Lent/Nonviolence/Play

The Game is Up

Posted on by stephen t berg / 10 Comments

It was a hot summer evening and we were playing Sorry. As these games go, we competed with (friendly?) rigour, ruthlessly knocking one another off the board at every opportunity, the heat and a burgeoning thunderstorm heightening our competitiveness.

Lightening flashed, a purple sky rumbled open and in a few minutes it all passed, leaving in its wake a moderate rain.

Lucas, 14 at the time, jumped up and ran out of the house. The rest of us gathered at the picture window. He dashed around in the rain. He danced on the soggy front lawn, hooted, did silly-walks, hopped like a rabbit and turned cartwheels.

We leaned over the couch, faces against the glass. Our small kids squealed with delight while the rest of us stood behind and laughed.

Luke was at play in a game with no rules. Making everything up as he went. He was running the game — and I loved him for it.

Here were two games with vastly different rules and outcomes and ways of participating. The one, a tit-for-tat game we all know how to play, the one that plays us; the other, a game that has at its heart an offer to join, a welcome to create, to discover — the antithesis of rivalry.

It’s this new game the Spirit of the universe is inviting us to play. Where getting our share by any means has no currency; where defining ourselves over and against others has no coinage; where play itself is the benevolent partner, the benign contender.

This age of in-or-out and tooth-for-tooth is hard on those who are gentle at their core. To survive they have to put on armour that never fits, never really protects, almost always harms.

~

Today I’m thinking about my son Lucas — it’s his 40th birthday. I’m also thinking about my tender-hearted mom, who would have been 98 today. And I’m remembering that today is the first day of Lent: that curious season when some people give something up in order to better remember a person who, at his peril, played a nonviolent game that ended up exposing our mechanisms of scapegoating, our systems of reprisal, our ghettos of association by class, colour, religion, orientation and privilege.

Blessings and Peace.

Environment/Food

I Don’t Have the Chops

Posted on by stephen t berg / 10 Comments
Many years ago on my dad’s small mixed-farm

I place my lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber,
sockeye salmon and two pork chops on the counter.

The pretty clerk with discrete nose ring and clavicular tattoo,
keys in codes
and while scanning the chops turns to her trainer
and says,
“I just don’t get meat!”

As shamings go — relatively effective.
Not so much as to de-swine my diet or steer it clear. I’m sorry.
But I felt the sting. Flushed. Exposed. Gastronomical Philistine.

I have no quarrel with vegetarians or their stricter cousins.
I know many, and those I know, I love.
I’ve shared their tables, gone to their eateries, relished
their roasted squash salad with tahini vinaigrette,
savoured their shiitake stew with gratitude.

I applaud and admire their desire for non-exploitative eating.
Even as I grow more and more conscious
of the environmental repercussions
of animal agribusiness.

The young ideal clerk doesn’t know me, likely never will.
Doesn’t know that as far as these things go
I’ve been buying less and less butchered flesh.

I lift my reusable bag and exit through the glass doors.
My better side wishing for an earnest conversation;
my regular side ransacking my brain for some
smart, almost-cutting quip.
Alas, I am too slow.
I suspect it’s the meat.

Environment/Life

Earth in a Bottle

Posted on by stephen t berg / 12 Comments

Contents: light, air, water, greens, warm campfires

Do not use if the seals have been broken or have perished.

Suggested use:
Take one breath 18,000 times per day, with or without food.
Consume considerable amounts of clear water.
Bow in gratitude with each meal.
Find modest shelter, cultivate
extravagant attentiveness.
Take naps as needed.
Sleep at night.

Gentle on the stomach (may also be used as a poultice), helps build strong bones and teeth, and taken as directed will prevent incivility, degenerate moods while promoting clarity and stewardship.

May cause sweet drowsiness, a sunny disposition along with moments of extreme happiness, hilarity and fits of unselfishness.

Never operate large noisy machinery, at any time, regardless, ever.

If symptoms of disquiet persist, simplify; or consult your physician or mystic or safe sister or huggable friend; or fall in love.

Other ingredients: mystery, wonder, beauty, sorrow, loss, hemp, corn starch.

May contain: stormy days, bad faith, occasional bitchiness, buskers, poets, traces of lavender, swaying wheat fields, cliches, aloes, cassia, beer, barmy breezes, grapes.

Store anywhere and within easy reach of children — keeping the lid wide open.

Manufacturer’s note: As part of a well-balanced week, walking, planting something, weeding your garden, shovelling your neighbour’s walk, shopping at Thrift stores for outrageously colourful clothes, and one day of complete rest, may reduce the risk of recidivist glumness.

Lot #: 1 (and only)
Expiry date: Unfortunately latest medical research concludes that without ameliorative action, it is potentially within your great-grandchild’s lifetime.