doberman pizza. a baha'i (bahai, bahá'í) blog.

so I’m taking a trip down to Ottawa for the weekend. It’s actually neat the way it’s gonna work: I have a meeting in Montreal tonight, then afterwards, I’ll drive down to Ottawa. Spend the weekend there, visit family, friends, and so on, and then on Monday night I have another meeting in Montreal, after which I’ll drive back down to Victoriaville. Neat, huh?

I changed one of the spark plugs on my car (ok, had someone else change it) and it’s running much more smoothly now. positively purring. I need to learn more about car mechanics. If I’m going to be driving around in a 1991 Mazda 626 with over 381,000 km on it, I need to learn how to fix it. And in case you’re curious, 381,000 km is nine and a half times the circumference of the earth.

man it’s so sunny I want to punch myself. what a beautiful day.

I bought some potato salad today and the container was broken on one side. I didn’t notice until I went to open it, so I didn’t know whether it had happened before or after I bought it. I ate it anyway. I might be courting salmonella, but, enh. If I do get salmonella, then I guess I’ll have learned my lesson. I wonder why I do things like that. Oh well.

Anyway, yeah, sunny day, very nice. sweeping the clouds away, and all that.

it could be so easy to look at a situation of inharmony or disunity and say, “what an awful situation, they should be ashamed of themselves, that’s all wrong, they need to get their act together”. but really, what use would it be to do that?

we had a bit of a scene tonight. we had a meeting where our community got together to consult. there were raised voices, feelings of anger, frustration, and so forth. it’s unfortunate, but it was plainly visible that it had to happen at some point. let’s hope all of us in the community can recognize this occasion for what it really is — a sign of growing pains — and seize the opportunity to acknowledge the issues of this newly formed community, and to grow from that acknowledgment.

I say this because it can be so easy to get emotionally involved in conflict, to take sides, and to miss the entire point. the point of conflict is: we all have different approaches, different experiences, different strengths, and different weaknesses. when there’s conflict, anywhere, it’s just some of those differences that are being made manifest. differences of opinion provide us with opportunities to learn about each other, and to learn about ourselves. the alternative is to get upset, blow up, and estrange ourselves, and then the community falls apart.

the thing that many people fail to consider is that unity is not an end, but the means to an end. our goal isn’t to be united — we MUST ALREADY be united if we want to get anything done.

sometimes people need to get shaken up before they realize the true importance of unity. perhaps, if God wills it, this will be the shake by which we will realize it. somehow I think it might take more time, but there’s always hope. besides, no one can fathom God’s plans. inshallah.

well, I guess I’m saying that we DO need to get our act together, but I don’t mean it in a negative way, just an honest way. ;)

tonight, Bahá’ís commemorate the Ascension of Bahá’u'lláh, that is, his death and the ascension of his soul into the worlds of heaven. it happens at 3 AM wednesday morning, which is the time he passed away.

anyway, it turns out that we won’t be celebrating it as a group because things came up for the person who was supposed to host and she needs her sleep. someone died. doh.

hopefully we will be together in spirit.

whee, now I get off my butt and get my passport! it’s a race against the clock. can he get his birth certificate and his passport in the right order at the right time? can he find a garantor? can he get a passport photo that doesn’t suck? and can he do it all… BEFORE JUNE 25TH? STAY TUNED!

oh yeah, and when the mood takes me, I write in french. sorry for those of you who don’t read french. :)

c’est si facile de dénoncer les choses, c’est beaucoup plus difficile de construire quelque chose pour les remplacer.

bon, on est allé à Danville aujourd’hui pour la réunion de l’unité électorale, pour faire de la réflexion sur l’élection de l’Assemblée nationale. Les gens sont venus des régions de l’Estrie et Centre-de-Québec, alors ça comprend Sherbrooke, Drummondville, Victoriaville, et les alentours. Nous étions chez Julien et Angèle Allison, et c’était vraiment magnifique - si beau, si paisible. il y a une attitude chez les Bahá’ís qu’on ne trouve pas souvent chez les autres. c’est une attitude de paix et d’unité sincère et chaleureuse. ça fait briller, comme une assemblée de chandelles qui allume une maison.

C’est une des qualités les plus positives qu’on trouve chez les Bahá’ís — cette paix, cet amour pour l’humanité, cette attitude qui ne cherche pas à détruire, mais à créer — créer un nouveau monde. Au fait, re-créer le monde. Et avec lui, la famille, la société, et toute l’humanité. C’est ça, la résurrection. Et c’est ça, les enseignements de Bahá’u'lláh. Brûlons d’amour l’un pour l’autre, pour l’humanité entière.

So the weekend is over (now long over) and life returns to a state of normalcy. oooh. normal is bad. I need to do something wacky! like get a job!

I talked with Jacinthe today about staying in this apartment for the month of July, and she seems to be okay with it. Cool. I like this place. :) It kinda works out because the folks I’ll be moving in with afterwards will be doing some crazy moving in and painting and cleaning for the first two weeks of july or so.

the nice thing is that once I move in to the new place, I’ll be able to host Bahá’í stuff with impunity. I know coz they said I could. ;) within reason, anyway. maybe not hosting whole youth conferences, but… well, maybe we could even figure out something for that… *scheming*

so I’m pretty much safe apartment-wise. all I need now is… GRR… A JOB.

In other news, our community is celebrating the Declaration of the Báb tomorrow evening, May 23rd, with a little community supper and readings. I’m doing the readings. Woop! We start with food, and after sundown (when the new Bahá’í day begins) we… well, I haven’t decided yet. stay tuned. What’s cool is that I think this is the first time this community has gotten together to celebrate this Holy Day.

What a blessed day May 23rd is. It’s sort of like celebrating the beginning of the whole world.

On May 29th, at around 3 AM, we’ll also set a new precedent by celebrating the Ascension of Bahá’u'lláh for the very first time together. Well, some of us will be doing it together, anyway — it can be hard for some people to go out at 3 AM and stand up.

Keep in mind while you read this that the Bahá’í community of Victoriaville started with one person ten years ago. The fact that we are now starting to celebrate these things as a community marks a stage in our transformation from scattered band of faithful to united community.

JOY!

<Megahal> Je suis gilles duceppe.

<Megahal> Il est important de se rappeler de cela.

So it’s only Catherine who came down, because Zorrida ended up having a lot of work to do for her Master’s. But that’s cool, one person is still a great bounty :)

Today we sorted through the generous amount of groceries that my parents sent down with Catherine, and she got the chance to meet Jacinthe. In the morning we went over to buy a crabapple tree, and in the afternoon we planted it at the home of one of the Bahá’í families in town, as a celebration of the formation of our spiritual assembly. While we were at the garden store, we met this nice woman who was from an Egyptian background, and who’d lived in Victoriaville for decades. She was having company from San Francisco, family I guess. I told her I was from Ottawa, and she said she has a lot of family there too, some in Orleans (now Ottawa East), some in downtown Ottawa, some in Hull (now Gatineau). I spoke some Arabic to her and she was impressed. That was pretty cool.

Now I’m checking email and Catherine is showering. She offered to cook ratatouille tonight, and she’s also preparing a fireside for tonight. Such industry!

NO, I’m not going to make her do it all by herself, I’ll help out, unless she kicks me out of the kitchen.

so, travelling teachers are coming tonight. Catherine (my sister) and Zorrida (her friend) came all the way from Thornhill (outside Toronto) to Ottawa yesterday, and today they make the trek from Ottawa to Victoriaville. This is going to be pretty cool. I wonder what’s going to happen. I keep thinking of ways we can put them to good use while they’re down here. It’s not every day you have people come down to a faraway town like Victoriaville to proclaim the Glory of this Day. Gotta treasure it while you have it!

I’m trying to find Bahá’í quotes in french to make a little multiple-choice quiz for tonight’s feast. It’s tough because I have practically no source material in french. All my books are in english. So I can find cool quotes, but I have to translate them, which is e. Man. Translating the Bahá’í Writings is no joke. There’s so much depth, so many nuances — the words themselves have so much potency and power that a mistranslation could destroy the whole meaning of a passage. You really need skill to do it, not only in the source language but in the language to be translated to. Catherine’s taking steps in that direction; she’s going back to university in the fall to finish her B.A. in Translation. I’m proud of my sister :)

Today’s been a week full of activity, at least for Jacinthe. Her grandfather died over the weekend, another relative fell down a flight of stairs, and to top it off, there’s stuff going on with her ex-husband that I probably shouldn’t repeat in a blog entry. Suffice to say that her week has sucked. She doesn’t seem to be letting it get to her, though, because she’s

Me? I’m puttering along, getting my life organized, hoping a job will come within my reach soon. I still have no idea what a real job interview is. Oh well. If job-hunting works along the same lines as apartment-hunting, if I put in the will and the effort, I should be pleasantly surprised soon. I talked to Carl the other day and he says he’s making $600 a week working at the restaurant. Gah. I wish I had waitering experience. ;)

You know a blog is starting to get too self-centered when the entries start dropping the names of people you don’t know, without explaining who they are. Sorry. You should be able to figure out the context by browsing through the archives. ;)

You know a blog is starting to stray from the purpose of a blog when the entries stop containing links in their text.

This is sad, let’s rectify the situation. Jacinthe is my coloc (housemate) and works in the day care at a local school, and Carl is the son of Maurice and Marcelle, the Bahá’ís who I was staying with last month. Ahh, that’s better.

Anyway, tonight I’m going to pop by the Vieux St-Pierre and see Jacinthe’s boyfriend play guitar and sing. I’m trying to take in the culture. Plus he’s not that bad. I’ve heard him.

Anyway. Next entry will be more interesting.

I have a bit of a cold today. Here’s what I did: this morning I waded into the Nicolet River, with bare feet, and it was FREAKING COLD. I didn’t bother to stop and check the temperature before I went in. I almost passed out from the shock. Luckily, I didn’t, and I’m alive to warn others. Beware, children! Test the water to see if it’s freaking cold before jumping in!

I’m making some lentil soup for dinner, that should help me recover a bit. I’ve been invited to an after-dinner chill-out with some of my coloc’s* friends, that should be cool. I met them last night when they came over to hang around and drink the booze we seemed to have lying in one of our vegetable drawers. Yay, more room for vegetables. ;)

Sometime soon I’m going to post some articles about the society in Quebec. This place is interesting and more anglophones should know about it. Anglophones often don’t make real big efforts to reach out to francophones because the language barrier seems so daunting, and so we don’t learn about each other. Perhaps I can help with that.

(*: coloc is short for co-locataire, or someone you share an apartment with.)

hello. today was day 2 waking up in my new home, and things seem to be working out. Jacinthe and I are getting along quite well. The house is really a nice-looking old house, with hardwood floors, and all kinds of neat architectural things. if you sit in the living room and look around, you could almost imagine yourself in the 1900’s (I’m not sure how old the house actually is). Even so, there are some very avant-garde elements to it, like the kitchen island with overhead cupboards and halogen lights, track lighting, and so on. So it’s a mix of cool and cool, to make real cool. Yay!

US News says I should treat some social and political issues. Does the spiritual state of humanity count?

I have an apartment! :)