We have heard many opinions about Queen Elizabeth II, ranging from fawning admirers to resentful critics. For me, this range of commentary, coming out of ideological commitment is of little interest. Ideological thinking is inherently unreasoned, therefore of little value if we wish to speak of any profound human truth. Ideological thinking is a reductive …
Category Archives: Religion
A visit to De Mazenod Farm – A quiet Christian contribution
Sometimes you visit a place that just feels right. My recent visit to De Mazenod Farm was like that. The Farm is a development of the De Mazenod Door program, which was started by Fathers Tony O’Dell and Jarek Pachoki, both Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. It was named after Saint Eugene de Mazenod, a …
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New Year’s Resolutions 2021
This year was a strange year. COVID-19 kept us at home and made many of us sick – I had extended family members who caught COVID-19 and survived, thankfully. As many of you know, my life revolves around my work as a professor of communication studies and communications management at McMaster University and my work …
A wake up call to end 2018
I had a powerful experience this morning in a Starbucks in Niagara Falls, Canada. I sat in my car enjoying the overnight oats that I made the day before, in front of the Starbucks where I intended to set up to prepare for a meeting later in the morning. My mind was full of concerns: …
The first snow – a moment of regret? or an invitation to contemplate?
We spend so much time in the waiting room of life, anticipating a future in which the conditions will be right for us to take action. The first snow fell today, in silent sprinkles. I am watching its flakes drift and glide in a zig-zag as they fall, in a manner similar to leaves. I …
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Language and dimensionality: The movie “Arrival”
I watched the film Arrival last night. It was an interesting exploration of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which has two versions: Linguistic Relativity — claims that language shapes and colours our worldview (i.e. if you don’t have a nuanced set of words for different types of snow, you are less likely to see the different varieties …
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Meditating so that writing becomes fun and not work
Amazingly, I have stuck to two of my New Year’s resolutions: meditating and writing. Each day, I have been spending two hours (at least) focused exclusively on editing JPC or working on my book project. I have found that the time I spend writing and editing has become an inspirational and meditative time that I …
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Replacing fear with mindfulness
In our interactive era, you spend a lot of time with yourself and the internet. You ask yourself a lot of questions. I think it is important to listen to the questions that you are asking yourself and be mindful of why you are asking them. If you find yourself asking whether you spend enough time …
Why religion is practical
We make a lot out of the spiritual and moral sides of religion, but rarely do we discuss the practical value it adds to our lives. I thought I would spend a few moments discussing what Catholicism, my religion, brings to my everyday life. Closer family ties. I was born into a blended Catholic-Orthdox family. …
How I did with my 2011 new year’s resolutions: a journey of growth towards principled living
Last year, I had an ambitious list of new year’s resolutions. Here’s a recap and a report on how I did: 1. Get fit and lose weight. Partial success – I got fit for a part of the year, but then a stressful term and many preoccupations caught up to me and I gained it …