Words to sponsors, GST receipts are out and if you don't already have yours please inquire.
A word to my sponsors. Thank you very much for helping me find and live in this best right place. In so many ways it's been clear that this is where I've be needed to be. That my heart is content being kind to those who are not overly accustomed to it.
Thinking back to the daily country road drive home I took when I was a kid, I can remember having random freak outs for no apparent reason, other than discontentment at the absurdity and monotony of life. Weird that a 10 year old would already find life so dull and disappointing. Not that every day was especially bad, it just didn't have the meaning or adventure that I was sure life should have. Anyway, by the time I was in China at 19 I realized that monotony didn't need to be a staple to life which I needed to bitterly swallow but rather...."that the core of mans spirit comes from new experiences" and that those experiences weren't just a passer by's view of earth existence but knowing hearing and helping others with heart issues. All this to say, thank you working class sponsors for your financial blessing and the culture of generosity I've been able to live within for the last two years.
Money's a crazy thing....
It's only worth as much as we believe. It's completely subject to what we believe about it with no tangible use at all. That is, bits of paper and stamped metal have are pointless unless it’s collectively agreed that they have a use. I don't have a problem with money or ppl with a lot or a little of it. It’s just interesting is all. It's completely societal, I'm thinking most present societies have had to adopt the use of money and the practicality of using it rather than trade goods. But there are gads of cultures (Anishinaabe for one) that by no means view frugality as a virtue, but would far rather spend their fiver on shared coffee then keep it in the old bill fold. That was one sizeable shocker for a Mennonite mind, It probably shouldn’t have been, after all relationships are a big deal for down homers too but just not putting free money down on relationships like I’ve seen so often up here. The culture shock might have been amplified due to the thrift store sub culture I grew up in, where a successful night consisted of sneaking into a show, scamming free coffee off of a friend working co-op and then soaking it all up on the high school roof top….. the life of the successful poor. There's a lot that I've learned about money since moving to Thunder Bay. Both in understanding how tough it is to run a charitable org on minimal donation base and in the view from the ground in a former pulp paper port town.
I’ve got a story of great injustice to tell you about. It’s about a friend of mine named Jack (Jack isn’t his name but whoever it is, did clear that I could write his story). Jacks mom you’sed to be addicted to drugs and in her addiction did some deceitful things, one of which involved using her sons name to take out a ‘pay day loan’. For those of you who don’t know much about those seedy “fast cash” scams that are polluting near ever strip mall and convenient corner, they are straight usury. They promise up to a $1,500 with no paper work and push the fact that they can get you money in your hand in a minute. It’s illegal in Canada to charge someone over 60% interest (which is already ridicules considering that in most American States the illegal interest rate hovers around 11 or 12%) but payday loans often end up charging obscenely large interest rates that begin within the legal percentage and climb up into the hundred percentile. Payday loans enforce regulations which aren’t easy to police or access knowledge or security within. So often what happens is when the loan gets to a large enough rate they start calling it in. Using terrible tactics (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/fast_cash.html). It’s illegal but systemized (and so tolerable) “loan sharking”. For the most part it’s taking advantage of individuals in a desperate disposition. And this is the story of my friend Jack….. thousands of dollars on a loan that was originally one hundred, all compiled within a short time and which was for the most part unbeknownst.
Government Canada cite on payday loans (http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/news-nouv/nr-cp/2006/doc_31900.html)
I’ve been processing the idea of getting a loan for studies and so money has been on my mind a lot lately (I’m not planning on getting a pay day loan just so you know).
I need to preface this next paragraph stating that I understand our current financial system works best with debt. I acknowledge that most everyone is in debt to banks etc through mortgages and other payments but I refuse to think that debt is inevitable and I must blindly accept it.
I’m also aware that debt can be a great enabler, putting down a temporal sacrifice in order to further long term opportunity. I want to acknowledge too that Jesus saw a great duty in financial responsibility. In the story of the talents where we are straight up told that…… of what we are given we must multiply…. Or Else! (Matt 25:28-31).
What I don’t want to do through debt though is treat it like like a drug. I’ve seen student loans originally intended for “breathing room” turn into financial false confidence and blatant unnecessary spending. And like a crack addict doing terrible things just to get a next hit, I’ve seen persons in debt forgetting the great gift of giving and placing “financial responsibility” as priority over people. I think that financial responsibility is good but I know that even in my meager means I’m expected to give radically; after all it’s not coincidental that after Jesus told us “we must multiply what we were give” in Mt 25:31 He said in vs 41 to 43 that we can expect hell if we see a need and ignore it.
Given to give blessed to bless…
So thanks sponsors for giving so I could give: countless cups of coffee, a few donations to grass roots orgs and rides to hockey games, hospitals and home.
I may sound like a simpleton, or a boy without a brain, or a man with too much heart but know that I am more than happy throwing coins at those who care for them but living all of me for the one that exposes the mysteries of existence, of which I’m a pioneer.
