Learning and understanding

It's Ash Wednesday today, and I spent part of the morning in church beginning my Lenten period.  While there, I began to really appreciate the benefits of a pluralistic society which also supports freedom of expression. The fact that I was in a church, freely worshipping, and would leave with ashes marking my forehead to go to malls, to the office, to banks with nobody batting an eye is something we take for granted.  There are people who do not have this unconscious luxury. I have friends who tell of growing up under communist rule who had to hide their religious beliefs. Of not ever breathing a word about prayers that were said at home, for fear of reprisals.  Of the day when they were first allowed to freely worship in public, and how much it touched them. And there are others who ridicule anyone whose beliefs or practices differ from their own.  Who want to destroy the different. Rarely are they overt about it, though, thankfully.  They refuse to accept that other views have va

I'm watching Carnival unfold in its sequinned and glittering splendour. Each costume is expensive, both in terms of time and money.  Each costume represents thousands of dollars and hours for completion. It's worn for two days and then discarded. During those days, though, they are the centre of attention, and they are admired by everyone who sees them. Looking on, thoughts come to mind of how many things are like those costumes; things on which we expend time and money for a brief experience that doesn't last.  The  experience of spending time on our pleasures enriches our lives.  We relax, we expand our way of thinking and we learn new skills.  Sometimes what we learn is temporary- like how to make that special occasion dish that's very finicky but delicious; sometimes it's more long term, like developing knife skills (guess who's been cooking a lot lately?) 😃. Have you got other examples? But the main idea that I've been toying with is that we can spend