Consider this

           Last Friday night, Sara and I were lucky enough (thanks to a Christmas present from some friends) to attend Brent Butt’s show at the Comp.   It was a great night!   One of the things that really impressed me was that more than eight hundred people gathered to hear a man talk.   I mean, all that Brent had to offer was words.   There was no slick stage show, no band, no backdrop, not even a Powerpoint presentation.   All that he had on stage was a table, a stool, a microphone and his thoughts and with that he and his opening act, Jamie Hutchinson, held everyone’s attention for almost three hours.   That is amazing.             Have you ever heard of a guy named “Stuart McLean”?   He was in Estevan a few years ago as well.   He has a CBC radio show called, “The Vinyl Café” where he tells stories about a fictional couple named “Dave” and “Morley”.    Every year, at Christmastime, he takes his show on the road and Sara and I have seen him a couple of times at the “Centre

            Coming out of the leisure centre last week, I looked up and there in the middle of the dark, western sky were two very bright stars that I had not seen before.   Wondering what they were, I went home, checked a couple and star charts and found out that they were the planets “Jupiter” (smaller and on the left) and “Venus” (larger looking and to the right).   Interestingly, “Mars” was also visible as a red dot in the southeastern sky.    Until the end of March, these three planets will be visible for a least a few hours after sunset (When showing this to my kids, I challenged them to find one more planet.   When they could not, I told them to look down and see the earth…. They did not think that was funny either).             I have always been interested in stars, planets and comets.   I do not know a lot about them, but the little bit that I do know fascinates me.   For example, did you know that, due to its elliptical orbit, Venus can be as much as 261 million km

            My girls love the movie “The Princess Bride”.   If you have never seen it, you could come to my house and watch it, or you could just have my wife and daughters repeat every line for you (seriously, they have most of the movie memorized).   Though it was made in 1987, the movie is still very popular because it combines comedy, romance and, maybe most importantly, adventure.             The two main characters are each on their own quest.   The hero, Westley, is trying to save his true love, while his partner, Inigo, is trying to avenge the death of his father.   (You may have heard people quoting his famous line, “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die”).   This mission consumes Inigo’s life.   It is all he can think about.   He is consumed with the thought that he has a job to do and that his life will not be complete until it is accomplished.             While I am not advocating “revenge” as a motive in our lives (in fact, the Bible speaks d

            A strange thing happened at the Bruins’ game last night.   In the middle of the game, the fire alarm went off.   The funny part was that no one moved.   Everyone just sat in their seats or continued to wait in line at the concession.   In fact, the game continued for several minutes until the referees finally halted play until the staff at the rink shut the alarm off again.   Overall, it was sort of odd.               Now compare that reaction to the one at the fire hall.   As soon as a call comes in, firefighters spring into action, right?   They slide down a pole so as to not waste precious seconds on the stairs.   Their trucks are packed and ready to roll.   They never have to call back and say, “We will be right there.   We just have to go fill the truck up with gas first”.    Firefighters never look outside and say, “You know, we just waxed the truck and the street looks really slushy and dirty.   Maybe we can go to the fire after everything dries up”.    W