The Windsor Complex
My bitterly complicated relationship with America stems from growing up in Windsor, Ontario.
Powerless in Mind, Power in Spirit
If there is one idea that being a psychology student has forcefully implanted within me, it’s the notion that we are, at the root of it all, powerless. From psychoanalysis to behaviourism, cognitive to social psychology, it has been made generally apparent (humanistic theory excluded) that we do not dictate our behaviour. We seem to be the innocent victims of unconscious thoughts, conditioning, neurotransmitter levels, sensory processes and group influences.
Gaze Upon A Crowd
When you gaze upon a crowd, what do you see?
I see shapes and forms, colours and other visual stimuli. I see minds, both electrified with activity and dull. Minds enlightened to the beauty, the synchronized, wondrous breath of our directionless species.
Transgressing
In But Would That Still Be Me?, contemporary moral philosopher Anthony Appiah asks: if someone, person X, gets a sex change (by which I mean genital reassignment surgery and hormone therapy), are they still the same person they were before the sex change?
Respectfully Disagree
You can hate anyone you want, and yell it at the top of your lungs in the wilderness, as long as nobody hears you. It’s perfectly legal for me to hold grudges, and loathe all that you stand for, but not to act it out. It isn’t the best option though, because someday if that’s what’s inside your head and heart, it will slip out in some unmeant way and that’s called discrimination.
Pen and the Sword
We all know the famous line from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s play Richelieu: “The pen is mightier than the sword.”
Nightclub Revelations
Last New Year’s Eve, I made the trek with some friends to a club in downtown Kitchener. Being comfortable amongst the university crowd, I felt slightly tense wandering around in foreign territory.
Where’s Q?
Something is missing within the acronym that has stood for so long as the all-encompassing way to describe a vibrant community. So before I begin to babble, I will ask a simple question: where has our beloved ‘Q’ for queer gone?
Real World Progress
It is often difficult to reconcile the expansion of urban centers with the preservation of nature. Considering industrialization’s history, it is not too bold to suggest that the natural world and urban world are adversaries, locked in a competition for survival.
Death of the Bumblebee
This day brings the heartache in dreamers.
We used to be searching the start for meanings, sliding our hands against stars, scruying to find the future, looking for omens in the night.
Now we use the dry papers of science to understand how we will destroy the earth.
Nature as an Excuse
Too often, I find that people use nature as a scapegoat for failure and irresponsibility. At least, these are the ends nature may be cited for at best; at worst, nature is used to perpetuate the idea that we are inherently a depraved, craven, wretched, miserable lot whose marginal gains and successes are curious matters of happenstance, dwarfed by our monumental stupidity.
A Living Force
The world is evolving, and patterns of change are cycling the systems of environment, sustainability, and human progress. In the coming years, climate change will become the most important subject in government summits, public talks, and manufacturing industries.
Violence Without Borders
Traveling, to some, is a desired escape from the mundane tribulations of everyday life. It’s the picture of sandy white beaches, a lively resort that takes care of every detail so you can focus on relaxation.
Born Free
Lines drawn on maps; separating lovers, separating friends. Uniforms and guns deciding who gets to come in, who gets searched, and who gets turned away.
Hoarders of Borders
I imagine that there was once an age without borders, an age when the Earth was not mine or hers (and his), but ours and theirs. An age where the adventurous needed only their wits and bravery to explore the world as opposed to paperwork and visas. I don’t remember this age, and doubt that there is a person alive who does.
The World Is Not Your Playground
As I sat on a couch that was manufactured in China and sipped a beverage that originated in Germany, I was relayed news of Libya and Italy. Italian and NATO authorities were being accused of purposely ignoring African refugees who had attempted to escape from the war torn capital of Libya.
Stained Fences and Freedom
I thought about borders on one of those afternoons before the beginning of term, that are as beautiful as they are fleeting, helping my girlfriend stain her backyard fence. The job seemed simple enough, though a tad daunting given that the fence stood several feet higher than me.
The Curious Observer at Borderlands
The only thing that is irrational or rational is human delusion; insanity or sanity is expectation. Part of what makes us human is the capacity for, and to lead others into, delusion.
Pulling Back Oz’s Curtain
It was nothing short of magic when Dorothy, with just the click of her ruby slippers, returned home from Oz. Over half a century later, we may not have the technology for teleportation, but with one click of a button we can send emails, pictures and even talk to our loved ones at home face-to-face via Skype.
I Traded My Spirit For Perspective
Sleeping angels frostbitten by memory. Gnarled roots of understanding lacing around and through and over all the nooks and holes and hideys.
Your treehouse is no longer the right size. We have evolved, moved on. Come down from the trees and look around.
Mankind is now humanity.
Spirit of Why Not?
In 2007, the University of Waterloo celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. Congratulations U of W! That’s fifty years of taking advantage of gullible young idealists; fifty years of exploiting impoverished families, hoping for something better for their children, taking out student loans their child will be unable to repay for years – that’s years of growing debt, damaged credit rating, and abuse from debt collectors.
Questions
Why is it spiritual to speak to a god, but superstitious to dance for one?
What brings more luck, a rabbit’s foot or a blessing from a priest?
Has spirituality ever caused massive wars?
Can we separate religion from spirituality?
Meditations for the Modern Man
On Friday nights I become a cliché, sipping pinot grigio and lustfully losing myself in…
