Today is November 11, known as Remembrance Day in many of the Commonwealth countries. While the name is a little bit vague (what are we remembering?), those familiar with it will see how it fits nicely. The day is known as Armistice Day in other parts of the world, which is a bit more clear about what the day is all about. This name speaks of peace… it commemorates the day that the ceasefire was signed after World War I. Here in the US, though, the name was changed from Armistice Day to Veteran’s Day.

I pointed this out to a couple of other co-ops here in town and one of them — Lisa — pointed out how “Veteran’s Day” seemed to glorify war and war heroes. It doesn’t honour the pursuit or achievement of peace; instead, it touts those who were active at a time of violence. I don’t like that at all. People should not be encouraged to be war heroes… people should be encouraged to be peacemakers. And I know that it is possible for peace to be achieved through war, but avoiding war altogether is so much more ideal.

This got me thinking about whether or not we will ever know world peace. Call me cynical or whatever, but I really don’t think that it will happen. There is just too much inherent conflict at personal, regional, and cultural levels. And as the population continues to increase, governments will face mounting difficulties in keeping any sort of peace. We will need an entirely different ideology across the globe to even flirt with the idea of global peace because, with the present dominance of capitalism, there isn’t enough incentive to make a true push for it.

So while it is important to remember the price paid for the peace established in 1918, and to remember how fortunate we are to enjoy the relative peace and freedom that we do, we can’t lose sight of how far we, as a global society, have left to go. I find it appalling to know how much money governments around the world have spent and are spending on space exploration when there are so many problems that remain unsolved here. Our world is visibly broken, and those kinds of resources (intellectual and financial) could be so much better employed. Let’s fix our planet before we start thinking about exploring other ones, shall we?

I am a lucky, lucky boy.

I feel a need to post about the week that was. Mostly because the week that was.. well, was insane! It has been, hands down, the most stuff-filled week that I have had since coming to New York and, arguably, ever in my life. Allow me to elaborate:

Last Saturday. After failing to get tickets to the matinee performance of A Chorus Line, I manage to get a couple of tickets for the evening show (which is much more difficult to do). The show itself was pretty good… I know that I may sound like a bit of a Broadway snob now, but it wasn’t all that exciting. Perhaps I have made my expectations a little bit high after seeing productions like Wicked and Chicago and RENT. What made this show cool was being able to share a box with one of the substitute actors!

Sunday. After failing to get tickets to The Drowsy Chaperone, a few of us go to an off-Broadway theatre to check out How To Save The World And Find True Love In Ninety Minutes (say that ten times fast!), a new show here in town. For an off-Broadway show, I thought that it was very well done. I will, however, be focusing on watching Broadway shows from here on in, though. Nevertheless, show number seven was entertaining.

Tuesday. Tuesday, Tuesday. Phantom of the Opera. This was huge… Phantom is the show for which I know the most songs and it was absolutely spectacular to hear them (and see them) live. Especially since the orchestra was a mere row ahead of us!! After seeing the show, I can probably say that all of the good things that you have heard about it are true; it is truly an epic performance.

Wednesday. My first concert in New York, and it was a doosey: Death Cab For Cutie!!!!!!!! That’s right! Ben Gibbard and co. came to New York and a ticket was purchased on my behalf! I was even excited to hear the opening band, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, as I have heard some good things about them. Apparently, the crowd also heard some good things and liked what they heard as this was probably one of the most warmly received opening acts I have ever seen. Death Cab, however, stole the show. They were so, so, so, so, soooo good. (Did I mention that they were really good?) They played such a tight set and were a lot of fun. Amazing.

Thursday. (Now do you know what I mean when I said that this week was crazy?) It arrived. Yes, that’s right. My friends, I am very, very pleased to say that I am now an owner of my very own acoustic guitar!!! I’ve been hoping to get one for the longest time and I knew that being in New York was a great time to do it: taxes are lower, and selection is higher. It’s a beautiful instrument, and I promise to post pictures of it soon. I’ve been having so much fun with it that my fingertips on my left hand are a little bit numb. But that’s a good kind of numb and I’ll take it

Friday. First off, I had a very productive day at work. The first phase of my project was moved into the next stage, weeks ahead of my deadline. Then, to top off the week, a few of us decided to go out for some drinks at some really cool places. So, after a delicious meal at a Thai fusion restaurant, we hit up Spice Market, a very cool establishment in Chelsea. The drinks were expensive, but I guess that’s what comes with a place with a very cool atmosphere. Round two moved to The Park, the same place where I went the first night I was in New York. And, for the first time in my life, I… danced. It was weird. (No, I was not drunk.) Round three was held at Whiskey Blue, the bar in one of the W Hotels here in town. Needless to say, I got home really late (or really early, depending on how you look at it) Good times.

Saturday. Today. Technically, this would be the eighth day, so I will treat this as the icing on the cake. I went to the Top of the Rock at the Rockefeller Center. Many pictures were taken and I will get some of those in my photo album. My second attempt at A Drowsy Chaperone tickets was much more successful, but there were two tickets for three of us. So I did the gentlemanly thing and gave the tickets to the two ladies I was with. With those tickets, I find myself well above the 50% success rate at getting the hot tickets. And considering some of the crowds that have been at the ticket booths, that’s quite ridiculously fantastic.

So yeah, on many levels, I am a lucky, lucky boy.

I have fallen in love with a church here in New York. It is, in fact, the same church that I have been attending regularly since I first got here, but it has taken the better part of the term to realize how wonderful it is.

Up until a week or two ago, I said that the church was alright and nothing special. My exact words were that “I don’t love the church” and I explained that it was because “the speaker is great, and the music is good, but that’s all I can really say about it.” I also pointed out a lack of engaging people to compel me to become more involved with their community.

Since then, though, I have come to a complete reversal of my opinions. The speaker is still very amazing; while there are some stupid people walking around with PhDs, Dr. Keller is certainly not one of them. And the music is incredible; some weeks there is a string quartet, other weeks have a brass ensemble, and so on. But I saw, for the first time, how well things are thought out there. It is very much a mature church, despite being fairly young.

Going back to Dr. Keller, the senior pastor, his sermon today was very interesting. Here’s a summary of just one part of it:

The Bible is often criticized because it has parts which people find offensive. (I find many parts hard if not impossible to believe.) Therefore, many people do not regard it as the authority that the Church says it is. Instead, most people will pick and choose what they want from the Bible and disregard the rest. In other circumstances, they will bend what is written in the Bible to suit their own purposes. (There is a sufficiently large number of examples of this, so I will leave it to you to look them up if you’re interested… slavery in the US is one.)

The Bible, however, must be offensive. Well, at least culturally offensive. Because there are many cultures in the world, there have to be differences between these cultures. So each one of these cultures would find something they don’t like in the Bible. Take, for example, the Biblical teachings of sex and forgiveness. People in the West are generally appalled at what the Bible demands of our sex life, but they find the notion of forgiving other people charitable and wonderful. But there are people in the Middle East, just to name one place, that would be abhorred to read about forgiving, while they can agree with what is written about sex (and could even say that the Bible could be even more strict about it).

So this goes to say that no one culture would find what is written in the Bible completely unoffensive. This suggests that no culture would make the Bible what it is today. (Otherwise, why would they put stuff that they didn’t like in there?) So, with a few dot dot dots here, Dr. Keller concludes that this is one argument that the Bible is from God, and should have every bit of the authority placed in it by the Church.

Here’s my little extension on this. If the Bible is God’s word, then we should find God a little bit offensive too, right? I think that some people can’t swallow the idea of an offensive God and abandon right then and there. After some thought about it, though, I think that God has to be offensive (much like the Bible is). If God was everything that I could have possibly wanted, and if God agreed with everything that I thought, then He would be my wonderful unoffensive God. Would He be your wonderful unoffensive God? Not unless you think exactly the same as I do. So, in the same way that God is culturally offensive, He is also personally offensive.

God isn’t a genie or a robot. He’s not going to do everything we want and say everything we want Him to say. Thinking that He is all that is just a manifestation of ourselves, and this would suggest that He is in MY image and likeness (not even OUR image and likeness). And that’s awfully cocky of us to think.