One of the realities of living in our community is that as we age, the balance between the number of men and women changes.

Part of this is the simple fact that women outlive men. Often men are in higher risk occupations (although that is changing).

Those who have lost a life partner are called widows (or widowers if they are men).

You might be surprised to hear that in Owen Sound there are nearly 1600 women and just 315 men who are widowed. That compares to 118,000 men and 495,000 women who are widowed in Ontario.

I discovered the CIA chaplaincy service while doing research on a human right case the CIA (and the US) lost. It seems the CIA had arrested a "suspect:" and, for four months, beat him, tortured him and sodomized him - only to discover it was a case of mistaken identity. So they shackled him, blindfolded him, then took him to another country, and dumped him by a roadside.

So how do you feel about the CIA having chaplains? I can see the case for it. a tired agent after a day of beating, torturing and sodomizing could well benefit from a few words of comfort, and some reflection.

 This may seem a small point - but I think it's a fundamental one. I'm sure I don't have a full understanding of what Christianity is about. But I'm pretty sure of what it's not about - materialism and consumerism. This is no small point, however trivial the example I am going to give might seem.

When I was a child, a birthday meant, perhaps, a cupcake with a candle in it - and a small gift. Occasionally there was a party, maybe five friends for ice cream and cake. That was not unusual.

Doug Johnson has written a book called "The Myth of the Muslim Tide"...read more in the next post

In Darrel's thread on "Demonic" religion, Steven Davis posted the following:

[quote=Rev. Steven Davis]

I wish.....

that I believed in a God that could cause miracles to occur in spontaneous healing

that I believed in a God that could reverse the clock

that I believed that the power of prayer would magically cause God to intervene in awful situations

but I don't

I own that chaos occurs in this world

that shit happens to people and it shouldn't

but, oh, how i wish

In a different thread, I suggested that a poster " moves to  solution, before listening to the questions, or thinking / dialoguing."

This thread will be an attempt to dialogue on that item, and so, I pulled one of the 7 habits of highly effective people as a topic.

(Ten words are required.). Ah, so, should bunny be Bunny?

Damn. I put exactly ten words, and it still wouldn't publish. Is somebody afraid of the truth about easter bunnies getting out?

I am brand new to wondercafe.ca and I jumped right in commenting on a controversial post earlier. But it got me thinking a bit about my own journey. Thanks for having me. I think I'm going to like it here.