and high-tailed it out of there. The next day, we were just driving around, and some squeegie kid comes up and just starts doing our windshield at a stop light. We waved him off like crazy, but he wouldn't leave us alone. I just about ran over his foot when the light turned green because I was just not willing to give him money for something that I didn't want and didn't ask for, and is furthermore a violation of my privacy and trespassing to boot! What makes these guys think that it's their inalienable right to wash my windows and be compensated for it? It's just like spam email--STOP GIVING THEM MONEY AND THEY'LL GO AWAY!!!!!

Yes, I know, I'm coming across awfully harshly tonight. But here's the thing: I have worked hard to support myself and my family my entire life. My parents worked hard and fought through periods of under-employment to support my sister and I and give us everything we needed to get by. Although we occasionally relied on the generousity of others (as Steph and I do now), for the most part we fought for a better tomorrow, as cliche as that sounds. The problem with street people is that there's no need to ever get off the street. Being a street person has become an identity all to itself, a way of life that is something to be proud of. In fact, I'm willing to wager that many of these guys who panhandle at lucrative corners or squeegie car windows make more money than I do (which isn't hard right now), which is exactly why I will not give them any of mine.

Here's the thing--I'm willing to help you if you're willing to help yourself. Yes, I know there are deeper systemic issues at stake here and I'm vastly oversimplifying the case. Or am I? When you give a homeless guy your leftovers and he dumps them in the trash, there's a problem. And I'm not willing to help out with any kind of support (food, money, clothing, whatever) unless there's a demonstrable effort on the part of the other person to change his or her life situation. And I make no apologies for that viewpoint.

Well, that should get me a few comments at least. And I welcome them, even if you disagree. Especially if you disagree.

Back to it. Moving from social issues to, well, boring stuff, I'm really enjoying the discussion we're having in one of this semester's courses about feminist theology. It's really interesting for me as a man to look at the woman's point of view on a lot of things, and this is no exception. I've always accepted the concept of a male God figure easily, because (a) I'm a man, and (b) it's what's in the Bible, right? Well, maybe it's not quite that simple. Okay, it's simple that I'm a man; it's the other one that's not so much.

Uh oh, better not get any farther on that tonight, or else this is going to turn into more of an essay (and I'll get angry comments on the social and theological sides). Suffice it to say that there are interesting arguments put forth by the feminist camp. As much as some of it is a bunch of hooey, all of it is eye-opening. I used to look at feminist theology as some excuse for women with daddy-issues to vent on God, but now I'm changing my mind on that. It's the boon of progress to engage in fervent dialogue, and I'm enjoying doing so immensely. I think we owe it to ourselves as people and as Christians to frequently re-examine what we hold dear to make sure that it can stand the test, both objectively for the outside world, and subjectively for our own personal faith journey. An untested faith is no faith at all, as far as I'm concerned (and I have some biblical basis for that, which I'll expound on when I'm not too tired to look up the actual verses).

Anyway. I think I've done just about enough damage for one night. As you can probably guess, my level of fatigue is high, after a crazy weekend and having to get up too early this morning for a day of class. Thus, I am going to hit the sack. Thanks kindly for stopping by; I hope you've enjoyed what I've said (even if you don't agree), and that you're willing to leave me a comment on it. See you again tomorrow.