On-line safety

Check out this website to learn how to protect yourself and your teens on-line. Darren Laur is a Police Officer in Victoria who has started this business with his wife and son. They attend different schools around BC and Canada teaching kids and parents how to protect yourself on-line. The information on his website and in his presentation is much more complex (as the web is) than simply changing privacy settings and having an anti-virus on your computer. This guy knows his stuff and whats you to know it too!  Protect your kids from on-line predators, from false identities and have help with navigating social media pitfalls.

Pink and Blue

There is a great website to check out that is geared towards challenging the toy industry to stop gearing toys to boys and girls and to let them JUST BE TOYS. What a concept huh? (Yes, that is sarcasm). It's time we do away with the pink and blue sections at the toy stores and promote loving dolls and functional diggers to all genders. Check out the site:
www.lettoysbetoys.org.uk 

Question the Questions

Ring Ring
“Hello?”
Caller: “Hello, this is - name - and I am calling from - inaudible, sounded like a government survey - and I would like to speak to the male of the household.”
“You would like to speak to the male of the household?”
“Yes.”
“Do you mean the man who has transitioned from male to female or the woman who was born a man who is now a woman?”
“Um, the male of the household.”
“Do you mean the man who was biologically a man or the man who transitioned?”
“The man who is biologically a man who is now a woman.”
“Oh so you want to speak to the woman of the household.”
“If there is no man of the household, then I would like to speak to the woman.”
“Not a man?”
“No, I will record that it was a woman.”
“Ok, so what if you have called a lesbian household? Who do you want to speak with?”
“The mother.”
“What if both lesbians are mothers? Which mother are you referring to?”
“I could just speak with you.”
“That’s okay, you can just give them this feedback. Thanks for calling.”

Goodness, sometimes it is fun to get these annoying dinner-time survey phone calls. Question the Questions, that’s what I say! Be an ally and be the change you want to see in the world! Social justice opportunities present themselves all the time, have a little fun while challenging the status quo! Forget the drop in the ocean, make a splash!

New Office Hours

In September my new office hours are:

Mondays 9-6pm
Wednesday's 9-2:30 (alternating weeks, 1st & 3rd of the month)
Fridays 9-6pm 



Sometimes I have flexibility for later hours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We can always figure something out!

I look forward to reconnecting with folks since being away on sabbatical.

Everything happens for a reason

Why do people say that? It’s like there is a suggestion that there is a cosmic universal force that is ready to pounce on someone if they stray from the path of moral certitude. Of course things happen for a reason, but do they happen for the reason you believe? The concept of “things happen for a reason” could never be proved to be wrong. At first when you meet someone special, you think “this happened for a reason I am destine to spend the rest of my life with this person.” And then when the person turns out not to be so special, you still think, or people tell you “this happened for a reason and the reason was to learn this hard life lesson.”

I think we live stories that are told to us over and over. If you grow up fundamentally believing that life will be a fight, be hard, be easy, be filled with heart ache or betrayals, be boring, be challenging, be full of losses then there is a high probability that your actions, experiences and outcomes will be shaped by these beliefs. Do you ever notice the difference between people who trust others and those who do not? All of our thoughts and actions will shape how we experience the world and especially what we’ve been told about the world. It’s a bit of a self-fulfilling fallacy, your view of the world is reinforced by your view of the world!

If things really happen for a reason then perhaps we should think about if we can create or shape the reason?! If we haven’t found the reason, does that mean we have not reflected enough to understand why certain events happen the way they happen in our lives? When tragic events happen are people supposed to understand these experiences through an insightful lens in order to make sense of them? Some events are just painful. Period. To “be thankful and grateful” of other good things in your life is to dismiss and even blame individuals for experiencing suffering. This isn’t to say that tragic events don’t lead to incredibly profound strength, insights and gratefulness, they do, but they don’t have to in order to “let go, move on, move through, or to understand.”

Things happen for a reason presumes a plan that you do not have any control over. That would be good if you didn’t want to take any responsibility in your life, for the good or the bad. While it’s understandable to want to make sense of a series of events sometimes our beliefs, the facts and our experiences are in competition with each other to know why things have happened. You are your own person. No one can tell you that “things happen for a reason” because it’s up to you to accept or dismiss any cause or correlation of events according to your history, your beliefs and the facts.

Human Rights

Yeah for all the hard advocating for trans rights! The journey is sometimes very difficult but there are people and allies who want to support those who have gender dysphoria, identify as trans, and want to break out of the limiting gender box. See the link for the recent changes with the Catholic Schools in Vancouver. (Vancouver School Board passed a similar policy in June 2014).

http://www.vancouversun.com/touch/story.html?id=10034935