Choosing Your Own Salary
I have spent most of the last twelve years being the lowest paid staff of any of the businesses I am a co-owner of. I don’t make decisions based on my own financial gain, but…
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Rejecting the Integrity Commissioner RFP
Yesterday there was a motion in regards to the Integrity Commissioner to “re-issue the RFP in effort to seek additional proposals and broaden the scope of potential bidders in the interest of the Corporation” in…
Lower Taxes Is Not The Answer
Lower Taxes! This is the mantra of the masses, propagated by politicians. It is a message of fear that attempts to shift the citizen’s focus away from what is actually going on. An honest politician…
Municipal Infrastructure Lending
Coming off the heels of my first budget city council meeting, a motion was made today to increase our contribution to reserves (aka. savings account) of $3.5 million (approx 1.5% increase of taxes) to start…
The Difference Between ‘Having Debt’ and Being ‘In Debt’
Debt is a trigger word in politics, and when we use it, we end up using it no different than how the average consumer talks about credit card debt. In business however, debt is a…
The Use of Exaggeration In Communication
The words ‘always’ and ‘never’ in argument communicate emotions, not facts.
My City Council Campaign
I ran for city council in Sarnia and I won! I’ll post a bit more often on my Facebook page. I’m excited! Here is a transcript of a 5 minute talk I gave at a…
Changing The Golden Rule
The golden rule that I’ve been taught my entire life is to do onto others as I would have them do onto me. Jesus said it and most religions have some sort of similar proverb…
A Parable of Intelligence and Eternal Life
The most intelligent man in the world came up to Jesus and said “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life”? Jesus said to him, “Keep all the commandments”…
Are Counter Protests Missing The Point?
Photograph by Steve Helber I’m the kind of person that loves conflict, and confrontation, and disagreement because I think that it is one of the best ways to uncover and discover deeper truths that neither…
Why I Won’t Celebrate Canada 150 or Canada
When we celebrate someone’s birthday it’s a way of acknowledging a person’s life. Another year. This seems good. A way to validate an individual, a way to affirm their existence and value in the world….
The Desire to Convert Is Disingenuous
Art by David Hayward (Naked Pastor) I was raised in a religious tradition that emphasized trying to make converts to our belief system. Conversion was a central pillar of my upbringing. There was opportunity at…
Belief-Based Institutions Are Not Sustainable Or Effective
Art by David Hayward (Naked Pastor) I’ve been trying to understand and appreciate the role of institutions (the definition I’m using for institutions is “a society or organization founded for a religious, educational, social, or…
Moving From Thinking To Experiencing
I can feel myself slipping. By this I mean, that I am starting to lose my (perceived) foothold on who I am, what I am doing and what everything is. Since I can remember, I…
A Discussion On Faith
A few weeks ago, Josh Walters, John Silvestri and myself were invited to join the Sarnia- Port Huron – Freethinkers for a public dialogue. There was the three of us and three folks from the Freethinkers…
On Rejection of God and Christianity
Christianity is a complex system of belief, rituals, lifestyles and systems. It makes no more sense to reject Christianity as it does to reject God. Some would say if you reject specific beliefs (such as Jesus’…
A Timeline Of Things I’ve Held To Be True
Growing up as a white, middle-class, charismatic, straight, cisgender, Christian male has been quite a ride. I’ve been blogging since 2004 and have published an equivalent of 1.5 War and Peace novels (838,208 words). I…
Needing To Be Strong is Lonely
Last year, when my mother was in her last stages of liver failure and suffering from hepatic encephalopathy, I found myself in some of the most chaotic and difficult circumstances that I ever could have imagined. She…
Tradition as Automation
When we are thinking, we have two parts of our brain. We have the Neo-Cortex areas, which we will call ambassadors and the subcortical areas that we will call primitives. The ambassadors of your brain…
The Remedy To Feeling Controlled Is To Be Anchored
I wrote this last year working my way through the Enneagram. However, after really diving into it I’m realizing many more things about myself that have made quite an impact on me. One of these…